 Well night one of the first 2020 Democratic Party primary debate has officially concluded and that was absolutely Fascinating. Um, I really found it entertaining It was thoroughly enjoyable for me because I'm a nerd Donald Trump certainly didn't like it because he tweeted that it was boring But you know, nobody cares about what he has to say. He thinks that Fox News is entertaining But I'm gonna give you my breakdown of this debate in this video We're gonna get to the winners the losers the good moments the bad moments But I will probably do a follow-up with a couple of clips because there were some moments that I want to explore a little bit In greater detail. So just generally speaking, let me just say that even though Bernie Sanders did not attend this debate He still had a presence here because a lot of the issues that were talked about were popularized by Bernie Sanders Medicare for all Policies that actually help provide jobs for the working class that are aimed at tackling climate change Simultaneously, I mean all of these broad themes. They're being discussed because of Bernie Sanders So he may not have been here, but he still had a pretty substantial influence now getting to Statistics about this particular debate when you look at the overall time that each candidate got to speak According to this poll by the Washington Post Cory Booker got to speak the most and they usually Seemed to call on candidates who were polling higher So Elizabeth Warren at least for the first half was called on pretty frequently better Or work was called on and just broadly speaking the candidates with the higher polling Tended to you know overall get to speak the most although there were some people like John Delaney Who kind of just elbowed his way in and got as much talk time as Tulsi Gabbard Which irritated me because he just wouldn't shut up He kept butting in and I get that that's what you're supposed to do But if you're gonna butt in and not say something substantive and meaningful Then you need to be quiet stay in your lane wait to jump in until you have an issue that really speaks to you But everything he said was horrible. So I'm kind of spoiling who I think was one of the losers But one more Graph that I want to show you is this graph about the number of times that Donald Trump was invoked Looks like Amy Klobuchar invoked Donald Trump quite a bit Tulsi Gabbard invoked him three times And I do think that this is important to invoke the Republican Opponent who you may or may not be running against because it shows that you're confident It shows that you're not afraid to take on Donald Trump You are not afraid to stand up to someone who may be your opponent So I think that by criticizing Donald Trump it demonstrates strength Although for candidates like Elizabeth Warren, she didn't mention Donald Trump But at the same time I can't fault her for that because I think that what she did was fantastic in terms of staying close to policy Talking about corruption. So let me get to the winners and the losers. This debate did not turn out in the way that I expected I think that we kind of had an upset. So I'll tell you who I think won But first, let me just broadly speaking Give you a couple of categories. So I have four categories that I've created here. So we've got good Well, that means the candidate did okay We have the Mac category and then we have the losers now. Who do I think are the losers? John Delaney and Beto O'Rourke now I think that overall John Delaney is probably the biggest loser because He didn't have a breakout moment. He spoke For a relatively long, you know, period of time in comparison with other candidates And he didn't have a moment where he shied. He criticized Medicare for all when it comes to Beto O'Rourke He couldn't answer Questions, I mean I think it was Aaron Matei who said on twitter that he just made history by not answering a question in two different languages I mean he has nothing but platitudes and Booker has the same problem So I wouldn't necessarily say that Beto lost because of this But he always opens an answer to a question about a personal story or an anecdote You know, I talked to timmy in Iowa and he said this and um gene in uh, new hampshire said this Beto just answered the question cut to the chase answer the question So that's one of the reasons why I think he didn't perform well But another reason why he didn't perform well is because this was kind of a dog pile and Beto O'Rourke There were numerous moments where you had Um, Julien Castro go after Beto. You had Bill de Blasio go after Beto on numerous occasions So people were shitting on Beto and I loved it. He was backed into a corner He also didn't answer questions It just wasn't a good look and I said Prior to this debate that this was make or break for Beto because he's going down on the polls I believe one poll had him tied with Mike Ravel. He had to shine here and he didn't Didn't expect much from John Delaney and he basically performed as well as I expected him to Getting into the mech category Amy Klobuchar She I mean she didn't have a breakout moment She said things that were um pretty boring and milk toast, but she didn't fumble. She didn't face plant um Too badly at any point. It was just very meh Tim Ryan he actually seemed to have this mid-debate strategy shift and he wasn't really Saying much but towards the middle half of the debate He started to kind of stand out and talk about you