Holy shit! So much for what goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Last night's debate wasn't a food fight, it was a smack down. At one point, I could've sworn I saw Superstar Billy Graham and Hulk Hogan on that stage. It was so intense that after about about an hour I had to switch channels and watch a hockey game just to relax.
The two best lines of the whole evening came relatively early in the debate. The first was delivered by Elizabeth Warren, who was fighting for her political life after two rather - let's just be polite and call them what they were - unimpressive outcomes in Iowa and New Hampshire, and it was clearly directed at newcomer Michael Bloomberg.
"I’d like to talk about who we’re running against — a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians. No, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg."Ouch! Betcha didn't see that one coming. I sure as hell didn't.
And the second best line of the evening came from Pete Buttigieg - who, coincidentally, also happened to be fighting for his political life - and it was directed at Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders.
"We shouldn't have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down and one candidate who wants to buy this party out."Actually, Buttigieg had a number of good lines in the debate, and most of them were directed at Sanders, who he rightly perceives as the greater threat. In one exchange, he turned to Sanders and said, "You're not the only one who cares about the working class… in fact you're the one at war with the Culinary Union."
Clearly, the remark was a shot at Sanders' Medicare for All plan, which if implemented, would strip away health insurance from millions of union workers, including the sixty thousand strong Culinary Union, which chose not to endorse any of the candidates in the race and was then subsequently attacked online by some of Bernie's supporters.
Ironically, the beneficiary of the night was Joe Biden, who for the first time since these debates began, didn't have to worry about being the worst candidate on stage. That distinction singularly fell to Bloomberg. I don't know what $61 billion buys you these days, but apparently debate prep isn't one of them. In a word, he was dreadful. For those who, like me, thought this could turn into a two-man race, obviously we were wrong.
The good news for Bloomberg, if there is any, is that he gets another shot at this a week from now. The bad news for Bloomberg, if there is any, is that he gets another shot at this a week from now. The problem with being a billionaire is that you don't have a lot of experience dealing with people who tell you things you don't want to hear, like "you sucked tonight." And if Bloomberg doesn't have anyone in his campaign who can do that, then he is destined to go down as the most expensive footnote in presidential politics.
But getting back to Biden. I, like many of the pundits, was all set to write his obituary. In fact, this piece was originally going to be titled, "It's Time To Go, Joe," that's how convinced I was that he was finished. And indeed, if you look at both the RCP and FiveThirtyEight.com trend lines, he's significantly down from where he was only a month ago. In fact, just last week, Biden led Sanders in both Nevada and South Carolina by 3.5 and 14.4 points respectively. Now he trails Sanders by 14 in Nevada and he's holding on to a slim 3 point lead in South Carolina, his supposed firewall.
And it gets worse from there. In early January, he was ahead in a majority of the Super Tuesday contests. Now he's trailing Sanders in most of them and tied with or behind Bloomberg in several others. Based on that, it wasn't all that hard to imagine a scenario in which the man who was once considered the presumptive nominee of the party would be forced to suspend his campaign in mid-March. Now, thanks to a fairly impressive debate performance - his best so far - and a godawful one by the man who would be king, Biden is, for the moment at least, off the respirator. He's not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot. He still needs a strong showing in South Carolina, and by strong, I mean a helluva lot better than a three-point win. And he needs to prove he can go the distance. Say whatever you want about Bloomberg, he has the arrogance and resources to stay in this race all the way to Milwaukee.
Can you say, "Brokered Convention?" I knew you could.
In the meantime, while the Democratic candidates spent the entire night ripping each other apart, the real menace to the nation was laughing his ass off watching it unfold on TV. With few exceptions, Trump was never mentioned at all. How that could happen is beyond belief. As I write this, Roger Stone was just sentenced to 40 months in prison. Anybody got the over/under on how long it'll be before Teflon Don grants him a pardon? My pick is 24 hours. Any takers?
Stop saying it's early, because it's not. Stop saying anything can happen, because you know that isn't the case. As things stand now, a democratic socialist, who barely has the support of a third of his own party, let alone the country, has the inside track to become the next George McGovern. Only it won't be Richard Nixon who destroys him in the general; it'll be a man who makes Nixon look like Dwight Eisenhower.
In the West Wing and the offices of Fox News they can barely contain themselves at their good fortune.
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