Just fucking lol at the idea that Pete did well last night, Jesus. Good thing he’s DOA in every state with a significant number of minorities.
Glad they didn’t buy into the anti Bernie bullshit (unlike WaPo)
Stephens on Bernie
Bret Stephens (7/10) — He’s settling in pretty comfortably to his role as front-runner.
Here are the ratings for Pete:
Nicholas Kristof (9/10) — Mayor Pete is very sharp on an enormous range of subjects, from grand historical trends to faith to personal experiences. Nobody is better at soaring rhetoric or at amusing put-downs. If I’m ever stabbed in the back, I hope it’s by a smiling Pete.
Liz Mair (9/10) — He seems to be the only guy who remembered he had one job: to beat the bejeezus out of Sanders and troll him to the point of Sanders’s looking like he was going to have a meltdown onstage. He did that quite effectively.
Gail Collins (8/10) — Always sounds sensible; just needs some passion.
Michelle Cottle (8/10) — Smooth, as usual. Tried his best to keep the heat on Bernie. He didn’t have any breakout moments — though it’s unclear how anyone could in this dumpster fire.
Michelle Goldberg (8/10) — Buttigieg is just amazingly quick on his feet in these things, and I suspect he spoke for a lot of nervous moderates when he invoked the danger a Sanders candidacy could pose to down-ballot Democrats.
Bret Stephens (8/10) — Consistently defeats all my attempts to find fault with him.
Will Wilkinson (7/10) — Mayor Pete repeatedly tried and failed to butt in, to annoying effect. He was by turns pandering and banal. (Not boring! Passionate but unflappable, if he can say so himself.) But he managed to hit Sanders harder than anyone and gave a great answer on the toxic futility of litigating ancient Cold War grievances.
Héctor Tobar (7/10) — Made the most effective arguments against Bernie’s coronation as nominee. But did little to make a strong case for himself as an alternative.
Gil Duran (7/10) — Buttigieg had some of the strongest lines — including directly telling billionaires he will raise their taxes. It’s hard to stand out on a crowded stage, but he’s giving it the old college try.
Melanye Price (7/10) — Mayor Pete was very strong tonight and delivered a wonderful retort to Bernie on his unwillingness to support ending the filibuster.
Ross Douthat (6/10) — The most consistent Sanders critic, and the most effective one. But his attacks were probably overshadowed by onstage chaos and terrible moderation.
Jamelle Bouie (6/10) — Buttigieg performed as well as he usually does, which is to say that he’s polished and slick, a skilled speaker capable of delivering his lines with conviction (or at least the appearance of such). If he had support with anyone other than the highest educated, most-affluent Democratic voters, he might have a path to the nomination. As it stands, he doesn’t.
Wajahat Ali (6/10) — Usually unflappable, he seemed frustrated by the lack of time. He’s hoping Biden falls so he can claim the moderate lane, but people of color haven’t shown up.
Nicole Hemmer (6/10) — He was trying to be the adult in the room, but by the end of the debate he was giving off strong annoying-little-brother energy.
Daniel McCarthy (5/10) — He had plenty of zingers to lob at Sanders, but more important he makes sense when he says we need good intelligence more than troops on the ground everywhere that terrorists might plot.
Mimi Swartz (5/10) — Had trouble fighting to be heard among all the other people fighting for their political lives. He’s hanging in there — played the youth card skillfully against old man Sanders — but the sun is starting to set on Buttigieg 2020.
Elizabeth Bruenig (5/10) — A decent Obama impression for people who would probably prefer to vote for a third Obama term; unfortunately lacking the political vision and gravitas Obama effortlessly projected. He’s no radical — got it — but I’m less clear on what he is.
1 Like
Jesus fucking christ
2 Likes
I have watched every minute of every debate and (obviously) follow this race far too closely, and sincerely cannot tell you one single Pete ButtiGJGE policy proposal.
Daniel McCarthy (3/10) — Debate after debate, it’s virtually impossible to name a distinctive policy that Klobuchar champions. She says she can win in Republican areas, but that’s a much taller order in a presidential contest than in any race she’s ever won.
Nicole Hemmer (3/10) — After this, we’ll be able to get a rough baseline of tolerance for misogyny in the Democratic Party by the number of votes for Bloomberg.
Elizabeth Bruenig (2/10) — His tightly controlled expressions and carefully modulated tones suggest that he’s trained since last week’s punishing performance, but he’s still a font of abysmal artifice, condescending and petulant, totally unappealing.
Gail Collins (1/10) — Only person he beat is the prior Michael Bloomberg.
We’ll let you guess which candidate these were about.
Liz Mair (2/10) — A terrible debate. He looked like an attention seeker who has nothing to say, and no reason for being there. I still don’t know why he’s running. I’m not sure he does, either.
Gail Collins (2/10) — This just isn’t working.
Bret Stephens (2/10) — If he were still in third grade, they’d give him a participation award.
Just another super A+ job from the NYT having 10 people who live in a total of 3 mega wealthy zip codes “grade” the debate. As far as I can tell, zero Hispanics.
Head to a fucking break room at The Venetian, assholes.
Health care for all
Who want it
¯_(ツ)_/¯
7 Likes
Pete is flat out racist
4 Likes
Reading those NYT comments(and not really being familiar with any of these people) it appears Elizabeth Bruenig is the only one commenting with any sense.
Jamelle Bouie is pretty good, and very funny on Twitter
Iirc she and her husband (Matt) are both Dem Socialist (or at least leaning)
It’s a ubiquitous and fatal character flaw of the establishment centrist types to long to be friends with the literal fucking enemy. It must be some form of Stockholm syndrome. If I spy shipwrecked adversaries like the SS Weekly Standard, I’m sailing right over the drowning crew. These assholes welcome them aboard and promote them to co-captain.
1 Like
The West Wing’s Leo McGrary spinning a yarn:
“A freshman congressman goes up to a leader and said ‘Where are the Republicans? I want to meet the enemy.’ He said: ‘They’re not the enemy. The Senate is the enemy.’ I miss those days”
The point is, while eDems appreciate the value of compromise, there is no illusion about who the enemy is.
1 Like
Sure, it’s mostly grifters that know what’s up. But there really does exist a type who seriously ponders which member of the Third Reich they’d have most likely enjoyed a beer with.
Literally quoting the television show West Wing itt
4 Likes
Yeah. Watch msnbc for 5 minutes and you’ll see who they think the enemy is.
1 Like
Well that would be Trump now, wouldn’t it?
Wrong!
I honestly have no idea what you’re trying to say here. The senate is the enemy? What?
It’s perfect west wing writing. Intelligent on the surface but dumb as fuck in the real world.
1 Like