Democratic Primary Debates – Here’s how the candidates scored
Very quickly, the first round of Democratic Primary Debates was last night. Ignoring my disgust with their far left positions and only looking at how they presented themselves on stage, here is how I believe they fared and how their poll ratings will be affected. You may recall I did this in the Republican debates (to much acclaim!) Ratings are from -10 to +10.
Beto O’Rourke: -5. What can I say? He was not presidential, not strong in his presentation, and he looks twitchy. This performance busts him back to the minor leagues where he belongs.
Bill De Blasio: +4. Of the four strong white guys, he was the best in his presentation, very strong and polished speaker, he should gain a bit in the polls. If you don’t know anything about his past history, he might impress you a lot.
Amy Klobuchar: +2 She spoke calmly, made sense and was relaxed, and this made her stand out slightly. But she didn’t match the passion of some of the other speakers, and she didn’t have some of the unique stories to tell that might have made the focus go to her more. This will help her, and she is clearly better than most other candidates on stage, but not enough I think.
Tim Ryan: -4. Of the four strong white guys, he scores a distant third. I couldn’t get past his disturbing beady eyes. But he also did not stand out in terms of passion or policy. This performance hurts him a lot.
Cory Booker: +6. I despise Cory Booker, but his performance in the debates was a good one. He had the right balance of passion, and logic in his demeanor, his voice carried well and his confidence showed through. This performance should boost his numbers.
Tulsi Gabbard: -5. Tulsi managed to stand out with her unique anti-war perspective, but her manner was not presidential. In fact, I detected just a bit of “valley girl” in her manner that will sink her in any future debate. There may be a ‘dead cat bounce’ in her poll numbers but don’t count on her being taken seriously.
Elizabeth Warren: +1. She didn’t do anything spectacular to stand out, she used her typical academic approach, so I would say this performance was not a particular winner of anything. But, much like Trump in the Republican debates, she is one of the frontrunners, so not losing is a win for her. She was not hurt, and that is good enough.
Juan Castro: +7. Juan was fortunate that a lot of the initial questions were about immigration, and he was able to comment in depth. He fielded the questions deftly and was the center of focus of the debates for an extended time. He was confident, passionate and knowledgeable. From his relative obscurity, Castro is perhaps the biggest winner in the debate. He could easily get momentum from this, and could energize the Hispanic community. If he doesn’t win, this could put him into Vice Presidential contention.
John Delaney: -6 Of the four strong white guys, Delaney was the weakest. He seemed perpetually on the defensive, and his bids to take over the stage were never successful. I had never heard of him before, no reason to support him now, nothing to make him stand out
Jay Inslee: -1 Of the four strong white guys, Inslee was second to De Blasio. Inslee was strong and confident, in true governor fashion, but not as strong, confident and relaxed as De Blasio. And Inslee came across as unpleasant and unlikable. This might have been a win for him, had De Blasio not been on stage, but being number two in your category is not good in this case. A net loss for Inslee.
doesn’t matter what they say, do or propose not one has a resume that makes them presidential material….most are politicians through and through. not one has business experience or any presence in a strong industry. ok, warren is an academic..that is a minus because like most academics she lives outside of reality. trump has proven that someone with business experience gets things done, politicians do not. will be the same for tonight’s debate or whatever you call it.
I agree with your assessment of our potential candidates for President.
They’re all bad!
His name is Julian, NOT JUAN. And he kicked ass.
And he wants to flood America with illegal immigrants! Not good! Not going to win with that attitude!!! Americans know we are being over run with illegal immigrants and we need someone to stop the invasion!!! And Castro just said he is not the guy!!!
I will never vote in the Peter pan Arena ( democratic ) field ever again what a joke the Democratic party has become
most peddled their usual trite free everything w/o any viable funding source, moot climate change doomsday fallacy, no economic policies than to raise taxes.& re-distribute wealth nonsense.-even total confiscation of the 1% wealthy
couldn’t finance the US gov’t more’n 2 months per Bill Gates.
The Lie-beral DEMONocrat Party Manifesto: 1. Sling bullshit, 2. Raise taxes, and 3. Sling more bullshit !
None of them have any real polices except to slam President Trump. They all mostly deflected their answers with non answers. A sorry lot of candidates.
Well la dee dah, Bubble Butt Donnie has given, not only the candidates but all America, the ammunition to attack him. He is a serious joke, oops, is that an oxymoron? For sure, with a big help from Russia, a moron was elected president.
Tony, it appears you are genuinely attracted to powerful bubble butts. Is there a name for that kind of fetish?
Fortunately, I know who I’m voting for so I don’t have to watch the circus.
This is only half of the clowns that want to destroy America! None spoke of accomplishment nor did they express ANYTHING FOR AMERICANS! I CALL THIS GROUP BULLSHIT ARTIST!
