WaPo: Kamala Harris hits a home run

[Celerity]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/28/kamala-harris-hits-home-run/?utm_term=.dd7d75bb07bf

Thursday’s debate provided the first time to see several top presidential candidates — former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg — as well as an assortment of lesser known and, in some cases, improbable figures face off on the same stage. The result was, at times, explosive and surprising, a tough contest between several tough competitors. Harris, not unlike several middle-tier contenders last night, had the chance to mightily improve her standing (as former HUD secretary Julián Castro and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey did during Wednesday’s debate). And boy did she. She was the clear standout on the stage, mixing righteous anger, biographical stories and prosecutorial toughness. She demonstrated just how her toughness and prosecutorial experience could be wielded — not just against Democrats but eventually against President Trump.

From the first answer sketching out her economic plans to stepping in to chide her bickering colleagues (“America does not want to witness a food fight, they want to know how we’re going to put food on their table”), to a devastating attack on Biden’s record on busing (invoking her own experience as a child bused to integrated schools), to separating herself from the deportation policies of the Obama administration, and to chastising Buttigieg for not integrating South Bend’s police force, she was virtually pitch-perfect. Though she put up her hand for Medicare-for-all, she wasn’t grilled on details; instead, she told a story of mothers sitting in a parking lot afraid to go into the emergency room. By the end of the debate, I was left wishing for a Harris standoff with Elizabeth Warren.

Biden, after some miscues in the weeks leading up to the debate, had to show he was “with it” and ready for a rough-and-tumble fight. His strength is the amount he relishes taking on Trump — and getting under the president’s skin. He started capably by defending Obamacare over Medicare-for-all, and rattling off his plans on education. Ironically, it was Sanders not Biden who came under fire on policy grounds. With so many voices on the stage backing his public option, Biden never was directly challenged by Sanders on Sanders’s signature issue.

As the debate went on, however, the former vice president ran into trouble, most dramatically and painfully at the hands of Harris on the issue of race. Insisting that he favored letting localities decide on busing was a bad misstep because the discrimination at issue, in many cases, requires federal intervention. Biden soldiered on but real damage had been done. He defended his vote for the Iraq War and then pivoted to his positions on Afghanistan and pulling troops out from Iraq. He stumbled again, however, on guns — mangling a punchline when he said that our opponents were gun manufacturers and not the National Rifle Association. What Biden meant to say was that our opponents aren’t gun owners.

Mostly, he suffered in comparison to brighter, sharper voices. Was this fatal to Biden’s chances? No, but it suggested he is a very, very vulnerable front-runner. He also got lucky: Sanders had a poor night as well.

snip

[LovingA2andMI]

1. She Did That!!!

Indeed!!

[Thekaspervote]

2. Harris' attacks on biden were over the top for a lot of viewers... this one included

[LovingA2andMI]

4. Amazing how the Truth and Facts...

Can be "over the top" depending on who those Truth and Facts come from. Just amazing.....

Kamala did a GREAT JOB this evening!! Thanks Kamala!

[cbelle1039]

9. Except truth has to be true, not mischaracterized and facts must be verifiable. nt

[LovingA2andMI]

12. Does the Federal Government Cooperatively via the States

Fund Public K-12 Schools. Yes or No?

Did the Federal Government Cooperatively fund Public Schools with the States in the 1960's and 1970's? Yes or No?

Was Joe Biden a Congressman in the late 1960's and 1970's? Yes or No?

Do City Council's Manage and/or Operate Public K-12 Schools or do School Boards handle this? City Council's or School Boards.?

That's all. We'll wait....

[proud patriot]

10. While that may or not be true

his response could have bee(n) a lot better IMO edited for dropped (n)

[Celerity]

13. I profoundly disagree, and Biden made another error by saying the NRA 'is not an enemy'

Last edited Fri Jun 28, 2019, 01:30 AM - Edit history (2)

and trying to parse out and separate them (the NRA) from the gun manufactures. The NRA IS a fucking enemy at multiple levels, including being a Russian money laundering political slush fund for the Rethugs.

Biden is far from a sure thing, and far from the best to put up against Rump in a debate. One on one, Harris would tear circa 2019-20 Biden apart in 9 out 10 debates. She is a relentless and hyper-intelligent person and a superbly-skilled prosecuter starting to enter the peak of her intellectual and political powers. Biden is starting to manifest the effects of getting closer to 80 years of age (Biden would be in his 80's for over 75% of his two terms, from 2022 to 2029.)

[LovingA2andMI]

15. Great Post...

Full of Facts. Thank you!

[Skittles]

20. LOL

[UniteFightBack]

3. Too bad she had to use a pine tar bat. nt

[Kind of Blue]

5. Yesss, "demonstrated just how her toughness and prosecutorial experience

could be wielded."

[tishaLA]

6. She doesn't want the Democratic Party to be

a party of state's rights. Good for her

[PatrickforO]

7. Thanks for posting.

I agree with this assessment of the debate. Good article.

[proud patriot]

8. Yes she did

Mayor Pete was pretty awesome too

[Celerity]

14. Harris/Pete would be a formidable force

[proud patriot]

16. Indeed

and if it comes to it she should replace Barr and Pete either sec of Defense or State
I kinda like Tulsi for Sec of Defense .. Regardless a great night for Democrats

[Celerity]

17. Pete as Sec of State would be SUPERB, Warren at Treasury, Booker as AG

4-Star Admiral William McRaven (US Spec Ops commander and the one who led the Bin Laden kill raid) as Sec of Defence or VP

Bullock (I so wish he would run for Senate, but he sure doesn't seem to want to) maybe for VP, if not McRaven, or maybe Julian Castro, or a wild card, Senator Chris Murphy from CT.

[proud patriot]

19. I'm drooling

picture Homer thinking about Donuts

[CentralMass]

11. I like Harris. She has a commanding confident presence and did very well tonight.

As a white guy pushing 60 I"m not going to second guess her opinions on another candidate looking back to when he worked with segregationist senators to kill busing as a postive. It is not her job to defend Biden on this.

[SunSeeker]

18. That's appears to be the consensus. Politico: Kamala Harris breaks out.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/27/best-debate-moments-highlights-1385941