Imabench

I admittedly was Team Biden going into it, but now im drifting towards Tulsi Gabbard and Amy Klobuchar.

Unfortunately I dont think either of them will break out into the top-tier of candidates before the primaries start rolling around. 

He's cornered the older portion of the electorate as well as those who think that a Biden presidency will be like a third Obama term. Check out how Biden has such massive support from black voters despite his previous hiccups with busing and crime legislation, Obama is 80% of the reason Biden is polling as well as he is. 

CNN to Andrew Yang: "Why are voters wrong to think that Biden is the best candidate to beat Trump?"

What CNN claims they asked on screen: "What do you say to voters who believe a nominee who can beat Trump is better than one who agrees with them on the issues" 

Come on guys, get your act together. 

CNN to Biden: "What do you say to the progressive who don't think your policies go far enough?"

For fucks sake.... There's not anything Biden could do or say that would get Warren or Sanders voters to flip to his side, the only way they'll support him is if both Sanders and Warren drop out of the race. 

CNN: "Is the Green New Deal realistic?"

Gilibrand: "I would sign the Paris Climate Agreement. We won the Space Race, lets win the Green Race!"

Tulsi: "In Hawaii, we had to transition off fossil fuels because our survival depended on it"

Booker: "Bush didn't join the Kyoto Protocol, we are out of time, we have to take an all-of-the-above strategy to Climate Change"

Everyone claiming that climate Cchange is important but none of them want to answer the question about whether or not the 'Green New Deal' is realistic, because its not. 

I mean, if you put her and Sanders on a stage with a bunch of nobodies, it's not exactly difficult to look like the best of the bunch. 

The climate change questions are going to get boring fast. I can already see this is going to be a dick-measuring contest over who has the most 'actual detailed proposals' in their platform. 

Kirsten admitting she has benefitted from white privilege and understands that she has benefitted from it, and knows that others don't enjoy the same easiness in life she has received is a pretty 'woke' statement to make. She hasn't really had a lot of memorable moments in these debates though and I dont think she'll make it past the first two or three primaries once they roll around

I like this debate a lot more than the first two since it seems like the candidates have enough time now to say what they want to say based on their own opinions. The first ones were 95% forgettable since everyone was just trying to say as much as they could to beat the time limit, now just about everyone is more relaxed and seemingly genuine. 

Man the moderators are really trying to set up conflicts with Biden and the other candidates on the stage. Harris at least twice now, Booker, and Castro all getting easy windups to take, and they even ask Harris about their last fight regarding Biden's apprehension towards federal busing. 10 candidates on stage and CNN just wants to relive old highlights, figures. 

Biden at least looks like he did his homework this time by pointing out how Harris hasn't always been aggressive in fighting how segregated schools have become in her state, but she was Attorney-General at the time, Harris is right that she wouldn't have had that kind of power to change things while Biden was in the Senate. 

No I said you came in here with the intent of complaining and bitching. 

If you want to come out and identify as one though then thats your prerogative, and im happy youre accepting yourself for who you are. 

Castro taking a MASSIVE shit on De Blasio by pointing out how the cop who killed Eric Gardner is still employed in his city. Holy shit that was a solid attack, that made the Booker-Biden exchange look like a damn rehearsal. 

Warren has really gotten shafted on these debates. First time she was surrounded by nobodies, Second time she was with Sanders who they basically held hands with while they shat on all the wannabe top moderate candidates there that night

Criminal justice reform, this should be interesting. 

Booker really trying to shoot his shot against Biden, referencing the anti-crime bill in the 90's Biden had his name on that really made the mass-incarceration problem as big as it was today. 

Biden returning fire by tying Booker to fuckin Rudy Guiliani of all people and also that 'Stop and Frisk' was implemented in his city while he was mayor was a good counter-broadside, but Booker is really holding his own on this one. The 'Koolaid' remark is def the highlight he's going to have tonight, but he's also staying focused by pointing out how many people are in jail for life because of the bill that Biden bragged about 

Castro pulling off of the broadside of Biden by pitching his own policy proposals and revoking the names of those killed by police

This is getting good now

Have you considered not stepping into a thread you have absolutely zero intention of contributing to just to bitch and complain over nothing? If you don't want me to target you, don't barge into a thread with the intention of putting a massive target on your head in the first place. 

