“We Will Make____” Seems to Be The Theme of Debate Night #1

At times, they sounded like they were BSing their way through a blue book essay answer.

The Round 1 Democrats debating Wednesday night relied heavily on the vague concept of “make”.

We will make tech companies do this, and make health care companies do that. We will make things cheaper and more affordable. We will make Mitch McConnell do things. “Make” is a big word. Here’s another big word: “How?”

By what authority? Where is the power to “make” those people do this thing to be found in our Constitution?

And they say Donald Trump is the lawless president? Seriously, though, ask Barack Obama about just “making” people do what you want, see how that worked out for him. After all, if you could just make Fortune 500 companies bend to your will, wouldn’t he have done that? Heck, EVERY president would.

In fairness, you can see that anyone the Democrats choose out of this field will be a better, smarter, harder-charger than Hillary was. Any. One. Of. Them.

Trump will not get that lucky twice.

Julian was more disruptive, briefly, than I thought he would be, but he got beat to the Spanish punch. Unacceptable. He has a Gore-like tendency to beam with self-satisfaction after he gives an answer, like someone should give him a cookie.

Speaking of the random Spanish answers given by Booker, Beto and Castro, why answer in Spanish a question that was asked in English? Seriously, if one only understands Spanish, then they didn’t understand the question. Or most of the debate.

Best individual answer might have been John Delaney (!) on impeachment: he bluntly said voters aren’t asking about it, and have other, more pressing concerns.

Best close: Tim Ryan. Despite looking very uncomfortable, his “forgotten Midwesterners” message is one Democrats need to hear, but probably won’t. I’ve seen him in interviews before, looking and speaking much more fluidly, so not sure what was up with him tonight. No less a Democrat than Terry McAuliffe dinged the candidates for spending too little time on issues most Americans care about. I think Ryan and Delaney knew what he meant.

Ultimately, Ryan and Delaney are going nowhere. No breakthroughs for the fringe candidates, either.

Finally, Elizabeth Warren got leading lady treatment, but, jeez, in two hours not ONE question about her fake Indian ancestry. Just to show how tough they were, the NBC crew did pin down Tulsi Gabbard for once saying something not nice about LGBTQ people.

I don’t agree with her about much, but Gabbard is one of those rare politicians I always find myself wanting to hear more from.

What were your takeaways?