Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/08/29/and-then-there-were-ten-democ.html
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let’s just get to 3.
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As I said in the general topic, it’s movement toward what’s really needed in an urgent situation.
The sooner the better. Based on the polling, I’d be fine with four. But however you look at it, more than six on-stage or on-screen at the same time and it becomes a muddle (as any playwright or screenwriter except perhaps Altman will tell you).
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Great, so instead of two nights where substantial discussion is limited due to time constraints, we’ll have one! /s
It might not be ideal, but wouldn’t it improve the quality of the debate if they took advantage of the smaller field and did two nights with five people each?
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“Pause to consider how overwhelmingly important it is to lower-ranked Dem candidates to be on that privately-owned, legacy-media stage.”
Lower ranked candidates had opportunity to raise their ranking- they failed to do so. If they find ways to gain support of the Dem voters- they can gain a place going forward.
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Pity O’Rourke isn’t running for the open Senate seat instead, though.
As for Bullock, well, I can’t imagine an excuse for him – but if he changes his mind and runs for the Senate seat I’ll take Montana residency to vote for him.
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Can we go back to the good old days? Where the Party just tells me who to vote for? Why must we micromanage our Democracy, because the result so far is that it has gone to shit.
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Two things:
- There should have been two nights of 5 candidates, which is still a crowded stage.
- Biden should just pack it in.
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Can we just have the debate everyone wants to see? Bernie at one podium, Liz Warren at the other, and Marianne Williamson chanting mantras and burning sage in the background.
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Hey, I did a poll and matched Marianne the best.*
*despite being an engineer, atheist, skeptic, evolutionist, and fan of Ben Goldacre, Phil Plait, Asimov, Sagan, the Amazing Randi, etc.
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Yeah…I think we all want Warren and Sanders up there. Then its either Biden or Harris or both for the majority of the country. Personally I would like Warren, Sanders, Harris OR Biden, and then a wild card like Buttigieg or Yang to help bring some dissension.
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Yang’s techno-utopian crypto-Libertarian handwaving adds no more substance than Williamson’s New Age woo. Buttigieg is a bit more serious, but he should be looking at becoming Indiana’s governor or senator at this point in his career. Both of them can provide their dissenting viewpoints from the sidelines with the other prominent politicians and business executives and entrepreneurs without wasting space on the stage.
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I see that point and do agree on both those guys. But do you really think that Sanders, Warren, and Biden on stage would really be a good passionate deep debate? I don’t.
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The only passion I’m looking for is a passion to kick this childish lying narcissist and his coterie of fascists and racists out of the White House. I expect they all share that passion, and expect them to make it a unified message not open to debate.
When they’re debating amongst themselves, though, I’m fine with a more thoughtful debate over the issues that will define the future of the party (or, in Biden’s case, the ones that will preserve the party’s past in Boomer amber).
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It certainly does seem unlikely that any candidate could work their way up to a win from eleventh place at this point, regardless of debate exposure.
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I think he has ample time to change his mind. Isn’t the Texas deadline in December? Of course that requires him to drop his presidential bid sometime soon. And given how long he dicked around on his “I don’t know what do you think” tour before announcing I’m not sure he’s that self aware.
There’s been a surprising number of nationally prominent politicians refusing to run for congressional seats despite public and party requests they do so. Stacy Abrams has apparently repeatedly refused to run for a senate seat in Georgia, because she doesn’t want to serve in the senate. And there are two of those up for grabs now.
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If they are smart, at this point they are either just trying to get onto the stage to be heard (like Inslee) or are running for VICE president. The traditional way to do that is to do well with a constituency that the nominee does poorly in.
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Harris at one podium, Biden at the other. There would be so much burn during that debate, we wouldn’t even need Sanders.
I’ve been very happy with the quality of the debates so far. A lot of viewpoints have gotten airtime, and the weakest have faded away.
I’m glad the new lower-tier candidates get another shot at framing the “real” debate before the field narrows again.
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It’s not like we don’t need Senate seats, and recent indications are that barring some extremely strange vote counting she’d be governor today.
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