Actually this group may be the best batch to ask questions about immigration.... Booker, Tulsi, Harris, Yang, Castro.... I think this is all of the non-white big-name candidates in the entire Dem field. 

Booker pointing out that Biden invokes Obama so much and that he cant embrace it when he can and dodge it when its opportune for him to do so was smart, but the downside is that Biden's strategy of sticking with Obama when he can and avoiding Obama when he needs to is a safe thing to stick with. Obama had a MASSIVE number of deportations during his administration, it makes sense for Biden to try to distance himself from Obama under that regard because that would separate him from the rest of the field in a super negative light. 

Im not comparing you to an experienced debater, i'm comparing you to someone who is competent, since there are a number of differences between someone who is competent, and you. 

Look you dont like me, you're not interested in anything that would be posted in here, and I dont think you are worth/capable of having a conversation with, so I'll stick to the one thread I make in a month and you can do whatever you prefer doing elsewhere so that this thread doesnt get off track 

Castro taking his shot at Biden over his immigration policy by claiming it doesn't go far enough but Biden saves his ass this time by pointing out that crossing the border seeking asylum should be allowed, not crossing the border to illegally immigrate into the country. 

Its nice to see Andrew Yang get actual speaking time since he didnt get any of it in the last debate. Crowd really seems to like him which is weird because the other non-politician in the race (the author lady, Williamson i think) is polling at like -2% 

Dont you have another debate to lose against someone who forfeited half the rounds because you cant properly format an argument to save your life? 

I dont know why CNN puts time aside to discuss the border because all the Dems are on the same page on this one.... "Trump is a dumbass, separating children from their parents is evil, we are a country built on immigration, lets take the high road"

You could have all the Dem stances on cards and Dem candidates on other cards and you would never be able to match the policy with the candidate because theyre all the same.

Biden sticking to his guns by hyping Obamacare and limiting his plan to just a Public Option. Bringing out his 'Bunch of malarkey' line from his VP debate with Paul Ryan was also pretty slick, crowd seemed to like it. 

Harris: "Your plan (Biden) does nothing to hold back private influence in the healthcare system. Medicare for All."

Biden: "Those behind the opioid crisis should be in jail"

Forgettable line of attack met with a forgettable line of defense. 

Castro getting the first border question is a bit ironic 

Jay Inslee also someone I forgot was even running, but he hit a solid note by talking about the need to expand mental healthcare rather then just healthcare in general  

Yang approaching healthcare from a small-business owner stance is also a solid move that helps him stand out from this fuckin crowded field of candidates. 

De Blasio reminding everyone he's still irrelevant. I swear he's like the older, whiter, more boring version of AOC who decided to run for president. Claiming to want to pull a page from Trumps book in a Democratic debate also not the best strategy to go with 

 

Castro also taking a safe stance by just limiting his response to wanting to get private influence/over reach out of the healthcare system. Obamacare and reigning in 'Big Pharma' are two of the safest healthcare stances to campaign on, wow Castro didnt say much apart from that  

How much speaking time has Harris already got now? This is like the fourth or fifth time she's been asked something yet Andrew Yang hasn't even recieved a question yet 

Fuckin missed what Tulsi said + harris's response because my fucking dog started going apeshit over a truck stopping outside

Forgot Bennet was a candidate in the election, but trying to put Harris in the same camp as Warren and Sanders is a risky move since it just puts himself in the camp of the 5 or 6 moderate 'cant do that' candidates who are all immensely forgettable 

Booker seems a lot more relaxed compared to the last debate. Being clear and articulate rather than straining himself trying to spit out as much as he can in a pre-determined time limit 

Biden tying himself to Obamacare is a smart move based on how much Democrats support it, its the safest option to pick. The candidates campaigning on abolishing private healthcare and replacing it with a government program are out of their minds 

Missed the other one cause I was out of town and just got back to catch this one and make a thread for it, just gonna record my thoughts and let yall jump in on this if you want to. 

Luckily they burned 30 minutes on intros so I didnt miss much, but once again the Healthcare questions are the ones really filtering out the candidates into different camps. I dont know which candidate only supports medicare expansions and a public option, but whoever they are have my support because I have a fuckton of doubts on Universal Healthcare 

The anime nerd in me is screaming so I have to go with My Hero Academia with this one. 

You hardly fall under ‘humble’ and ‘most self loathing’ though.... ‘Temperamental’ and ‘overly reactionary’ are much more on the mark, which is legit the main qualities that attract you as much criticism as you have received 

How could I not?

