Last Night’s Democratic Candidates Debate

I meant to write this blog before reading Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin’s comments on the debate, but couldn’t resist reading what she had to say first. (As regular readers or this blog know, I consider her to be the most astute pundit writing today.) In Jennifer’s opinion the moderates put in the best performance. I agree with her that Harris and Klobacher were impressive, and that Bernie is too strident and too old. I can’t share her high opinion of Biden. I think he is too old, has a mediocre mind, a spotty record, and is lacking in grace and humor. He sounded desperate to be forceful and decisive. I like Booker and Buttigieg, but neither of them had a breakout evening. Of course, any one of the ten candidates debating would be a better candidate than Trump by an astronomically wide margin. 

      Warren is most impressive, but I can’t understand why she refuses to articulate how, under her plan, a more progressive tax structure yielding enough revenue to pay for medicare for all would in truth require higher taxes on some taxpayers, but that their combined out-of-pocket expenditures for taxes and medical insurance would be lower because of the immensely greater efficiency of the reformed system. Well, now I understand. It’s simply too complicated to explain, especially given the time constraints of this type of debate. At this point, I’d be happiest with either Klobacher or Harris running against Trump.