While 20 Democratic presidential candidates debated over four hours on Wednesday and Thursday night, a group of 210 voters convened by leading party pollster Stanley Greenberg offered their live impressions, answering poll questions and participating in dial-testing to indicate their feelings about what was going on onstage, as it happened. […] Read more »
2 Debates, 20 Candidates, 26 Hours
The opening two debates of what Democrats hope is the 2020 Donald Trump Demolition Derby are in the books. Ultimately, the polls and maybe the upcoming donation totals will tell us whether there were any clear winners, and whether the debate changed anything. CONT. Larry J. Sabato & Kyle Kondik, […] Read more »
Health Care Gets Heated On Night 2 Of The Democratic Presidential Debate
Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News On Thursday, the second night of the first Democratic primary debate, 10 presidential hopefuls took the stage and health issues became an early flashpoint. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) opened the debate calling health care a “human right” — which was echoed by several other candidates […] Read more »
A Single Day Exposed the Central Tension Driving American Politics
The same explosive question rumbled through this week’s Supreme Court ruling on the 2020 census and the two nights of Democratic presidential debates: How will America respond to the propulsive demographic, social, and economic changes remaking the nation? The juxtaposition of these two events, purely coincidental, underscored how much of […] Read more »
Context Is Critical When Parsing Biden’s Words
Few ardent supporters of former Vice President Joe Biden would argue with the suggestion that he chose his words poorly when discussing his ability to work with Sen. James Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia in the context of the civility that once existed in the Senate. … […] Read more »
What to Make of the Democratic Debates
It is dangerous to read too much into any debate —especially one held more than six months before the first Democratic caucus in Iowa. Even so, these first two Democratic debates are instructive. First, they give us a benchmark for evaluating these candidates over time: Who wears well and who […] Read more »