Get on my level, peasant. 

As much as I wanna vote for My Hero Academia, none of you have mentioned Jojo's Bizarre Adventure which if far more significant so I have to go with that one instead. 

As much as I wanna vote for My Hero Academia, none of you have mentioned Jojo's Bizarre Adventure which if far more significant so I have to go with that one instead. 

Its also really odd that you are so anal about me not trying to 'ruin your reputation on here' yet at every chance you get you try to throw me under the bus for stuff I wasn't even involved in/had no major role in whatsoever.... Blaming me for the decline of DDO and the Religion forum? If you honestly believe that then thats pretty sad. Thats as nonsensical as me trying to blame the forfeit bug that started happening to debates on DDO as a result of you posting a picture of a fleshlight into that debate that ended up getting deleted. 

What are you even talking about? The only PM's we shared together are limited to just two topics:

1 - Mutual confusion over Batman's vote on our debate a while back

2 - You sending me 18 PM's in a row threatening me to not bring up our past history on DDO in the forums, immediately after you tried to bring up our past history in a thread in the forums, that you tagged me in. 

Christ I forgot about those sections.... 

You could make a decent argument that those places were the true underbelly of DDO.... 

Ah, gotcha....

Is there even anyone left on DDO to troll at this point though? Last I checked not even the main forum gets a lot of non-spam activity anymore and that the only person still posting there is Inferno when he feels the need to hear himself talk to no one in particular (again, as usual) 

Gonna give my two cents on the OP even though you guys have gone ahead and built up a nice head of anger at me for pretty much no reason....

Basically what happened was that Juggle, the company that owned DDO, became far more preoccupied with its other business ventures that DDO quickly fell to (almost) the bottom of the list -> http://www.juggle.com/corporate/our-companies/ ... They made far more money from its other ventures than it ever could from putting ads on DDO, so they pretty much just stopped paying attention to the site. 

Man I remember when these things first started going up XD

The thing is, as neat as the idea of having wiki's for important or at least influential members was, the novelty of the whole thing wore off quickly. From what I recall, the novelty of the idea wore off fairly fast since present members were already aware of everyones history and what not, while newer members didnt stick around long enough to care (Once DDO started going down the drain commitment to the site went with it).... Im fairly certain that the only people who paid the most attention to the wiki's of members were the ones who were tasked with updating them and keeping them fair in the first place. 

Given the short history of this site as well, and that most of us are leftovers from DDO, it seems really early to try to give this another go. I don't think anyone would disagree that we are basically generation 1 of DebateArt, whereas DDO had at least 3 or 4 generations of users to it. Once the site gets two or three or even four years older, with people who mostly didnt come from DDO, then this would be worth exploring. 

Tulsi was regulated to the little kids debate where the only big name in the lineup by a long shot was Warren.... Put her together with a better lineup and she still does as well as she did in the first place, and she'll start getting attention from the electorate. 

Cant really disagree.... No one else had as many moments touting their own stances + taking big shots at other candidates then she did.... 

I would fuckin LOVE to see her and Tulsi Gabbard on the same stage together. Hopefully the CNN debates will put them on the same stage together

Rather then use some sort of letter grade or number grade system, Im just going to classify the candidates into four labels based on how they performed in the debates (in my opinion)

FORGETTABLE: 

 = De Blasio

 = Tim Ryan 

 = Jay Inslee

 = John Delaney

 = Eric Swalwell

 = Michael Bennet

 = Pete Buttigieg

 = John Hickenlooper

 = Marianne Williamson

 = Beto O'Rourke

While each of these candidates may have had some bright spots or shown that they did their homework on big issues, none of these guys stood out in any particular way from the other candidates who either drift more towards the center of the political spectrum, or are bastions of the far left. I'll be surprised if any of these guys following the debates will be polling higher than 6% in the coming weeks.... With the next debates not coming until the end of July, its possible that one of these guys pulls out of the race because they have the foresight to see they wont win and try to invest their time racing for a different office, but its likely they will all wait until August since the July debates are also being split into two nights to accommodate everyone who is running. These guys started at close to 0-1%, they will continue to be in that range in the coming months. 

