According To Marc: Takeaways from the South Carolina Democratic Debate

Very rarely, if at all do I ever have guests post on this blog. But my friend Marc Francois, who appears quite often on the Earnestly Speaking Podcast had some good points during our post debate test exchange following the South Carolina Democratic debate. So much that I decided to turn his takeaways from last night into a blog post.

1. Bernie Sanders - To put in fight terms, Bernie took some shots and got his bell rung more than once. Overall he weathered the storm, loses the decision, but avoided the knockout.

2. Joe Biden- best performance of the season. Maybe not as individually strong as the Kamala rebound, but timeliness & geography break the tie.

3. Pete Buttigieg & Tom Steyer- Admirable, decent, ultimately unremarkable, but both come exit better than they entered.

4. Michael Bloomberg- Fuck this guy, but his money will keep him in it until the convention and into a third party run if he so chooses. I reiterate, fuck this guy and his well paid staff. That said, nice follow up to the ass whooping he took in Vegas. Ultimately though, he had some god awful answers (Israel and Stop & Frisk), but held his ground amid numerous attacks. Elizabeth Warren’s aggression probably hurts her more than him in SC.

5. Elizabeth Warren - Strong, but not a great follow-up to the bomb dropping she did last week. She pushed too hard in front of a crowd disinclined to respond well to incivility at all. She made some strong arguments and in a vacuum may be the better representative of the far left than Sanders, but she likely did herself damage she can ill-afford.

6. Amy Klobuchar- More of the same. Some good points, but mostly annoying and unconfident. She looks terrified on the debate stage. Trump would devour her with slime. She dialed back her Mayor Pete malice and directed a lot at Bernie. She’s got no business in this fight and should drop out the instant the South Carolina returns put her in the bottom 3.