NYT Opinion: Winners and Losers of the Democratic Debate

[smirkymonkey]

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/07/31/opinion/debate-winners-losers.html

Elizabeth Warren
7.5/10


Charles M. Blow (8/10) — In the first hour it looked like she might be overshadowed, but she emerged as the strongest, surest candidate on the stage on a variety of issues.

Jamelle Bouie (8/10) — Much like Sanders in that first debate, Warren got a little overtaken by the field. But she landed a punishing blow on John Delaney, and stood out, again, for her willingness to go big.

Gail Collins (8/10) — Can't beat Elizabeth Warren on capitalism and the wealth tax.

Ross Douthat (7/10) — Effective, good lines against the moderates. But her early riffs were cut off and not as central to the action as Sanders.

Maureen Dowd (8/10) — Warren has had two very good debates. Tonight she had some dexterous moves, offering some jazz hands about green technology and rubbing her hands gleefully when Don Lemon pointed out that John Delaney, whose net worth is more than $65 million, would be subject to her wealth tax.

Michelle Goldberg — 9/10

Nicholas Kristof (8/10) — Wow, she is fast on her feet. I disagreed with some of what she said on health care and immigration, but she is masterful on policy and very effective at signaling that she will pursue far-reaching change. From her opening statement, she pressed the argument that she will fight to deliver “big, structural change.”

David Leonhardt (8/10) — She rose to national prominence during the financial crisis because she could explain complicated policy issues clearly and passionately. This talent was on display again last night. I just hope she eventually finds a way to back away from abolishing private health insurance.

Liz Mair (6/10) — She got lots of face time, which is what she wants, but unfortunately she did it not by dominating and just hitting her message hard without drawing other candidates in but rather by engaging 1 and 2 percenters in fights. This tends to make strong candidates look weak and like champion swimmers worrying about the kid in a life vest dog-paddling around the pool. It’s a tell of weakness and insecurity, and if I were her team I wouldn’t be happy about it. She got fairly pinned on banning private health insurance stuff, and her trade answer will sit well with union types but not all rank and file Democratic voters.

Gracy Olmstead (8/10) — Warren represented her viewpoints eloquently and debated well with the more centrist candidates. The question is if she will able to differentiate herself from Sanders and show how and why she is the better candidate.

Bret Stephens (8/10) — She was also an effective debater, though I was put off by her repeated attempts to speak past her time. Also, based on her policy proposals, she would lose to Trump.

Sarah Vowell (4/10) — The Daily Cougar, the student paper of the University of Houston, her alma mater, has asked her to stop dismissing it, per her closing statement, as a “commuter college.” It is a large university with more than 45,000 students whose alumni include Tom Landry, Dennis Quaid, Jim Parsons and Alice Sebold.

Peter Wehner (7/10) — She’s skilled and her performance will energize the left. But Democrats beware: Like Sanders, she’s planting her flag in dangerous, unpopular territory. Being a fighter for bad and unpopular ideas isn’t a virtue. Also, answering legitimate criticisms by dismissing them as “Republican talking points” isn’t really an answer.

Will Wilkinson (8/10) — Senator Warren came out firmly on top in the non-guru category. She knows what's broke. She knows how to fix it. She's going to put an end to the corruption and corporate plunder and make the system work for the little guy. It's a good message, and she delivers it with hectoring panache. She struggled with Delaney's aggressive, stick-and-move wonkishness on Medicare for All, but gutted him on the self-neutering pusillanimity of centrism.

Bernie Sanders
7.1/10


Charles M. Blow (7/10) — He and Warren align on many of the issues, but unlike her presentation, his came across as lecturing and scream-y. Debates are a performance. They test how well you present and defend your policies.

Jamelle Bouie (9/10) — After a quiet debut in the first debate, he hit all of his marks, landing a few good hits and standing out with his unapologetic boldness.

Gail Collins (7/10) — He won the health care match with Warren, which was probably the most important argument of the night. But then he trailed off and by the second half he was just making his basic one-minute speech over and over.

Ross Douthat (8/10) — Rhetorically dominant, especially in the early going. But did he appeal beyond the true believers?

Maureen Dowd (8/10) — Sanders was determined to prove that, if democratic socialism is chic, he’s the primogenitor of the movement and the granddaddy of Medicare for All. With his usual bark, he owned his “Get off my lawn!” persona with “I wrote the damn bill!”

Michelle Goldberg — 8/10

Nicholas Kristof (6/10) — Sanders came across as passionate, caring and forceful — but also as perpetually angry, in a way that I found offputting. I’m glad to see Sanders emphasize inequality. But his call for “political revolution” is not grounded in the policy details that Warren offers.

