Thread by @HoarseWisperer

I’m just going to add any further debate comments under this thread.

Not sure there will be many but makes it easier to follow or mute depending on your interest.

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Indeed he did. It was an unusually conciliatory tone in a place where Sanders is usually combative.

https://twitter.com/markzbarabak/status/1225959542917345280?s=21

Question about whether the candidates would have ordered the strike on Soleimani.

Mayor Pete’s answer sounded like a cogent grad school paper.

Biden’s sounded like an ex-Vice President’s.

Bernie’s sounded like an opinion at a coffee house open mic night.

Warren answers in Warren style with fact and detail on the situation on the ground in Afghanistan punctuated with philosophic note on the need to get out of endless wars.

Warren’s answer always sound well-informed even when philosophic.

So far, the top five are giving their supporters more than enough tonight to feel good about their performance.

All five having strong moments.

Not sure anyone is winning over converts.

Bernie spends two-thirds of his time on each question doing what a former coworker used to call “admiring the problem.”

Goes on at length about what’s wrong and how very wrong it is and then shifts to a vague, generalized, high-level statement about fixing it.

His style works very well for people who like to hear their pain points called out with energy.

It doesn’t work well for people who think identifying the problems isn’t the hard part.

I am biased here because I’m less impressed with Pete than some are but it seems to me the sudden forcefulness of tonight’s debate is stealing his wunderkind thunder.

When it’s all low-key and learned dialogue, he shines. When it’s a heated punch-up, he seems lighter.

Moderator asks Yang about his inane proposal that people who have overdosed be forced into three-day rehab.

Again, I wonder why this guy is on the stage.

He has this mythos of being a super successful tech entrepreneur. He’s worth about $1 mil - and half of that is a house.

Klobuchar follows with depth and detail on addressing opiate addiction.

I have no idea whether her position is sound or not but she is substantive and well-versed and experienced.

Tonight is separating the real deals from the tag-alongs.

Warren strongly rails against the NRA and ups the ante by suggesting we need to roll back the filibuster to pass gun control.

That’s a pretty strong position.

Tough question to Pete re expanding the Supreme Court using Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s criticism of his proposal.

Mayor Pete replies by vaguely reiterating his nebulous idea of appointing non-partisan justices outside of the usual process.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg won that one.

Tom Steyer: “We have not said one word about race.”

Goes on to deliver a fiery speech about the need to unite the party and defeat Trump.

That’s a clip worth watching. Best one-minute of oration of the night IMHO.

Mayor Pete answers a question on racial bias in criminal justice.

Moderator to Warren: “Senator Warren, was that a substantive answer?”

Warren: “No.”

Warren answers passionately on addressing systemic racism.

Steyer takes it up a notch.

“I am the only person on this stage who will say openly, I am for reparations.”

Good exchanges here but actually makes the whiteness on the debate stage all the more glaring.

Our party and we, as voters, have been done a disservice by a primary cycle that incrementally eliminated Harris, Booker, Castro.

That loss looms large.

We’re about two hours in with an hour left.

My report cards two-thirds through:

Having a very good night: Tom Steyer

Holding their own: Biden, Bernie, Klobuchar, Warren (listed alphabetically)

Shining less than last time: Pete

Should’ve stayed home: Yang

I have no idea what an undecided with a decision to make by Tuesday would hear tonight to break their deadlock.

None of the top five is having a standout performance overall.

All have had solid moments. All have received loud applause at moments.

Bernie dings Mayor Pete on big money donors.

Mayor Pete dings him back with a veiled slight about purity politics losing the election.

Quite the bare-knuckles affair tonight.

Tonight’s session has been the most debate-like of the many debates so far.

Lots of back-and-forths. Fewer scripted 90-second soliloquies.

More open combat.

Earlier ones have often been sleepy.

The next one should be even more heated.

While the candidates roll through their answer to the final question, let’s open it up for some snap feedback.

Whose performance improved your opinion of them tonight?

Whose performance hurt your opinion of them?