After watching the second Democratic debate of 2019 in Miami, there is no question that Senator Kamala Harris was the clear winner. She clearly and effectively stated her policies and didn't spare any other candidate on the stage, nor did she spare the moderators (see video above). She has a lot of ground to make up in the recent polling, but this should help her.
If anyone has ever watched any of our videos showcasing Harris cross-examining a witness during her committee hearings you'd know that she has a strong and charismatic approach and doesn't suffer fools.
She came through loud and clear tonight and put Joe Biden on his heels when she confronted him on her personal story of being bused to desegregate schools.
As a matter of fact, the Democratic Party has several highly efficient inquisitors like Katie Porter and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, just to name a few, who come prepared and make important points while trying to elicit real answers. They never go on long-winded monologues but instead get to the heart of the matter.
Mayor Pete also did pretty well and did something a politician rarely does: He took complete responsibility for the anger in his city over the shooting of a black man by a white police officer who did not have his body cam turned on. At other times he came off as pedantic, but that moment was sincere and genuine.
John Hickenlooper clearly doesn't understand what socialism is, or he'd stop talking about how bad it is. As governor, didn't he have to deal with police, firefighters and roads, all clearly socialist. Does he hate Social Security and Medicare? The right-wing frame of the questions were terrible, but Hickenlooper's closing statement told us he doesn't understand at all what socialism is and why it works. That goes for his pal Michael Bennet too.
Bernie Sanders was Bernie Sanders. He knows who he is and what he stands for. His supporters will be happy with his performance, but debating in such a crowded field did not help him as much as he hoped. It will be a more interesting debate when the DNC pares the extra candidates down and gives the front-runners more time.
Joe Biden had a tough time in certain segments of the debate and leaned on his tenure as VP with President Obama too much instead of clearly stating his own beliefs and policies.
Eric Swalwell acted like a jerk throughout including dropping an ageism bomb right from the outset on Joe Biden. I was very surprised at that because he's been a very good advocate for the Democratic Party on national television.
Clear winner: Kamala Harris
Time-wasters: Andrew Yang and Marianne Williamson
Good for another round: Joe Biden, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg
Drop the ageism, keep the gun policy: Eric Swalwell
Possible GOP Candidate for Senate: John Hickenlooper
Go back to the Senate: Michael Bennet
(Karoli Kuns contributed her thoughts to this article)
