The Other McCain

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Beto Beaten by Buttigieg in Debate

Posted on | October 16, 2019 | Comments Off on Beto Beaten by Buttigieg in Debate

 

The very first time I heard Pete Buttigieg speak — during my trip to South Carolina in March — I was impressed by him. Of course, his policy ideas are all entirely wrong, but Buttigieg’s demeanor and delivery are excellent. He combines a policy wonk’s mastery of details with a folksy Midwestern manner in a way that would certainly inspire confidence if (and this is a very important “if”) his ideas weren’t the usual “progressive” prescription of vastly expanding the power (and cost) of the centralized Welfare State. During Tuesday night’s debate on CNN, Mayor Pete delivered a scolding lecture to Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, as Professor Glenn Reynolds observes:

He made mincemeat of Beto O’Rourke, who dodged a question from Anderson Cooper on how he would enforce a ban on assault weapons. Beto was left looking flustered and trying to claim that Mayor Pete was insensitive to victims of violence, which was a bad look for him. . . .
Numerous fellow candidates criticized him for his “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15s” remarks. Between that and the drubbing that Mayor Pete administered, he had a very bad night.

We should be grateful to Buttigieg for his skill in demolishing the Great White Hope of Texas Democrats in front of a national audience.

As to the debate overall, Roger Simon summarizes it well:

If there is one thing that Tuesday night’s Democratic debate showed us — as if we didn’t know it in the first place — it’s just to what degree the media is in the tank for the Democrats. They’re not only in the tank — they built it, filled it with water up to the brim, and would turn up the temperature to boil Donald Trump alive if they could. And maybe they can.
You knew this from the outset when CNN’s lead moderator Anderson Cooper, along with his compatriots, one from the New York Times, opened the festivities with a round of leading impeachment questions, giving each candidate in turn a chance to outdo each other in bashing Trump.

This will do nothing to rescue CNN from the ratings basement, of course. There is no new audience to be gained by Trump-bashing at this point. CNN’s decision to become the “Clinton News Network” in 2016 was a strategic error, but instead of reversing course, they keep doubling down.

Meanwhile, Beto’s on MSNBC threatening again to take away your guns:


 

Category: CNN, Debates, Democrats

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