(Politico)
DAVID SIDERS and CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO 07/31/2019 01:22 AM
What a boring mess.
If the lesson from the first round of presidential debates was that attacking pays off, the participants in Tuesday night’s debate — with the possible exception of a no-name ex-congressman — either couldn’t execute or didn’t even try.
That might not have been so bad if CNN spent the two-plus hours of debate delving into policy in a substantive way. But it turns out 10 candidates discussing their differences on the nation’s complicated health care system in 30-second snippets isn’t especially revealing. It certainly didn’t make for riveting TV.
Tuesday served as a lesson in stout defense. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren deflected lobs against them from the junior varsity squad. Because Warren had the more commanding performance, it was likely her night. But her night in a debate that few people will probably remember a week from now.
Together, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are pulling nearly one-third of the Democratic primary vote, and the progressive-populist lane of the primary would become clearer if one of its two occupants would knock the other out.
But Sanders and Warren weren’t sparring on Tuesday. If anything, their performance suggested they might not for a while.
Instead, with their lower-profile, more moderate opponents referring to them and their policies in tandem (“I share their progressive values, but I’m a little more pragmatic,” former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said), Sanders and Warren linked arms in defense of progressive policy priorities such as Medicare for All.
"I don't understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States to talk about what we really can't do and shouldn't fight for,” Warren said, in one of the most memorable lines of the night.
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