Why is this upcoming 12 candidate primary NOT going to be a disaster?

[Lucid Dreamer]

I was looking forward to the debates getting CUT in size. The cuts should have been made by the support numbers to a decreasing number of participants each time.

That would give the surviving candidates more time to get their points out with more substance. The yelling and overtime speaking would be cut down and we could see more substance.

I'll bet preparation for this next "debate" will consist of each participant memorizing zingers to counter each opponents.

All of the viable runners will be wounded and there will be scabs that will be scraped open in the GE debates.

This stinks on ice. I would sure love to be wrong.

[elleng]

1. Too early for anyone to be cut,

but 'party' decided it doesn't mind 12 people up; silly, and nothing like a real debate, which we've never seen.

What More Than 40 Years Of Early Primary Polls Tell Us About 2020:
*The 1972 Democratic primary field

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016240912

[Lucid Dreamer]

2. Thanx for the link, ellen.

That was very interesting history. That WAS a lot of names. The only one I couldn't remember was Fred Harris.

[SterlingPound]

3. I have yet to see a real debate in over 40 years on our national stage.

[DownriverDem]

4. We can't

blow this.

[thesquanderer]

5. Were June's debates disasters?

The first pair each had 10 candidates speaking within a 2 hour slot. Tonight will be 12 candidates speaking within a 3 hour slot, so should at least be better than that.

[Lucid Dreamer]

7. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

At least they haven't torn up the other candidates yet.

All 6 seem to dislike trump. Imagine all this agreement in a debate!

[boomer_wv]

8. It's not going to be that big.

There are, being generous, 7ish candidates who have a chance. By the time that Iowa gets in sight, it's going to be even less as some of the low-probabiity candidates like Beto and Booker fail to move and become eliminated by default. It will be no bigger than the Republican Primary was in 2016.

[Lucid Dreamer]

9. My fears were realized.

4 months after I posted my concerns [above] about the candidates carving each other up
the Feb 19 2020 debate confirmed them.

Multiple hatchet jobs. These candidates are fools sacrificing the long term target of gaining the WH for a barrage of anti-Dem zingers that will make the next day's headlines.

Somebody in the party has got to guide this ship in the right direction... FAST!