The only plan any of them had was “How to Bankrupt the United States Government”!!!
What you witnessed last night was sham no one was ready to become president no one had a presidential appearance. They all spoke as the losers they really are in real life never accomplishing anything all believing that socialist government is the answer to all problems.Anyone with a brain wants less government not more in your lives.
Unfortunately if we achieved zero carbon emissions and the rest of the world did nothing the impact on global climate change would be negligible, however it would put America in a deficit position relative to trade and manufacturing. Going all green would severely increase our production costs for our products. The only way to attack climate change is every industrialized country must persue the same level of reduction of CO 2. The Chinese would love if we persue zero emissions then they will really eat our lunch.
Cory Booker should have been at a -40 on all point’s ! He couldn’t dot the I and also couldn’t cross the T’s . He’s an INSANE HABITUAL LIAR and a HABITUAL THREAT to this Country.. He should have been put in PRISON along time a GO.. JUST like BIDEN, O’BUTTHEAD, HILDABEAST aka Killary, HARRIS,
SANDERS, OMAR, and along with the rest of the DEPLORABLE DUMMY RAT DEMOCRATS.
They all want to give every thing free and kill babies
Once a satan worshipping communist, always a communist. Thank you Yahweh and yashua for all the blessings.
If it comes from anyone that acknowledges they are a Democrat, you must question it and watch your tail afterwards. I don’t rust them at all after their performance over the last decade. Democrats do not believe in “By the People, Of the People, and For the People”. They believe government is there to constantly had out goodies and money to anyone who is under privileged, under educated, under nourished, under rated, or under ground. The stance on “illegal” immigration is appalling to say the least. How can we as a nation continue to condone such “Illegal Activity” when legal immigration would solve the problem. The laws are on the books, abide by them or change them. If you accept illegal immigration you might as well destroy the Constitution of the United States of America, and allow the entire world to invade the USA to destroy our way of life.
What I heard was Spanish and Cherokee touting socialism and the total support of losers funded by my money. This from a United States of America presidential debate, which was really a confederacy of foreign socialists.
All of the candidates stood out as socialist, whose ideas would lead this country down the road to destruction. This country has done great since Trump took office despite the socialist efforts to destroy him. He is a strong leader, a man of his word, a person who shows his love for our country and our constitution which the dems are out to destroy. Their disregard for the rule of law and their total stupidity on Immigration would wipe out the American Dream and destroy us as a nation. Illegal is illegal and the assalym seekers who think no law or rules applies to them is reason enough to turn them ALL away. Anyone who crosses our borders illegally with the excuse of seeking assalym is in violation and they should not be allowed to ever become a part of this country. All who cross illegally should be shot at the border and any children should be sent back to their homeland and never allowed even one night in the USA. Any and all dems who think otherwise should be required to adopt those they support and should be required to support them from their own paychecks until such time as the assalym seekers become citizens who can support themselve.
You are absolutely correct, and it was hard to ignore all of the socialist bs to try to evaluate their performance, given the radical nature of the audience (saying that Cory Booker did well was tough!) Agree with the Trump comments, not so sure about shooting illegals though…
Bill De Blasio +4?
Joe, do you know ANYTHING about this idiot? And you’re saying he has a STRONG background!?
What is this? The Huff Post?
Whooooa there Stanley, I never said he had a strong background. In fact, the grade I gave him was despite his history of fruitbat behavior. I said that he presented himself well during the debate, ignoring the substantive crap that came out of his mouth.
I misread your sentence!
“If you don’t know anything about his past history, he might impress you a lot.”
Nothing was said that was read – all unicorns
With the Presidental race is locked up. Now let’s work on strong Senate and House candidates
then MAGA, KAS. MIGA and MNK & SK peaceful,
Bill
Sorry KAG
Democratic Primary Debates, WHAT A JOKE, THESE DUMB ASSES ARE SOME SICK PEOPLE. I WOULD NOT TRUST THESE DEMOCRATS EVEN IF THEY WERE SITTING ON A STACK OF BIBLE’S. REMEMBER IF THEY WILL LIE TO YOU, THEN THEY WILL STEAL FROM YOU AND IF THEY STEAL FROM YOU, THEN THEY WILL CUT YOUR THROATS AND LEAVE YOU TO DIE BECAUSE THEY DON’T CARE FOR US, ALL THEY CARE ABOUT THE MONEY.
Castro? Please don’t even think about it. He’s a Socialist edging Communist and choosing him even for VP, would be a crime and disgrace to the future of this country. Mexico wouldn’t even want him either.
And K Harris was way out of line with her racist, rehearsed attack on Biden. Not that Biden is a saint and didn’t deserve it, but that was the wrong time, wrong place for her to confront him with that… she just wanted to look tough but showed no class at all.