know We need to stand up for the middle class and we need to play offense and go after republicans And I thought that that was really strong. Had he not taken those stands He probably would have been in the loser category, but because he kind of came with something anything You know that got him moved up into the meh category for me Here's who I think did well. They didn't lose But there was more to be desired. Maybe they had a couple of good moments. So in this category Cory Booker Tulsi Gabbard and Jay Inslee Cory Booker he had some good moments But um nothing that really stood out too much He has the same problem that beto has as I mentioned He just he doesn't know how to not come off as a rehearsed politician He doesn't know how to make it seem like you know every sentence he says is contrived He can't help himself. He's just a rehearsed thumb pointing politician But I mean with that being said I think he was incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to lgbtq rights He talks intelligently about a lot of issues But um, I just I don't think he was the winner. He didn't do bad He did he did well. He did okay not going to hurt him Not necessarily going to give him a boost because I don't think he was the standout when it comes to Tulsi Gabbard throughout the first three quarters of the debate I was screaming at my screen Begging her to jump in because I was looking at some of these uh graphs from the washington post She wasn't getting much talk time. She wasn't getting called on and when it became clear That they weren't really going to call on her that much At that point she needed to take the gloves off elbow her way into that conversation start interrupting Start chiming in like john delaney was doing. Um But the reason why I think overall she did well is because she had the one moment She really needed to have she had a breakout moment and it was probably one of the highlights If not the highlight of the night when she just basically owned tim ryan when it comes to his um Support for the u.s. Empire. He talked about staying in afghanistan and definitely she chimed in made him look like a dunce That was such a powerful moment that that single-handedly moved her up But going into the next debate she has to be more aggressive I get that her demeanor is more calm and this isn't a criticism of tulsi gabbard I'm speaking more to debate performance and strategy She has to be more assertive and more aggressive Because I think that a lot of these candidates when you have like 10 people on the stage You're gonna have at least two people that will try to chime in and take up all the air in the room This debate, you know John delaney was kind of that guy who kept inserting himself Into the conversation when nobody really wanted to hear from him So you have people like that that you're competing with you also have the front runners who are pulling higher Who you're competing with so going into this next debate I really really hope that she pulls the gloves off and she just Hammers more people because when she hammered tim ryan, that was a bright moment And if you give her two or three more um moments like that This could really help her had she not had that moment. I would have been worried I would have moved her into the mad category only because she didn't get a chance to speak But because that moment was so amazing and I just I was living for it. She She stole my heart right there. Um because of that she's in the well category. Um Hopefully that alone will bring people's attention to you know, her foreign policy platform because She's great on foreign policy. She's the best in this race on foreign policy It's just a matter of making sure you Make your case and you make it well Um when it comes to j insley, I think he performed okay You know, he didn't really have any bright moments When it comes to who's a geopolitical threat and we'll talk about the framing of that question later on But he said donald trump You're the climate change guy. You've got to say climate change. So I still think that he did a you know an acceptable job a passable job At focusing on his issue but in comparison with tulsi gabber like she has foreign policy. He has climate change I don't think he did as well But overall his performance throughout the debate was a little bit more consistent like with tulsi gabber We were trailing, you know, just pretty pretty low and then we had this big boost for him He was kind of in the middle the entire time. So that's why I put these candidates in the uh, They did well category okay So when it comes to the good category, I placed elizabeth warner in this category hulian castro in this category And bill de blasio in this category now. Keep in mind. This is not me endorsing their policies This is me speaking to their debate performance Who did I think won this debate? I'm shocked to hear myself say this But it was bill de blasio bill de blasio won this debate And one thing I said it in my pre-debate analysis was that he would try to be The progressive he tried to outflank the rest of the people on stage and try to out bernie elizabeth warren so to speak and What he said was great now Do I believe anything that bill de blasio has to say? Um, no not necessarily. I think he's full of shit back in 2016 He could have endorsed a true progressive Like bernie sanders, but he endorsed hillary clinton during the primary when like it wasn't over at all So he isn't the real