LOST GROUND / DISSAPPOINTMENT 

 = Biden

 = Sanders

 = Gillibrand

 = Yang

Biden and Sanders took shots from a lot of different sides, Biden in particular getting blasted by Kamala Harris while Sanders just repeated the same points he used back in 2016, but the two of them still did decent enough where they will be able to hold onto a good chunk of the electorate in coming polls. Biden and Sanders will still be frontrunners, but they conceded a few percentage points to other candidates which they can afford to do at this stage of the race.... Gillibrand, who I view as a second tier candidate, didnt stand out as much as i thought she would and I wouldnt be surprised if her numbers dont budge an inch following this debate, while Yang who I kept a curious eye on despite him being way down in the field, didnt do anything besides stick to his guns about the one issue I already knew about him: Universal Basic Income..... Gillibrand and Yang missed a solid opportunity to make bigger names for themselves, while Biden and Sanders's names were so big others took swipes at them trying to knock them down a bit, and those people succeeded to a minor degree. 

HELD THEIR GROUND / ABOVE AVERAGE

 = Amy Klobuchar

 = Julian Castro

 = Corey Booker

 = Elizabeth Warren

Castro has clearly done his work regarding immigration issues, as exemplified by how he lit Beto O'Rourke on fire regarding the migrant crisis, while Booker seemed to be laser focused on delivering his responses, regardless of how pre-practiced they may have been. Amy Klobuchar I may be investing a little too heavily in, but her calm and collected posture when she was answering questions made her look like a real adult in the room.... Not someone trying to incite emotion or act like a general leading troops into a battle, but like an actual legislator.... Warren meanwhile benefitted from getting easy softball questions in day 1 of the debates without being challenged by other candidates, but some of her answers to more difficult questions missed their mark in my opinion, so her numbers should stay about the same from where they first were since she held her gound. 

BIG WINNERS

 = Tulsi Gabbard

 = Kamala Harris

Tulsi Gabbard combined Amy Klobuchar's calm demeanor with an absolute shitting all over Tim Ryan by opposing the ongoing war in Afghanistan. She rose up to cement herself almost as the 'Anti-War' candidate in the Democratic field, which in an era when the US almost cant go a year without bombing a different mid east country is an incredibly powerful label to have given the war-weariness in the country as Trump fucks around with North Korea and Iran on a regular basis..... She was clearly the big winner in the first debate, while Kamala Harris's ruthless broadside against Biden in the second debate in addition to her other moments of shining over others earned her a massive amount of attention and applause from those watching this night. If any candidates have positioned themselves to break into the upper tier of the primary (Currently limited to Biden, Warren, and Sanders) it would be Tulsi and Harris.... If they pull off similar performances in later debates and do strong in the first batch of primary states, they have the best odds of breaking into 'frontrunner' status and lighting the rest of the field on fire. 

Yang barely had any talking points besides the ones weve already heard about.... Universal Basic Income + 'Trickle Up Economics'... 

Damn we only have 10 minutes left 

Why each candidate is running for president

Swalwell: "I have led the effort to elect the next generation of congressmen"..... Hell of a thing to try to take credit for, good luck

Williamson: "I will harness love for political purposes and beat you (Trump) on the battlefield with it".... Yep shes an author alright

Bennet: [Too bored to care] 

Hickenlooper: "[Lists things he did in Colorado]".... Jesus Christ.... COLORADO =/= AMERICA IN GENERAL

Gillibrand: "Now is not the time to play it safe".... Might as well have said 'Please consider voting for someone other than Biden.'

Yang: "Whoever implements a trickle-up-economy will beat Trump, that person is me"..... He's just sticking to the one talking point that got him attention in the first place. I was hoping he would diversify his views and pitch them to viewers but he's not for some reason. 

Harris: "General talking points... [Plugs her own website]" 

Buttigieg: "The decisions we make in the next 3 to 4 years will determine the next 30 to 40 to 50 years."..... Thats true for almost any election

Sanders: "[Repeats literally the same talking points he used from the debates in the 2016 election]

Biden: "We have to help the poor and middle class, and unite the country, we can do anything if we are together".... Started decent but devolved into meaninglessness. 

BENNET.... Thats who it was, he was the guy with the best answer for who should America try to work with/make up with the most. 

Damn I missed the questions about Biden's previous vote in support of the Iraq War back in '03 and whatever Sanders was talking about in response. 

If you're trying to insult someone else's intelligence, It's usually a good idea to not riddle your single sentence reply with multiple errors on 5 letter words. 

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