At the risk of stating the obvious, Elizabeth Warren should be our next president. She's the best candidate with the best ideas.* She was a serene presence center stage at last night's debate, while a subtle melee took place all around her, with Julian Castro eating Beto's lunch and Cory Booker eating Tulsi Gabbard's lunch and Amy Klobuchar (kinda) eating Jay Inslee's lunch (over who's best on women's reproductive rights).
In case you were too busy unfurling bunting to get ready for Pride this weekend, I have assembled the most important video clips below, and added a few opinions about what I saw—just what you needed! More opinions! Let's roll the video tape.
Elizabeth Warren vs. Amy Klobuchar: Who's better at talking about the economy?
Warren started things off brilliantly: "When you've got a government, when you've got an economy, that does great for those with money, and isn't doing great for everyone else, that is corruption, pure and simple." HELL. YES.
Usually when candidates talk about the economy they talk about "inequality," they talk about "unfairness," they talk about not everyone sharing in the prosperity, blah blah blah. Weak-sauce-o-rama. Elizabeth Warren calls it "corruption." Such a brilliant move. Everyone thinks corruption is bad, even rich people.
In the clip above, the question about the economy goes to Klobuchar next, and what does she say? "We know that not everyone is sharing in this prosperity..." zzzzzz.
Julian Castro vs. Beto O'Rourke: Who's better on the border?
Beto O'Rourke seems to be running for the presidency of (checks notes)... Spain? Mexico? He talked a lot of Spanish last night, which is cool, at least at first, but it's kinda weird how much he did it. There were times when it seemed like the TV was on the wrong setting. You see a little of his español above.
Unfortunately, Beto's sentiments in Spanish are just as empty-sounding as his sentiments in English. His go-to answer on anything is that we should all learn to love each other and get along and have a shared vision and rehaul everything and build a perfect world where no one is ever disrespected or sad... (please wake me up if I start snoring). But hey, he speaks (mediocre) Spanish!
As Stephen Colbert joked last night, about another answer Beto gave in Spanish (not even related to the border): "Not entirely sure why he felt he had to do that. He's either trying to lock up the Hispanic vote, or he's running for embarrassing dad at a Mexican restaurant."
Julian Castro swooped in and took Beto to task for not doing his "homework," for not understanding the redundant laws related to people crossing the border, even while Beto is supposedly the border candidate (given his El Paso perspective). It made you think: Why have we been talking about Beto and Buttigieg so much, and not Castro? It made him stand out as one to watch. Whether Castro's idea of decriminalizing border crossings is a smart strategy for the general election is another matter for another day.
But even on Beto's using-Spanish-in-your-answers tip, Castro was more effective. Check out that "adios" he dropped into his closing statement:
Cory Booker vs. Tulsi Gabbard: Who's Better on Questions about Queers?
Tulsi Gabbard is not good on LGBTQ issues, and even though she gave a fairly effective answer when asked directly about it last night, it sure didn't seem that effective once Cory Booker started talking.
"It's not enough," Booker said about Gabbard's answer. He went on to connect the lynching of African Americans with the horrifyingly high percentage of homicides among transgender people. "We do not talk enough about trans Americans, especially African American trans Americans, and the incredibly high rates of murder right now."
It was a great moment for Booker, as was his answer about gun control earlier in the debate, when he said, "If you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to buy and own a firearm. Not everyone on this stage agrees with that, but in states that did that, like Connecticut, they saw 40 percent drops in gun violence and 15 percent drops in suicides."
Jay Inslee vs. Donald Trump: I Can't Not Mention This
Asked what the greatest geopolitical threat to the United States is, Jay Inslee—the governor of the state in which I'm writing this blog post, and someone you would assume would say "climate change"—responded, very smartly:
The biggest threat to the security of the United States is Donald Trump.
The crowd loved it. Well done, governor. Well done.
* The one position of Elizabeth Warren's that gives me pause is her Medicare-for-All, get-rid-of-private-insurers position. I realize the health care industry is corrupt. I also love my doctor. I'd prefer Pete Buttigieg's plan to offer something like Medicare For All on the open market, to compete with private insurance, but maybe Pete can talk her into it once he's on her ticket as VP.
