That being said, I just got done watching 20 candidates throughout two nights of Democratic presidential debates on NBC, otherwise known to me as The Blacklist's network...
(Keep in mind, I was not a political science or foreign affairs major in college, so I'm not exactly Mr. Politico, but rather just a guy with a small voice who likes to hear himself think and make himself laugh.)
My initial reaction on each (in purely alphabetical order)?
Amy Klobuchar - I heard she was one of the more moderate voices in this pack, so I honestly thought I might like her candidacy early on, but then I saw her non-stop elitist smirk and read the rumors of her being an undercover bully and throwing staplers, etc., at her interns, so now I just think she's full of it.
Andrew Yang - As a former techie, this dude is clearly too cool to wear a tie to the debate, which is a major etiquette faux pas, but I kind of like people who buck tradition, so really, that's just a passing observation. However, while not exactly using these words, Mr. Yang essentially went on to say that he'll give everybody $1,000 if they vote him into office, so I already for sure know two things about this guy: (1) His policies are going to be way too idealistic to be realistic (Where are we going to generate this free money from? How much will our taxes have to go up to cover that?), and (2) I may just have to vote for him because they just upped my rent. LOL!
Bernie Sanders - Everybody already knows Bernie, so I'll just make a joke about our favorite grumpy Jewish grandpa in this space. Hearing him speak tonight, I kind of feel like the guy thinks that if we don't pass "Medicare for All," the world will end tomorrow! It's that important to him, even though it's unrealistic in my eyes. I mean, c'mon, we can barely cover the people we have on Medicare now, so how in the heck are we going to offer that to everybody and have enough of it to go around?!
Beto O'Rourke - Something about this guy depresses me. I don't know if it's the tone of his voice, the fact that he loves talking about prisons so dang much, or that he's clearly out of his league in these debates, but I almost feel like we should add a sad, slow violin to the background every time he speaks.
Bill de Blasio - The guy is posturing, plain and simple. He's the king of New York and he wants you to know it. Frankly, I couldn't give two $#!+s! (Plus, he may have just killed his campaign by uttering the revolutionary phrase "Hasta la victoria, siempre!" in Miami. Goes to show that being the king of New York means diddly squat in Miami.)
Cory Booker - By his own admission, he's pretty much only fighting for the black and brown minorities, which I guess bodes well for Hispanic me, but still, I don't agree with it. I also don't agree with somebody taking $200,000 from big pharma, allowing them to raise the costs of our prescription drugs, and then turning around, looking me in the eyes, and claiming he would stand up to the pharmaceutical companies during his presidency. Yeah, sure you will!
Elizabeth Warren - She's the female Bernie Sanders: all passion, no substance. Plus, she has that Native American lie forever staining her path to the White House. If you don't believe me, just ask Trump, who already calls her "Pocahontas." She is a great speaker, though, I'll give her that much!
Eric Swalwell - The dude that looks like T.V. serial killer Dexter Morgan wants us to give him all of our assault weapons? If it was somebody else asking, I might've considered it, but with him looking the way he does, thank you, but I think I'll pass.
Jay Inslee - In his own head, he was the first to do everything and is most certainly the strongest woman candidate in this entire field. Delusional much?
Joe Biden - "Issues," you say?! "What issues? Barack and I've already fixed everything! I've been around forever and I've always done everything right, now where's your daughter at, so that I can sniff her hair?" Honestly, to me, this guy seems so creepy with that fake smile of his, his one son marrying his deceased son's ex-wife, and that whole Anita Hill fiasco. Too much baggage, if you ask me, but for some reason, America loves this man (and this man really loves himself, too, so just imagine the narcissistic battles we would have between Trump and him if he were to win the vote)!
John Delaney - This guy's got goofy eyes for days, and he keeps interrupting everybody at the oddest times. He and Tim Ryan have got no shot in hell after their atrocious showings in that first debate.
John Hickenlooper - "I'm a big progressive." He actually said that in his closing statement. And he's so big, in fact, that nobody's ever heard of him. Keep up the good work, background filler! (P.S.: If his satellite ears could team up with Delaney's eyes -- yowsers!)
Julian Castro - In my post-debates opinion, he's arguably the second-best candidate in this field of 20 right now. However, he's also got Marco Rubio-level pandering skills. When he started speaking in Spanish for his closing statement, that was the most transparent Latino @$$-kissing I've ever seen!
Kamala Harris - A few weeks ago, she said reparations should be a thing in 2020, meaning people who weren't around during the slavery days, have always gotten along well with all minorities, and who -- at least in my case -- had no family living in the U.S. when all that nonsense was going on, would have to pay Sen. Harris and all other African-Americans for just being here in America at this point in time. She completely lost any chance of receiving my vote when she said that. However, she did have a pretty good debate tonight, as she slyly kept telling everybody that they had great ideas and that she respects them, while always following those compliments up with subtle smear campaigns on the very same candidates. In other words, she's definitely a politician!
