Warren isn't leading polls, but at debate she looks like frontrunner

[BeyondGeography]

Former Vice President Joe Biden stood at center stage Thursday night, leading in the polls and earning the most attention from ABC’s debate moderators and his rivals alike. But Biden acted less like the front-runner than Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the candidate emerging as Biden’s chief rival from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. While many of the other candidates competed for audience attention with practiced zingers and dad jokes, Warren once again set much of the early agenda, defending her Medicare for All health care plan and swatting away the few attacks that came her way. For weeks, the debate seemed to promise a much-anticipated showdown between Biden, who has led polls from the beginning of the race, and Warren, the upstart progressive who is slowly chipping away at his lead.

Tellingly, when Biden was prompted to critique the Medicare for All plan that both Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have made cornerstones of their campaigns, Biden turned to Warren first — even though Sanders is the measure’s prime sponsor in the Senate. But Biden, in the language of the Senate, barely poked at Warren, whom he called “my distinguished friend, the senator on my left.” Through the more than two and a half hours that followed, that was the extent of their interaction, less a throw-down than a detente.

Warren, by contrast, was one of four candidates who did not attack one of her on-stage rivals. And, reflecting a frustration among some other Democratic campaigns who have failed either to match Warren’s steady rise or to land a jab on her, she was one of the few who was not attacked herself, with the lone exception of Biden’s gentle poke.

...Through three rounds of debates, where others have found momentary success in lobbing broadsides at their rivals on stage, Warren has not. She has emerged as the most confident in her own agenda, and the most capable of setting the agenda to which the rest of the field responds. On Thursday, where Biden consulted his notes and corrected himself, Warren parried skepticism over Medicare for All when a rival or a moderator raised a question. Where Biden studiously obeyed the time limits, Warren barreled through the yellow and red warning signs to land her final points.

Warren still trails Biden in most state and national polls, though many of those surveys show Biden’s advantage narrowing. Where Biden played defense, the other candidates seemed unable or unwilling to take on Warren directly. That included Sanders, who stands the most to lose to his longtime friend as they both compete for votes among the most progressive set within the Democratic electorate. Sanders routinely turned to Biden, finger waving, nearly shouting. The one time he mentioned Warren, it was to amplify her point about the political power of the gun lobby.

More at https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/461260-warren-isnt-leading-polls-but-at-debate-she-looks-like-frontrunner

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. I only wish Warren had used Bernie's statement that Status Quo/ACA healthcare

Will cost $50 trillion over the next X years, whereas M4A will cut costs down to $30 trillion.

While she doesn't take the MSM gotcha bait on tax increases for M4A, she will need to find a way (social media? Tv ads? Something with graphs or other visual aids) to concretely address this question and contrast her plan with Biden's.

Otherwise, she had a solid night.

[comradebillyboy]

4. Warren would only hurt herself by parroting Sanders. She needs

to put some distance between herself and Sanders. She's so much more than the 'female Bernie' and it would be helpful for her to show it.

[bigtree]

2. Sen. Warren was unflappable

...very calm, centered demeanor.

Quite a contrast to the initial, weirdly-placed anger and recrimination coming from the front-runner as he misrepresented her opinion of Obamacare and her health care plan.

She stayed focused and put her views forward in a concise, understandable way that disarmed the staged attack.

[babylonsister]

3. She is very impressive! nt

[DCofVA]

5. After what happened to Delaney in the last debate...

It would be unwise for anyone to attack Warren. She has a lethal counterpunch.

[BeyondGeography]

6. So true

Plus you know she will use it.