Yeah yeah yeah, get ready to rumble, etc—Democratic debate open thread
The rugby scrum otherwise known as the 5th Democratic Presidential Primary Debate takes place at 9pm EST in the ATL. The field has been whittled down to ten participants:
- Former Vice President Joe Biden
- Sen. Bernie Sanders
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren
- Mayor Pete Buttigieg
- Sen. Cory Booker
- Sen. Kamala Harris
- Tom Steyer
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar
- Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
- Andrew Yang
To say that I'm less than excited about this event would stretch the meaning of understatement. I find it hard to watch actual presidential debates; these primary debates yield much smoke but little light.
I also find it ludicrous that the debates are handed over to TV networks. I guess that in our fractured modern media age it's an unavoidable necessity. But as I've said before, I would much prefer the good old League of Women Voters to sherpa the debates, and hand them out to the various networks.
And, especially after today's seismic testimony from Gordon Sondland, it's all a little bit anticlimactic.
Hopefully, this debate will go into areas which haven't been trodden much, like, I don't know, how the next president is going to repair the untold damage Donald Trump and his party are doing to US foreign relations, as evidenced by the impeachment hearings of the past two weeks. A boy can dream.
Anywho, for those of you so inclined, have at it. I'll be drinking scotch and popping in now and then.