David Leonhardt (9/10) — He was both fiery and funny. ("I wrote the damn bill.&quot I agree with his critics that some of his positions are out of step with swing voters, but he made his case well. And I liked this line, about climate change: "We've got to be super-aggressive if we love our children."

Liz Mair (5/10) — Sanders made the same mistake Warren did: punching down. But he’s also far less policy fluent than she is, and he gets a lower mark as a result. Like Warren, Sanders got fairly pinned on banning private health insurance and no one other than unions will like his trade answer. I’m also convinced the “yelling grandpa” act is beginning to wear thin, and it was very much on display tonight.

Gracy Olmstead (8/10) — Sanders offered clear, detailed and energetic answers throughout the evening — and had some of the best moments of the debate, with the exception of Warren and Williamson.

Bret Stephens (8/10) — He’s a powerful and effective debater, even if he'd be a disastrous standard-bearer.

Sarah Vowell (3/10) — When Senators Warren and Sanders dismissed legitimate critiques of their similar health plans, particularly the radical proposal of abolishing private health insurance, as “Republican talking points,” I was enraged to a degree that I cannot adequately describe in a family newspaper. An apology would be nice.

Peter Wehner (6/10) — He didn’t move the needle one way or the other. He was certainly feisty. But he’s like an aging singer who keeps singing the same song — it gets tiresome. So does his scolding, hectoring tone. Oh, and he’s genuinely radical, and he isn’t afraid to hide it.

Will Wilkinson (7/10) — Bernie Bernied. He yells about corporations, and you like it or you don't. But the man doesn't have a fake bone in his body, and he's so amiable, earnest and wry that you don't so much mind the socialism, or the yelling. He should have gone harder at Delaney for profiteering off the sick. That's the brand.

Pete Buttigieg
6.9/10

Charles M. Blow (7/10) — He demonstrated why his supporters are so excited about him and donors are attracted to him. His comportment is calm, deliberate and informed, and he seeks to elevate the discourse to a philosophical level.

Jamelle Bouie (6/10) — He did all right! Buttigieg did a nice job reminding everyone that he's younger than 40. I don't think this debate will lift him, but it won't hurt him, either.

Gail Collins (7/10) — He was almost always reasonable and gave the best answer on student debt. But he could use a little more passion. (Lost count of how many times he mentioned he was in the military.)

Ross Douthat (6/10) — Polished but maybe too much polish — and didn’t know which way to fire in the moderate-lefty civil war.

Maureen Dowd (5/10) — His intellect showed, as usual, and he was careful to work in his distinguishing record as a vet in Afghanistan, but he lacked a commanding presence tonight.

Michelle Goldberg — 7/10

Nicholas Kristof (8/10) — Mayor Pete has a rare ability to deliver nuance in sound bites. He pursues moderate positions that he wraps in a profound call for change. He is also fluent in both foreign policy and religion, always deft at using scripture to point out G.O.P. hypocrisy.

David Leonhardt (7/10) — He's the best at making the progressive case — yes, the progressive case — against both mandatory Medicare and free college. He's also right about the importance of structural change to the way our democracy works.

Liz Mair (5/10) — He made a nominal mark in a couple of places but was totally eclipsed by fighting among the Warren-Sanders “leftists” and the Delaney-Hickenlooper-Bullock “centrists.”

Gracy Olmstead (6/10) — Buttigieg gave some interesting answers, particularly on the issues of endless war and structural reforms, but struggled to command the stage.

Bret Stephens (10/10) — He was far and away the most poised and confident speaker. Persuasive and pleasantly ingratiating even when I didn't agree.

Sarah Vowell (8/10) — If you read his memoir — and he had me at “gym class was not my scene” — he was educated by Oxford, the Navy and earthier mayoral nemeses like snowstorms and potholes. He is going to be president someday, but black voters may not have finished schooling him by 2020.

Peter Wehner (9/10) — He had some of the best lines, a commanding presence, showed he’s knowledgeable and avoided the radical trap Sanders and Warren are in. He humanized policies, quoted Scripture and sharpened his generational message. And the way he uses his war record against Trump is underrated. He’s quite a political talent.

Will Wilkinson (6/10) — Mayor Buttigieg transmits along a sedate, narrow range of emotional frequencies, yet somehow manages to bounce madly between salt-of-the-earth relatability and robotic, transparently workshopped falseness. The combination of bad judgment and wooden inauthenticity in his "the racial divide lives within me" bit made me squirm. And his smug "man of genuine Christian conviction" shtick? Gross.

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[pwb]

1. Opinions are like you know what.....

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[smirkymonkey]

2. Yes, but they are interesting to read.

Of course I don't agree with all of them, or even most of them. Some of them I think are downright ridiculous.