I was fully expecting him to ask someone to comment on some dumb fucking Trump tweet during the debate. Super low bar, but he did clear it. Let's give him a plastic cookie.
I didn’t watch, but judging from the recaps two interesting things happened:
1. Beto (“man, I’m just born to be in it”) O’Rourke got blown away like dandelion seeds in the spring breeze, and
2. Judging by twitter, de Blasio pissed off all 17 Never Trump conservatives (Tom Nichols was howling about what a jerk BdB is) and showed he might be able to play Alpha Asshole going up against Trump. Not that that’s something we should necessarily want. If I want to listen to two NYC guys yelling at each other I can go home to the Bronx and visit the local bar or barbershop, it’ll be a more interesting fight.
The questions were stupid ("All in favor of giving up private insurance for socialmalism, raise your hands!" "Won't Mitch McConnell make you his bitch?" "What would you do about the brown invasion in your first 60 minutes in the White House?") and none of the candidates had the guts to say, "That's an incredibly dumb question, Chuck/Lester/Rachel, how about you ask me to explain how health insurance works, or educate Kentucky voters on all the harm McConnell has done to them, or detail the moral imperative behind welcoming and sheltering refugees?" Aside from that, it was fun to hear DeBlasio say, "Your misery isn't caused by immigrants, it's caused by big corporations." New campaign slogan "Walmart* isn't the solution to your problem, Walmart* IS your problem."
*Insert despicable corporate capitalism monster of choice here.
I can't stand actually watching these things, they make me totally crazy, I usually want to kill the moderators. I love reading the roundups afterwards though. Always look forward to your take on things, Roy. You not only read conservatives so I don't have to, now you watch liberals so I don't have to do that either!
I was encouraged by Klobuchar's early floundering, but she picked up strength as she went and even fake choked up during her closing statement. She was the best actor on stage last night (everyone else clearly looked like they were playing a part). If she survives Iowa (and srsly, you cannot humiliate AK into quitting), she'll favorite son in MN and try to lock up those delegates on the first round with the hopes of ending up in the Cabinet of whoever beats Bernie.
I am perhaps the rudest person to ever have lived in Iowa. I found diBlasio, Castro and Delaney to be unbelievably obnoxious. They will not do well in Iowa. Tulsi Gabbard will.
The most impt story of last night was Gabbard saying things no one else was saying that everyone should have been saying. She was heavily Googled and that's a good thing (because she has to sort through the cult stuff in Hawaii and that needs to be done sooner, not later).
Hoping for a Biden pratfall tonight, followed by an establishment freakout if the polls break and Bernie, Liz and Tulsi are 1-2-3 by the numbers.
Praise "Bob" and all, but Tulsi? Really? I don't see it. She always strikes me as an un-self-aware android some secret Dem lab is running as an experiment. Plus she came close to the Walter Sobchak "I didn't watch my buddies die face down in the mud just so some rich jackoff, etc." thing of unnecessary-invocation-of-one's-military-history. The big surprise for me last night was Castro. Otherwise, yes, please, to a Biden pratfall, and I'll be shocked if there isn't one.
Tulsi provided the only real jolt of the night when she ripped out Tim Ryan's skeleton and held it over her head and howled, covered in blood, as he collapsed in a blob of flesh and startled eyes. (Roy says she smacked down Delaney, but I think he means Ryan?) Anyway if you're ranked 20th of 24 candidates, this is how you stay alive. You pick off #21 or #22 and hope that feeds the lions enough for this round. So #3, no, but after last night I'm guessing we've got a stretch before Tulsi quits. Praise "Bob."
I'm way bigger than him and that's a huge advantage. I am a native Iowan but haven't been in the Sioux City area since working for Ted in 1980. There really is no reason to ever go there.
I liked the debate but then again I am a political nerd. I didn't have quite the same reaction to DeBlasio that you did but I did think that Warren (my favorite) kind of faded somewhat during the course of the debate. The flurry of Spanish from Mr. Hand-flapping O'Rourke (no surprise) and Corey Booker (you should live in my neighborhood) was initially startling and actually reminded me more of Bush 2 than anything else. I am actually looking more forward to the second debate.
My guess is that the first Democrat to announce his candidacy (July 2017) is also likely to be the first to exit the race as he was not very interesting and was given the most lukewarm reception. Also maybe Tulsi though she did more respectably than I was thinking. I also agree that Beto was at best "beta" and not likely to last.
I would like to think that the Spanish outbreak at the debate was more genuine than Dubya's occasional Spanish episodes. As Molly Ivins pointed out, when Dubya starts speaking Spanish, his campaign director immediately cues the mariachi band to drown him out.
Whenever I see one of these non-native politicos break into spanish I can't stop seeing Fred Armisen doing Michael Bloomberg: "Cwando yo veyo a uno day estos poleeteecos no nativos..."
Maybe it would be better if we just let everything get worse. Maybe then people will wake up. They're asleep all over America... Everybody comes to Rick's. Who thought we'd always have the Paris Accord? Here's looking at you...
My take from the debate: I now want to vote for Chuck Todd . . .
. . . to be flown out to the middle of the Atlantic Gyre and left there with a life raft, 20 feet of fishing line, and a mankini.
