That was NOT helpful

Thank God tomorrow night ends this format. Look, I have no problem with how the DNC ran the debates. They had the Toledo phone book running for President, and they tried to give everybody a fair shot. But everybody and their mother has had two shots now, or will after tomorrow night, and if you can’t poll at least 2%, or get 130,000 people to slip you a buck, we don’t need to hear from you anymore.

I thought last months MSNBC debates went pretty well, but found fault with the way that the moderators let people not only interrupt, but keep speaking with impunity for doing it. I thought that either a mic cut off switch, or a hand held air horn would have helped settle things down nicely. But that’s just me.

But I thought that CNN’s format for running the debates last night was nothing short of deplorable. First of all, you don’t need both a one minute opening statement and a one minute closing statement. With time overruns, that’s 25 minutes blown, one of the other would have been sufficient.

But what sticks in my craw is the fact that CNN seems to have almost gone out of their way to make the Democratic candidates appear petty and pissy, and argumentative. You knew going in that this would be a more personally contentious debate. The 1%’ers were going to spend all of their time punching up as high as they could go, desperately trying for a miracle to get them noticed, loved, and into the September debates. That’s fine, nothing CNN can do about that, and sometimes debating is a contact sport.

But CNN seemed to want to purposely stir up the pot, and to pit the also-rans against the front runners. There is nothing unusual in a debate about having multiple candidates answer the same question. Normally, the format is, “Candidate A. Would you blah, blah, blah?” Candidate A answers. Then the moderator says “Candidate F, same question.” Each candidate has 60 seconds to answer the question.

But CNN didn’t do that. They would ask a candidate, usually either Sanders or Warren a question. They would answer, but then, instead of saying “Candidate D, same question,” the moderators would say “Congressman Delaney, what’s your response to Senator Sanders?” Basically, the moderators gave the down-and-out a 1 minute free shot at the front runner. And of course, they have to give the front runner 30 seconds to respond. Followed by 30 seconds more for the down-and-out. And it got ugly. You ended up with candidates with no chance of winning tearing into front runners and their plans with reckless abandon, while the Republicans are laughing their asses off. As far as I’m concerned, CNN should be barred from doing any more Democratic debates until they learn to stop acting like Hollywood Confidential.

That being said, the big winner, big loser, and best takeaway from last night, in my mind, was Elizabeth Warren. She did exactly what she needed to do. She put her plans out there, defended them effectively, and slapped back appropriately without getting into the mud. She had Bernie’s back over shared interests, but drew subtle differences between them, usually on points Bernie was getting hammered over. And for the third straight night, Warren still seems to be the only one who’s actually glad to be out there, brimming with energy, and ready for the fight.

As far as I could tell, the evening’s big loser was Bernie Sanders. He got absolutely pounded out there. And while Sanders and Warren largely share the same views, Sanders took by far the heavier incoming. I don’t know if it was because everybody thought he was a softer target or what, but he definitely fell into the trap. Unlike Warren, Bernie let his ire show several times, most notably when his “socialism” was called into question, and you never want to let them see that they’ve gotten to you, it just inspires more attacks.

Tonight’s big takeaway? Actually, there were two for me. First, Amy Klobuchar was the only one on stage that managed to stay above the fray. Even when prodded by the moderators, she is the only one who refused to criticize another candidate or their plans, preferring simply to push her own plans and electability. Unfortunately, I’m not sure she really moved the ball down the field. And the second takeaway is that, thankfully, last night was most likely the last time that we will see at least five of these people. They added nothing substantive, and in fact some of them did considerable damage. Good riddance.

Going forward, I hope for two things. I hope that tomorrow nights candidates all watched the debate, and caught on to the trap the CNN moderators are trying to set for them, so that they don’t fall into it. And second, I hope that all of the survivors spend at least some of the rest of August watching the tape of tonight’s debate, and realizing that this kind of performance is exactly what Trump and the GOP are hoping for.