Our Special Coverage of this week’s first 2020 Democratic Presidential Debate in Miami continues on today’s BradCast, with post-debate analysis, insight and occasional snarky comment regarding Night Two of the festivities! [Audio link to show follows below.]
The second night featured ten more Presidential hopefuls, including: VT Sen. Bernie Sanders; former Vice President Joe Biden; CA Sen. Kamala Harris; South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg; NY Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand; CO Sen. Michael Bennett; CA Rep. Eric Swalwell; former CO Gov. John Hickenlooper; former tech executive Andrew Yang; and author and spiritual advisor Marianne Williamson. It was a very lively affair, to say the least, and our coverage today, I’m fairlly certain, rises to a similar level.
Joining us once again today for the hour is Salon’s and Hulaballo’s award-winning HEATHER DIGBY PARTON as our through-line from yesterday’s coverage. She’s paired today with our old friend RICHARD “RJ” ESKOW, longtime political columnist, host of the weekly The Zero Hour radio and TV program and, most helpfully today, a former insurance industry executive!
Among the many issues discussed after Thursday’s debate:
- What the media are describing as a breakout performance from Harris, including her face-off with Biden over his history of working with segregationists in the U.S. Senate (and what it may tell us about her ability to take on Trump);
- whether Biden can sustain his polling lead after a shaky performance, raising questions about his age (along with similar concerns about Sanders and MA Sen. Elizabeth Warren, to be fair);
- how the matter of whether the candidates’ various proposals for universal healthcare coverage deal with private insurers will be used against them by both the Right and the corporate media (as well as whether or not those proposals will apply to undocumented immigrants);
- how well the cases made by younger candidates such as Buttigieg or Swalwell seems to be going over after the first debate; whether Silicon Valley tech exec Andrew Yang’s proposal for Universal Basic Income makes any sense;
- at least one topic that the moderators, shamefully, did not raise yesterday;
- and even a few “insider” thoughts on the seemingly “4th dimensional” Marianne Williamson.
All of that and much more on today’s very lively and hopefully both entertaining and informative BradCast Special Coverage!…
[And if you missed our Night ONE coverage, it’s right here!]
CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!…
[audio:http://BradBlog.com/audio/BradCast_BradFriedman_HeatherDigbyParton-RichardEskow-DemDebateMiamiNightTwo_062719.mp3]
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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Yes, Kamala Harris put on a fantastic performance taking Joe Biden down. All she did in doing so was to make her the target at the next debate.
She didn’t help herself by reversing her answer to the question regarding abolishing private health insurance companies. If this was her only problem, she’d survive it.
Being the new target, she is going to be closely scrutinized over her policies of incarcerating parents of truant children. This action heavily affected minorities. She is going to have every criminal prosecution closely examined, and the majority of those cases involved minorities.
But the knockout blow will be her terrible mishandling of mortgage fraud in California. She allowed thousands of fraudulent foreclosures and related crimes to slide past the statute of limitations without action. She didn’t take up charges against Steve Mnuchin’s OneWest Bank for being involved in these crimes, then turned around and accepted campaign contributions from Mnuchin for her Senate run.
Personally, because of these issues, I can’t trust her enough to support her. I’m sorry this is so, because clearly her debating skills would be quite useful in taking action against Mitch McConnell.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/us-political-prison-kamala-harris-prison-guard
The U.S. is a Political Prison, Kamala Harris is a Prison Guard
by Danny Haiphong, January 30, 2019
Shaking my head and talking back to the screen.
Senator Booker’s BREAKOUT MOMENT occurred before the debates. Senator Harris’s BREAKOUT MOMENT happened during them. Both faulted former Vice President Biden for talking about his interaction with Southern Senators when he belonged to that body. And he did not then nor does he now support their views. But how dare he recall his experiences dealing with them?
At this point, I do not support any one. And the only way to earn it is with a sound platform that will, to use the constitutional phrase, “promote the general welfare.”
Spare me any more BREAKOUT MOMENTS. Please.