deal without being said on debate performance He hit it out of the park now Originally I thought it was very clear that elizabeth warren was dominating But she was only dominating when she was being called on once they stopped calling on her She kind of just faded away and throughout the second half of the debate She was a non-entity However in that first half she was absolutely Amazing her performance was just top tier and she did what she needed to do I think she did enough to maintain her lead possibly grow it Especially because of her answer on medicare for all now huli and castro He was kind of the breakout here. I don't think he's the winner of this debate But he was A breakout star and this is because he came off as someone who was very strong Not necessarily on economic issues But he spoke very intelligently about issues related to um race and gender He absolutely dominated the debate on immigration So he did a good job when it comes to his performance, but overall I think the standout here surprisingly Was bill de blazio bill de blazio. How weird is that? So let's get to some specific moments here Um, I already touched on this But we have to talk about that moment between tulsi gabard and tim ryan That moment was so thoroughly embarrassing for tim ryan Not only did she challenge him on his interventionist views But she got him to stumble Because he said that The taliban attack that's on 9 11 and she corrected him. She looked incredibly strong right there Tim ryan looked incredibly weak. Had it not been for that performance. He would have been Pretty good, you know overall But she hammered him hard and I think that what she gave us there was a glimpse At how powerful she could be if she wielded her knowledge In a more effective way We know now that she's got it in her to be an attack dog Now she just needs to do this and hit the other candidates. That was phenomenal But we'll get to that in a separate segment Another highlight for me was when huli and kastro called out beto orork Because he claims to be great on immigration, you know, he started the first question Speaking in spanish, which led to kori booker giving him, you know pretty hilarious side-eye and elizabeth warren too He tries to appear to be a strong person on immigration But huli and kastro called him out because he doesn't want to repeal 1325 which it decriminalizes someone entering Uh the country illegally it drops it from, you know, a federal crime To a civil offense if you don't support that then you're just not as compassionate as you say you are beto Now the moment for me that was probably one of the highlights Was that elizabeth warren finally finally gave us what we wanted When it comes to medicare for all So the question was posed to the candidates. Which of you support Getting rid of private health insurance companies only two candidates sadly raised their hands Bill de Blasio and elizabeth warren I was Very disappointed that tulsi gabbert didn't also raise her hand because she's been an advocate for medicare for all And I wish she would have raised her hand now. There's a question about whether or not. Well, you know Does medicare for all actually get rid of private insurance companies? Um pretty much that's the answer. It's complicated. This is nuanced But if you support medicare for all In short, you should have raised your hand So let me explain to you The complicated provision in both bernie sanders bill and premilla jaya paul's bill does it outright ban Uh supplemental private insurance No, in fact, it states explicitly that it doesn't intend to outlaw that However, there's a big caveat It does Rule out it prohibits duplicative care. So if the federal government Is providing you with you know, these types of health care Coverages, we know that bernie's medicare for all plan for example covers, um Uh eye exams That cannot be sold on the private market. It bans duplicative care So because bernie and jaya paul's bills ban duplicative care What's the implication the overall goal is to phase out these private insurance companies That's exactly what these bills are intended and designed Specifically to do now There's a question of well, what about for cosmetic surgeries? Like if you want to get, you know, a nose job for example Can you still get insurance covered for that? The answer technically is yes but If you talk to anyone who gets these cosmetic procedures if you get braces, for example, iad braces You don't get insurance for that. You finance that most of the time Like an insurance company isn't going to cover you for a really expensive procedure Knowing that they won't be able to be able to profit off of you Right, so for these types of cosmetic procedures You're not really going to be able to get insurance anyway, so Overall the goal Is to phase out private insurance companies and if you support medicare for all you want Private insurance companies to be phased out and the reason for that is because if you don't phase them out Then those capitalistic forces will attack our public medicare for all plan And they're going to try to get portions of it privatized so they can get a larger share of the market So if you support medicare for all you have to get on board with abolishing private insurance companies Elizabeth Warren and bill de Blasio surprised me here by doing that tulsi gabbert surprised me For by not doing that But hopefully she will get on board because if you're you're going to