The Democratic debates returned Tuesday night with six candidates battling onstage for the right to be the party’s nominee for the 2020 presidential election.
The debate lasted for two hours. Candidates — including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren; former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; businessman Tom Steyer, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Vice President Joe Biden — covered a number of subjects from foreign policy to health care to the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
Takeaways
1. The debate was boring: Six candidates lessened the drama of the day. The Democratic debates once had 22 candidates spread over two nights. One night with six speakers talking to a deadly quiet crowd didn’t drum up excitement.
- Warren and Sanders cooked up some drama over questions about whether a woman could win an election. Otherwise, the debate didn’t have much to ignite excitement.
- Steyer kept looking directly into the camera. It was an odd moment from a viewer perspective. But it brought a little entertainment value to the debate.
2. Foreign policy dominated the day: The first hour of the debate centered on foreign policy. The debate opened with questions about Iran and the War in Iraq, which was something Biden and Sanders argued over consistently.
- The debate slowly shifted to trade and interactions with foreign leaders. Foreign policy buffs would have loved the opening hour of the debate. Those searching for a way to tune out the foreign policy talk would have had a rougher beginning.
3. Buttigieg made his mark: Buttigieg dominated the early moments of the debate, which focused on foreign policy and war.
- He spoke about his personal experiences as a military veteran in the war in Afghanistan. He never served in Congress or in Washington, D.C., but he promoted his experience on the battlefield as reason enough to succeed on foreign policy judgement.
- Buttigieg benefited from the smaller debate stage, snagging enough speech time to get his points across and appear as a frontrunner.
3. Steyer seemed out of place: Steyer earned his right to be on the debate stage. We can’t discount the fact that he’s polled high enough and received enough donor dollars to appear onstage.
- Still, he stood out against the rest — and not in a good way. His role as a businessman compared to a politician or lawmaker made him seem less experienced than other candidates.
- Steyer didn’t stand out as much as he did when other candidates with business backgrounds — Andrew Yang, Marianna Williamson and others — appeared there. Alone? He didn’t make much of a positive impact. Several times, it was hard to remember he had been there at all.
No diversity: All six candidates onstage were white. Several of the diverse candidates — New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, California Sen. Kamala Harris and former secretary Julian Castro — have dropped out of the race. Andrew Yang did not qualify.
- The debate did not many feature questions on race or ethnicity, either.
- Buttigieg did answer a question about why he doesn’t have a strong following in the black community, though. That was the closest we had to diversity discussion.
No clear winner: It’s hard to pick who “won” the debate on Tuesday night. No one stood out over anyone else. By now, voters and critics are well aware of these candidates.
- It’s unlikely candidates will show off anything new so close to the Iowa caucuses.
- No candidates had slip-ups nor any negative viral moments. You could say viewers left the debate feeling the same way they did going in, which is a welcomed conclusion for the candidates.
The end of the era: The next debate will be on Feb. 7, which is four days ahead of the Democratic primary in New Hampshire, per The Hollywood Reporter. It will be four days after the Iowa caucuses as well.
- So Tuesday night’s debate signaled the end of the era. From now on, we’ll have real voter results to shape how we see these debates. So long, the debates of old.