The Ultimate Prizefight: Las Vegas Democratic Debate Recap
Tags: Democratic Primary, Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders, Demdebate, Michael Bloomberg

“I’m open!”

The last Democratic debate before Nevada’s primary was held in Vegas. Punches were thrown. Boxing analogies were made. Here’s what happened.

Michael Bloomberg was the big story, and the candidates set upon him like hungry dogs on a prime rib who they will probably later ask for money.

There was an NBA- playoff atmosphere. All the Democrats had nine debates and months of speeches under their belts and came out shooting. Except for Bloomberg, who looked like he pulled a hamstring and was pushed onto the court anyway.

The best hope for him was that by taking so many attacks, he would come across sympathetic. Instead he mostly looked out of his depth — stiff, uncharismatic and struggling to come up with answers on the spot. Perhaps worst was responding to accusations of having female employees sign NDAs by suggesting they were “offended by a joke I told,” apparently still making a play for Joe Rogan listeners.

Elizabeth Warren, by contrast, looked great. She pushed herself into the beginning questions in order to attack Bloomberg, knowing whoever slammed him first and hardest would be the lead story. Then she wheeled and dealt sharp attacks to all the candidates, becoming a huge presence onstage — while getting away unscathed as others focusing their attacks on Bloomberg, Sanders, Klobuchar (Pete Buttigieg only) or Buttigieg (Amy Klobuchar only). She closed with a strong statement about being a fighter and reminded people why they fell in love with her.

Joe Biden also reminded people who he was — explicitly. “I’m the guy who beat the NRA twice.” “I’m the guy who got the votes for Obamacare.” His campaign slogan could have been “I’m the guy.” — and probably should have been. He made a case for voters to stick with him — and given Bloomberg has risen as he has fallen, his best hope is to lure some of those voters back. It’ll be an uphill battle, though: without the money to spend on ads, and without the extra TV coverage given to the frontrunner, he may be as forgotten as that campaign number he keeps trying to remind people to text.

Bernie Sanders looked solid. He took attacks, but beat them back with well-practiced defenses. “Medicare for All isn’t too expensive, because we’ll save money on administration and premiums.” “Every other country does universal healthcare, why can’t we.” It’s bizarre that neither moderators nor other candidates point out that the benefits he promises — no premiums, no deductibles, mental health care, etc — go far beyond what is provided in other countries even with universal health care. He was pressed to defend the behavior of his followers and insinuated that ones who behaved badly were Russian bots, which doesn’t really pass muster when they are like, friends in your facebook feed or public figures. It is a byproduct of a conspiratorial, you’re-with-us-or-you’re-a-ghoul subculture that is present in the movement whether you support him as a candidate or not — and Bernie’s “I’m not saying they’re Russian bots, but they could have been Russian bots” excuse kind of showcases how the problem originates at the top.

The candidates sorted with the tallest in the middle

Pete Buttigieg was decent enough, but came across as annoying in parts. Like he responded to a question about an essay he wrote praising Bernie in high school by saying he was “into Bernie before it was cool,” getting a laugh, but then awkwardly pivoted to a sigh-inducing jab at how his health care costs weren’t transparent. He had some ok criticisms on Klobuchar’s voting record, but when she pushed back on his inexperience he fell back on lame quibbling about why his small town really was a big deal.

Amy Klobuchar didn’t have the knockout punch of her last debate in New Hampshire, but looked like she was going to physically deliver one to Pete Buttigieg’s face. She looks like she has 8 feet of rage crammed into a 5 foot frame and it bulges out of her eyes when she has to debate a young small town mayor who is ahead of her in polls. Like literally I was expecting a stapler to fly out of her side of the screen when she argued with him, before she tackled him and then tore into his neck like a zombie from 28 days later. It makes me believe every story from assistants who have served under her. But anyway, aside from that and a few flat mom jokes she did pretty well.

Overall, it feels like everyone doing pretty well — except Bloomberg — bodes well for Bernie. With the anyone-but-Bernie vote split among…everyone except Bernie, and no obvious frontrunner, he’ll continue to run ahead. It’s an odd reversal from just a month ago, when it looked like the progressive vote would be split and Biden was the one with a lane to himself. That said, there is the possibility that if Bloomberg collapses and support flows back to Biden — and Warren’s strong performance pulls a few votes back from Sanders — it could get more competitive. But for now, he’s a half a lap ahead of everyone else.