support medicare for all you have to be strong You have to be strong and you've got to get on board with abolishing private insurance companies You have to Now Elizabeth Warren said what I needed her to say I'm with bernie and she explicitly said she supports medicare for all This is what we've been waiting on Elizabeth Warren to do Although there's a little bit of irony here because you know it was phrased in the way of so are you with bernie? Or do you support many paths? She walked away from that and she said i'm with bernie. She said that unequivocally However, if a candidate has to say i'm with another candidate The implication is well, maybe I should just vote for that candidate that they're with i.e. bernie sanders So, um, you know she she did the right thing But she needs to be consistent. She's been incredibly wishy-washy. She's gone back and forth back and forth Once and for all she needs to say I'm for or against medicare for all and she needs to be clear We got an indication that she's putting her feet in the medicare for all camp Although, uh, i'm not gonna lie. I can't really trust her because she keeps going back and forth But based on debate performance, um, she did the right thing here So let me just give you the rundown on some quick things here when it comes to warren's answer on the economy I think she had a great response to the economy. Who's it working for when it comes to free college Amy klobuchar had the generic corporate democrat talking point that you know, I don't want to pay for Free college for rich kids. I don't think americans should bear that burden Except rich kids aren't going to go to public universities klobuchar that's what hillary clinton said in 2016 and people made fun of her for it because You're not acknowledging or at least you're you know, you're ignoring the fact that rich people are going to go to Private educations regardless if we make public universities tuition free So you're not going to be paying for the education of rich people. That's a cop out and a bad answer better or work Refused to answer the question as to whether or not he supports a 70 percent marginal tax to which bill de Blasio then Hit him on that which I loved elizabeth warren channeled bernie sanders channeled aoc and talked about investing in green energy Circling back to health care. I'm glad that bill de Blasio hit better for his weakness here I'm glad that elizabeth warren was incredibly strong tocy gabbert Even though she disappointed me by not raising her hand when it comes to the question of abolishing private insurance She still stood out by talking about the cost savings of medicare for all on private businesses How other countries have implemented medicare for all this is a great point that needed to be brought up So between gabbert warren and de Blasio, they were the strongest on health care But definitely warren de Blasio because they committed to abolishing private insurance the weakest were booker and definitely inslee because they both brought up Access and whenever a politician drops access in the context of health care. That's code for I don't support medicare for all Now when it comes to immigration hulian castrow dominated Something he said that really resonated with me. He said we need a marshal plan for honduras and guatemala to fix this issue Great response because nobody ever focuses when talking about immigration on the way that our policies Have ruined these countries the drug war, you know, these trade policies They haven't worked out especially when it comes to nafta in mexico not not so much You know honduras and guatemala, but these countries have been ravaged due to our war on drugs by bringing up a marshal plan That's a great idea that I hope bernie steels great great idea from him um One thing that booker said that was really poignant He said they don't leave their human rights at the border when they come here That was a great line when it comes to iran Predictably tulsi gabard. She absolutely shined here She called donald trump a chicken hawk. She demonstrated Why we need to stop escalating why we need to deescalate when it comes to the issue of guns warren's answer It didn't impress me. I expected more tim ryan He did kind of take a more republican oriented approach by talking about the need for mental health And I think this is important Because you're kind of arguing on republicans terms. You're saying look if you say mental health is the issue I'm willing to address that let's talk about it. So then let's help solve this crisis by Adding that so I think that was good that he brought that up Because you're kind of reaching across the aisle in a way where you're not sacrificing your principles When it comes to the question of what do we do about mitch McConnell? None of them satisfied me here. None of them were strong enough. None of them You need to come out so strong against mitch mcconnell because any sign of weakness will be exploited by mitch mcconnell It will be exploited by republicans So if you're not going to come out strong against mitch mcconnell And how to fight him if you don't have a detailed plan as to how you're going to fight him I'm just not going to be impressed by that because he's a very effective leader. We may not like him We may vociferously disagree with everything he stands for but you can't deny That he is one of the most effective leaders In recent history when it comes to the issue of climate change