Kirsten Gillibrand - She took a break from starring in Frozen to come out and fight for women's issues, which is always a good cause. The only problem I have with that is that she seems to think she's the only woman to ever fight for women's issues. As Sen. Klobuchar said just one night before, there're a few other women in this race that have fought pretty hard for women's issues, as well, so you can get off your high horse there, Elsa!
Marianne Williamson - She's not sure how to answer a single question, but promises that she will get our imaginations going the way JFK did. Congrats on winning the "Worst Performance of the Second Night of Debates Award!"
Michael Bennet - It's okay to open your mouth when you talk, Michael, that way you can stop stuttering. Honestly, I didn't understand a word this guy said all night, so I really like his odds of winning this nomination. [/sarcasm]
Pete Buttigieg - This dude actually sounded like he knows his stuff, and he's a war veteran! No wonder he's on the fast-track to the presidency!
Tim Ryan - Sounded like the dimmest person while sharing a stage with the likes of Delaney and O'Rourke. That takes a lot of effort. Dude got repeatedly shutdown by everybody and actually thought it was the Taliban (not al-Qaeda!) that attacked us on 9/11. He also came off as being super aggressive. I predict he'll be the first of these 20 candidates to pull out of the race because there's just no coming back from such an awful performance.
Tulsi Gabbard - A lot of people were talking smack about her after Night 1 of these debates, but I actually think she seemed like a good candidate, to be honest with you. She's kind of a centrist in her beliefs, considering her social conservative background, and has a strong military past, both of which I feel are much needed traits in our 2020 president. However, knowing how much Trump loves to market himself, I don't think she'd have much of a shot at beating him, because she does seem way too reserved for such a battle.
Now that I've run through every candidate individually, let me add my two cents about both debate nights. On Night 1, I would say that either Julian Castro, Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar "won" the debate in the eyes of the Democratic voter. I'm clearly not that, though. I'm more of a centrist/moderate, and as such, the only one that really seemed like a decent candidate to me was Tulsi Gabbard, but I know she won't win the Democratic vote because (A) she's already angered the LGBTQ community, and (B) like I said above, her personality is way too reserved to compete against a blowhard like Trump's. I also didn't mind HUD Secretary Castro so much, though. He'd probably be my second preference out of the first 10 candidates because he, unlike the others, didn't seem like such a socialist. And by the way, if you want President Trump's opinion, he thought they were all "BORING!" It's politics, Agent Orange, what'd you expect?! As for Night 2, Mayor Pete easily won that debate. I would say Andrew Yang came in a distant second, and Kamala Harris followed closely in third, at least from my perspective. Still, Yang, to me, sounds like a guy with great ideas on paper, but they just aren't fiscally realistic.
So after two days, I guess these are the four candidates I wouldn't mind voting for, if I absolutely had to vote Democrat and it was required that I vote right now: (1) Pete Buttigieg, (2) Julian Castro, (3) Tulsi Gabbard and (4) Andrew Yang. However, that is definitely not the order I think America is going to have them ranked by next week, when the latest poll numbers will be made available to us. If I had to predict that order, I'd probably venture to guess something more along these lines: (1) Joe Biden, (2) Bernie Sanders, (3) Elizabeth Warren, (4) Pete Buttigieg, (5) Julian Castro, (6) Kamala Harris, (7) Beto O'Rourke, (8) Cory Booker, (9) Bill de Blasio and (10) Amy Klobuchar.
However, speaking strictly as an independent voter that equally dislikes both parties, this is what I, too, am hearing from the Democrats as I watch these televised debates, so I really hope they dial it back a bit in future debates and get a bit closer to center, as really, that is what I feel America will mostly need from its president in 2020...
Honestly, if they stay this course, I still think Trump will beat all of them, because he's really good about highlighting his populist beliefs. This reaction (from tonight's debate) in particular sticks out to me...
Dial it back a bit, Dems, if you want to have a shot at connecting with non-partied voters like myself. Trust me, as someone whose family left a socialist country and (legally) moved to America, going down socialism's path is not going to win you much sympathy with us Latino voters. It really isn't!
Please, for the sake of all that is holy, let's try to make America great again by meeting back at the middle, politically. This country used to be great, and then it split right down the middle, and now we're bordering on civil war with one another. We need somebody now who can bring us back together in 2020, a Lincoln/FDR/JFK-type leader, not an orange reality T.V. star or a creepy Joe Biden or a socialist Bernie.
Let's all come together and do the best we can for Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam in 2020! Let's elect a truly good candidate for a change, not just another somebody who is a big name looking to continue their leftist or right-wing agenda!
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