I was fully expecting him to ask someone to comment on some dumb fucking Trump tweet during the debate. Super low bar, but he did clear it. Let's give him a plastic cookie.
I read that last word as “martini,” and thought it awfully civilized of you.
Not enough sharks
I didn’t watch, but judging from the recaps two interesting things happened:
1. Beto (“man, I’m just born to be in it”) O’Rourke got blown away like dandelion seeds in the spring breeze, and
2. Judging by twitter, de Blasio pissed off all 17 Never Trump conservatives (Tom Nichols was howling about what a jerk BdB is) and showed he might be able to play Alpha Asshole going up against Trump. Not that that’s something we should necessarily want. If I want to listen to two NYC guys yelling at each other I can go home to the Bronx and visit the local bar or barbershop, it’ll be a more interesting fight.
Right? I am so tired of the loudmouth-at-the-bar politicians.
The questions were stupid ("All in favor of giving up private insurance for socialmalism, raise your hands!" "Won't Mitch McConnell make you his bitch?" "What would you do about the brown invasion in your first 60 minutes in the White House?") and none of the candidates had the guts to say, "That's an incredibly dumb question, Chuck/Lester/Rachel, how about you ask me to explain how health insurance works, or educate Kentucky voters on all the harm McConnell has done to them, or detail the moral imperative behind welcoming and sheltering refugees?" Aside from that, it was fun to hear DeBlasio say, "Your misery isn't caused by immigrants, it's caused by big corporations." New campaign slogan "Walmart* isn't the solution to your problem, Walmart* IS your problem."
*Insert despicable corporate capitalism monster of choice here.
(Periodic reminder here that the Commonwealth of Kentucky's senators are currently Cocaine Mitch and Krugerrand Paul.)
I can't stand actually watching these things, they make me totally crazy, I usually want to kill the moderators. I love reading the roundups afterwards though. Always look forward to your take on things, Roy. You not only read conservatives so I don't have to, now you watch liberals so I don't have to do that either!
I was encouraged by Klobuchar's early floundering, but she picked up strength as she went and even fake choked up during her closing statement. She was the best actor on stage last night (everyone else clearly looked like they were playing a part). If she survives Iowa (and srsly, you cannot humiliate AK into quitting), she'll favorite son in MN and try to lock up those delegates on the first round with the hopes of ending up in the Cabinet of whoever beats Bernie.
I am perhaps the rudest person to ever have lived in Iowa. I found diBlasio, Castro and Delaney to be unbelievably obnoxious. They will not do well in Iowa. Tulsi Gabbard will.
The most impt story of last night was Gabbard saying things no one else was saying that everyone should have been saying. She was heavily Googled and that's a good thing (because she has to sort through the cult stuff in Hawaii and that needs to be done sooner, not later).
Hoping for a Biden pratfall tonight, followed by an establishment freakout if the polls break and Bernie, Liz and Tulsi are 1-2-3 by the numbers.
Praise "Bob" and all, but Tulsi? Really? I don't see it. She always strikes me as an un-self-aware android some secret Dem lab is running as an experiment. Plus she came close to the Walter Sobchak "I didn't watch my buddies die face down in the mud just so some rich jackoff, etc." thing of unnecessary-invocation-of-one's-military-history. The big surprise for me last night was Castro. Otherwise, yes, please, to a Biden pratfall, and I'll be shocked if there isn't one.
Tulsi provided the only real jolt of the night when she ripped out Tim Ryan's skeleton and held it over her head and howled, covered in blood, as he collapsed in a blob of flesh and startled eyes. (Roy says she smacked down Delaney, but I think he means Ryan?) Anyway if you're ranked 20th of 24 candidates, this is how you stay alive. You pick off #21 or #22 and hope that feeds the lions enough for this round. So #3, no, but after last night I'm guessing we've got a stretch before Tulsi quits. Praise "Bob."
You are ruder than Steve King? I am not sure that is possible
I'm way bigger than him and that's a huge advantage. I am a native Iowan but haven't been in the Sioux City area since working for Ted in 1980. There really is no reason to ever go there.
I liked the debate but then again I am a political nerd. I didn't have quite the same reaction to DeBlasio that you did but I did think that Warren (my favorite) kind of faded somewhat during the course of the debate. The flurry of Spanish from Mr. Hand-flapping O'Rourke (no surprise) and Corey Booker (you should live in my neighborhood) was initially startling and actually reminded me more of Bush 2 than anything else. I am actually looking more forward to the second debate.
My guess is that the first Democrat to announce his candidacy (July 2017) is also likely to be the first to exit the race as he was not very interesting and was given the most lukewarm reception. Also maybe Tulsi though she did more respectably than I was thinking. I also agree that Beto was at best "beta" and not likely to last.
I would like to think that the Spanish outbreak at the debate was more genuine than Dubya's occasional Spanish episodes. As Molly Ivins pointed out, when Dubya starts speaking Spanish, his campaign director immediately cues the mariachi band to drown him out.
Whenever I see one of these non-native politicos break into spanish I can't stop seeing Fred Armisen doing Michael Bloomberg: "Cwando yo veyo a uno day estos poleeteecos no nativos..."
Maybe it would be better if we just let everything get worse. Maybe then people will wake up. They're asleep all over America... Everybody comes to Rick's. Who thought we'd always have the Paris Accord? Here's looking at you...