I guess the non-Sanders candidates listened to advisers who agreed with my advice I put up on FB yesterday morning, which is to go after Bloomberg more than Bernie--and leave the Bernie bashing to the corporate owned media for now. The Son called me as I left my class to say Warren eviscerated Bloomberg on Bloomberg's women problem and stop-and-frisk, and even Biden got a good one in about the latter, calling Bloomberg a liar. He said Warren also made sarcastic fun of, and personally attacked, Amy Klobuchar for having no health care plan except "insert plan here" with one or two paragraphs. I laughed in reply, saying, Well, it appears Warren decided she didn't like civility after all.
Oh, and anyone telling us the past week how much they want civility, I guess the candidates on that stage, other than ironically Bernie, don't agree with you. I hope you civility police are ripping Warren especially, who must hold the record this primary season in attacking every single other candidate in the series of primary debates. Warren has attacked Mayor Pete for wine caves, Biden for his stance against working people in his carrying water for the credit card industry, and Bernie with the imbroglio over what their private conversation over a year ago was about, and now has finished her attack wave with Klobuchar. Me? I am happy with Warren's performance last night, and I think she saved her campaign for a few more weeks. This is what primaries are about, which is vetting each other, comparing and contrasting, and jabbing--and we appear to have hardly anyone to remind ourselves how viciously Obama and Hillary Clinton attacked each other in 2008 (well, Saagar at The Hill's Rising tried a couple of weeks ago).
I have an additional fact check to the Yahoo Fact Checks: Near the end of the debate, Biden attacked Sanders for a single vote against comprehensive immigration reform in 2007. Biden knew better and was knowingly misleading as this was an issue Hillary Clinton brought up against Bernie in 2016. Yes, Bernie voted against it, based upon LULAC (a most prominent Latino organization) and the AFL-CIO opposing it, too. Why? Because the proposal was really a rich people's gambit about completely legitimizing guest workers, where businesses could bring in the guest workers for a season or even a year, and then send them back to Mexico or elsewhere. This was not a solution to the immigration issue as much as codifying the very exploitation businesses undertake to drive down wages of American citizens.
However, I loved to hear that Bernie said to Mayor Pete, after Petey's hit against Bernie about the Culinary Union leadership opposition to Bernie, that Bernie had more union support than Mayor Pete could ever dream up. Take that, sonny boy! LOL.
Where I was wrong is Bernie did not take my advice about using his opening remarks to focus on Medicare for All. However, The Son said there was really no moving of any needle on any substantive issues, especially Medicare for All. He said Bernie cited The Lancet study, which is great. And he said he would like to strangle Chuck Todd and the MSNBC questioners for their obviously biased question structures against Bernie every time, especially on Medicare for All. I am proud to say he is now yelling at the television as much as I did back in the day. I told him this is a problem he will face until senility sets in because he knows too much about debating styles and possesses too much information from reading and listening carefully over a period of time.
The real takeaway for the night is how the non-Sanders candidates showed why people in the Democratic Party (other than oligarch supporters) should never support Bloomberg's candidacy and that voting for Bloomberg is a betrayal of most of the Democratic Party's issues and platform--though The Son said Mayor Pete got in a dig that we can't have Bloomberg and Sanders as the only candidates because neither are Democrats. Nice, Pete. That's a sly one! Plus, there is the very, very subtle anti-Semitism, too, for a bonus. Yeah, those foreigners to our party, both Jews! Bwwaaahaahaaa! Oh yeah.
Now, don't worry, civility fans. I know Mayor Pete is not anti-Semitic, but isn't that just like the argument that the primary is racist because there are now no longer any people of color on the stage? It's not like it's Bernie's fault he is polling 50% with Latinos and has the highest support from people of color. It's not Bernie's fault that most African-Americans rejected Harris and Booker, and Latinos rejected Castro. I just want us to start to realize how much our oversensitivity and weaponizing of this kind of language can look when we apply it across the board. But I am worried about a Bloomberg v. Bernie final battle because it does play into the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which is the Jews' domination of the world through Capitalism and Communism. It's an anti-Semite's nightmare wet dream.
Anyway, I don't watch the corporate media cable news networks, but I can bet their takeaways are:(1) Bloomberg was wounded, but never out because of his money; (2) Warren revived her campaign (by rejecting her own civility advice, though that will not be said, as it was the main thrust of the anti-Bernie supporter attacks all week); and (3) Klobuchar was shown to have clay feet. As for Bernie, they will focus not on substance, but use the cudgel of attacking BernieBros again--though The Son said Bernie greatly and bravely said how his own staffers who are African-American women get the same type of death threats and vitriol, and that the Internet is full of such things, though a small minority of people overall. He then denounced again anyone supporting him who engages in online harassment. And they will flog Bernie in demanding that the most obviously fit person in the race--based upon schedules--produce more medical records than every other candidate. Sure, I am disappointed he is not releasing all medical records, but I wonder why this is not the rule for everyone. I'd sure like to see Biden's, Warren's and Bloomberg's, too, and let's not assume Mayor Pete is clean as I know I was sure a mess by 38. Who knows what Pete and Amy have had in their lives?
Oh well, what else did I miss by not spending two and a half hours watching a corporate media circus?
