storyteller
Veteran
I watched the second half of Bernie's town hall (plus a couple of earlier clips), the full Kamala Harris one and the first fifteen minutes of Buttigeig's (needed to sleep at that point).
I'm biased, but it really felt like they went after Bernie on certain questions but he handled that ish well. He didn't play it safe on tough questions, like stating how everyone should be able to vote and pulling the frame a bit toward pointing out voter suppression from GOP governors for example. We know what to expect from him and while he sometimes shows holes in his views, his solutions are on point and he seems to take lessons from any potential gaffes. I think this time around, he's been more aggressive toward the GOP, Trump and biased media narratives. I think that's good strategy but time will tell.
Kamala Harris got some challenges also and she did okay, although she'd sometimes sidetrack herself and stray off point. She honestly said a lot of good things but her answers to solve the problems were mostly really safe to me. Like her gun violence approach sounds strong at "Congress has 100 days before I issue executive orders" but then her executive orders are low hanging fruit (background checks required for anyone that sells more than five guns in a year for example). They aren't bad proposals by any means, but a lot of the time I find myself thinking "that's not even close to enough." This is all to say though, I felt like she kept it fairly real but just doesn't have the policies for me (but sincerity wasn't lacking with her and that puts her ahead of Beto and Pete to me).
Then there was Pete and admittedly, I was a bit worn down from almost two hours of CNN town hall ish after a long day. But I got as far as Pete's weak answer on "how long can you go without being specific about policy" before I threw in the towel. It was too late and I was too fatigued to see how he would rebound. I honestly feel like CNN split Bernie and Buttigeig with Harris in between because Harris could actually follow Bernie with some substance to offer (even if it's not the substance I'm looking for exactly). Pete came out the gate vague and talking that "we just have to get stuff done" type rhetoric that I think would look terrible directly following Bernie and honestly didn't come off strong following Harris either. He's better than Beto at the platitudes but I don't think the platitudes will hold off opponents (both progressive and centrist) that offer hard legislative targets and goals with actual policy to get there...all of this though is me extrapolating from ten or fifteen minutes out of an hour admittedly.
I'm biased, but it really felt like they went after Bernie on certain questions but he handled that ish well. He didn't play it safe on tough questions, like stating how everyone should be able to vote and pulling the frame a bit toward pointing out voter suppression from GOP governors for example. We know what to expect from him and while he sometimes shows holes in his views, his solutions are on point and he seems to take lessons from any potential gaffes. I think this time around, he's been more aggressive toward the GOP, Trump and biased media narratives. I think that's good strategy but time will tell.
Kamala Harris got some challenges also and she did okay, although she'd sometimes sidetrack herself and stray off point. She honestly said a lot of good things but her answers to solve the problems were mostly really safe to me. Like her gun violence approach sounds strong at "Congress has 100 days before I issue executive orders" but then her executive orders are low hanging fruit (background checks required for anyone that sells more than five guns in a year for example). They aren't bad proposals by any means, but a lot of the time I find myself thinking "that's not even close to enough." This is all to say though, I felt like she kept it fairly real but just doesn't have the policies for me (but sincerity wasn't lacking with her and that puts her ahead of Beto and Pete to me).
Then there was Pete and admittedly, I was a bit worn down from almost two hours of CNN town hall ish after a long day. But I got as far as Pete's weak answer on "how long can you go without being specific about policy" before I threw in the towel. It was too late and I was too fatigued to see how he would rebound. I honestly feel like CNN split Bernie and Buttigeig with Harris in between because Harris could actually follow Bernie with some substance to offer (even if it's not the substance I'm looking for exactly). Pete came out the gate vague and talking that "we just have to get stuff done" type rhetoric that I think would look terrible directly following Bernie and honestly didn't come off strong following Harris either. He's better than Beto at the platitudes but I don't think the platitudes will hold off opponents (both progressive and centrist) that offer hard legislative targets and goals with actual policy to get there...all of this though is me extrapolating from ten or fifteen minutes out of an hour admittedly.