Jay inslee was predictably strong here But I don't like the right wing framing like chuck todd asked the question About climate change to better award and he framed it in the way of you know, what do you say to people who are worried about big government? chuck That's not the question that we should be asking when we're talking climate change We're talking about an existential threat to humanity. I don't care about the size of government whatever Tackles climate change big government small government. It's big government spoiler alert But whatever is going to get the job done is what we should be in favor for so that's just The framing is so off and chuck todd did this on numerous occasions another question that was framed odd was On this issue of gun confiscation like he implied that a gun buyback program was confiscation But thankfully Amy Klobuchar actually called him out for this or she didn't call him out But she corrected the record and she said no, you know a gun buyback program is not tantamount to confiscation That's that's not correct. Now another thing I wanted to talk about was lgbtq rights Tulsi gabbard was asked about lgbtq rights and I thought that she gave a thoughtful answer Cory Booker then jumped in and he kind of one upped her because he really demonstrated knowledge Concrete knowledge of these issues that are affecting the lgbtq community. He talked about lgbtq youth in schools He talked about violence against Trans women of color really important and Tulsi gabbard was going to respond and I was looking forward to her response They cut her off They cut her off So tim ryan got the opportunity to respond to Tulsi gabbard when she challenged him Later in the debate, but here when Cory Booker didn't necessarily challenge Tulsi But he tried to one up her and outshine her. She didn't get the chance to respond That frustrated me as an lgbtq american. I wanted to hear what she had to say I wanted to hear what she had to say So that frustrated me. That was a moment that um, it showed how shitty the moderation got once less their hold at Samantha Guthrie left because chuck Todd Is just an embarrassment. Rachel Maddow was bad as well But not as bad as chuck Todd when it comes to the issue of impeachment John Delaney said something that really stood out to me Because of how incredibly stupid it was. He said that he believes let me get my notes He says I support Pelosi She knows more about this subject when it comes to impeachment than all of the 2020 candidates combined John How weak are you and simultaneously as he said that his team put out a tweet that said Nobody should be above the law including the president of the united states Except if you don't support impeachment when the president has committed crimes Then you literally do believe Functionally speaking that the president is above the law because he just committed crimes So if you don't think he should be impeached then you think he's above the law That's what your position effectively ends up being So John Delaney, I mean, this is one of many reasons as to why I think he just completely embarrassed himself here So overall, I thought that this was an incredibly entertaining debate But here's what I think going forward will happen if John Delaney and um, Beto O'Rourke don't really start to have some forward movement I just don't know how their campaigns can be sustained Especially John Delaney if you look at his twitter feed at least if we're gauging anything based on that Or gauging how well he's doing based on that. He has like Zero support. There's no momentum if you look at the images He's posting from meetings that he's having with people in Iowa Four or five people attend it So I don't even know how he has the funding to keep going and this debate didn't help him at all Same with Beto O'Rourke I just He didn't do good here He needed to pull out a victory in some way and maybe not win But certainly stand out and he didn't and you know, Julien Castro, Bill de Blasio, they certainly didn't help One thing I will say about Elizabeth Warren Even if all of her answers were Very thoughtful and everything she said basically was excellent I'll give her the same advice that I'm giving to Tulsi Gabbard I think you should go out of your way to kind of insert yourself Into the conversations more frequently now Certainly Tulsi Gabbard should do this more than Elizabeth Warren because Elizabeth Warren She just has to not fail since she's currently leading out of all of those candidates With Tulsi, this is more important because we need her to get a boost in the poll So that's what you want to do if you want to get your name out there more and get the message across I would have liked to see that more from Warren at least in the second half when she started to kind of fade into the Background so long as she keeps a constant presence. I think you know, she's great But with that being said when it's all said and done, um, this was entertaining and I think The, uh, you know the policies that were talked about were mostly substantive I don't like the framing by Chuck Todd. I don't like some of the questions asked You know, who's the biggest geopolitical threat to the united states that implies that anyone is a threat to us When we are the biggest military in the history of humankind So those issues aside, I think it went well. It was entertaining and this really Is exciting to watch. I look forward to seeing tomorrow's debate