That debate, and last night's, was AWFUL. UNHELPFUL. BAD FOR DEMOCRATS.

[Stinky The Clown]

If you have a candidate and are cheering because yours scored points, it was great entertainment.

I don't have a candidate. I WANT Trump gone. I was hoping these debates would be serious. I believe most, if not all, of the candidates want the same thing. But this SHIT SHOW CNN staged was nothing but a mess. The questions were designed to start fights, not elicit information.

Fuck CNN.

Fuck the Game Show Debates.

Our candidates need to set THEIR OWN debate standards. And for krissakes, no gratuitous attacks like the CNN moderators caused them to do. The candidates can work it out and STILL have an honest debate. They need to keep in mind that the debates will be over, a nominee will be chosen, and they will have to campaign for her. Or him. And maybe more important, they might be on THE FUCKING TICKET. How do you campaign WITH a person you verbally eviscerated and the FUCKING VIDEO IS THERE!

Schmucks.

Stand Up.

Lead.

Don't let media ratfuckers like CNN's Jeff Zucker FUCK YOU. Because that's what he did tonight. He is TRUMP's BUDDY. Don't you fucking know that?

Don't we have any competent strategists? Not pundits. STRATEGISTS. To sit your collective asses down and make these debates SERVE YOU (and us), not the networks.

How hard is it to ignore the loaded questions? Really. How hard??

Our lives are in your hands. No shit.

You want to be our leader?

THEN LEAD.

[Thekaspervote]

1. The only good news.. most voters don't pick their candidate by listening to debates

[Hoyt]

2. Thought both debates helped highlight what candidates are for and their weaknesses.

That’s not easy to do.

[UniteFightBack]

3. Ignore the loaded questions? They loaded and aimed at each other unprompted. Fuck all the

posts parroting GOP talking points about the media.

[calguy]

4. I think CNN did a poor job of running the debates

Their line of questioning created a chaotic atmosphere at times.

[sharedvalues]

5. Thank you!!!!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Fortunately there will be more debates with fewer candidates,

which will help, but the format of these cast-of-thousands debates sucks hard enough to bend light. It's like when you throw chum into a tank of piranhas, which is what CNN (especially) wanted. And unfortunately most of them went right after the bait, snapping and biting at each other. Lots of heat but hardly any light. I hope for the next ones the candidates can work out a debate format that doesn't suck, isn't dictated by the networks, and doesn't put them all at such a disadvantage.

[dalton99a]

7. Never forget who turned Donald Trump into a TV celebrity and gave him free 24/7 coverage

for his presidential campaign.


Donald Trump and Jeff Zucker in 2004. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

[Stinky The Clown]

10. DING DING DING

[cilla4progress]

8. They should all get together over coffee and say

"WTF was that? How can we do better?"

I bet some are having some regrets.

[Indygram]

9. My candidate is Beto and I'm always proud of him

Because instead of being petty, rude and obnoxious...if he disagrees he sticks to the issue and does not make it about attacking and being a nasty jerk.

[DemocracyMouse]

17. I noticed that about Beto. A bit of a Kennedy.

[ancianita]

11. I'm pretty sure you missed the point. America saw a party full of fight, fair play and care for

the country. You must have overlooked that.

BEATING TRUMP is assumed now. Don't doubt that pretty much everyone in America with two brain cells to rub together knows that winning is the party's goal. You sound like you missed that.

They showed respect for the format. There's nothing wrong with that.

I think you wanted them to do battle with the network, but you'd be mistaken.
They probably knew everything and everyone you've mentioned but chose to address the American and Detroit audience.

Nothing wrong with caring more for their voters more than the network that framed them somehow.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. I completely disagree and missed no point.

They could do what you THINK they did without cutting each other down and dancing to CNN's tune.

See the opening line of my OP.

[ancianita]

16. Of course you disagree and of course you missed no point. I read it. You're not entertaining

anything but your ego. You're not helping.

But hey, you be you.

[lark]

21. I think Inslee helped himself last night.

He's rising in my personal list.

[ancianita]

22. ...

shhhh

[JoeOtterbein]

12. Fight or whine?

That is the question.

[qazplm135]

13. Counterpoint

This is all practice for the top four, no one will remember this, and the real debates with people paying attention are this fall.

[Raine]

15. CNN debate IMO much better then MSNBC's nt

[MrModerate]

18. The process is just fine . . .

And a reasonable response to having so many candidates.

And, warts and all, Democratic policies are being tested in the marketplace of ideas — and whoever emerges as the nominee is going to be drawing on the ideas of everyone who made it to the debate stage.

It's a new age: a sound bite of a Dem slagging a Dem (which didn't really happen anyway) just doesn't have that much power these days. All is recalibrated based on the next news cycle, and Trump has so coarsened the discourse that Dems still sound much more reasoned and civilized.

[jayfish]

19. My 19 Year Old Son "Watched"...

the first night with me. Several times he looked up from his phone, read the question and asked, "is that the actual question they asked?" "That's some BS right there." The questions combined with the Fox Sports style presentation really rubbed off whatever shine remained on CNN for me.

[lark]

20. The dissing of Obama really pissed me off.

Pissed me off at CNN and the other candidates. You don't savage your own, it's just stupid and so shortsighted. This is how Repugs win when Dems go all puritan police on the others. Did any of them mention the damage drumpf has done - not one. They just fired at Obama for not being perfect. Again - STUPID IMO.

[onetexan]

26. +1 K&R

[Doitnow]

23. As long as the moderators have a vested interest in the results of

the debates, this is what will go on. Nothing of much substance as to the issues gets discussed and we are not any closer to seeing who can best beat tRump. So what else gets portrayed? Confusion and division.

Why else was Bernie cut off when he tried to talk about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry? Blatant bias.

Go Bernie!

[Garrett78]

24. What percentage of primary voters are paying any attention at this point? 5?

[onetexan]

25. I don't think it matters. Dems can always blame it on the bad format. And CNN's hosts were awful.

[Jakes Progress]

27. Every one of them went down in my estimation

of them as leaders.

They fell for the trap the cnn set for them and couldn't wait to show pettiness and give the network a good show and give republicans more attack points. I question their leadership and savvy if they fall into such a trap so easily. It also does not bode well for whatever candidate wins the nomination being able to dodge the obvious traps that trump's handlers will lay.

Whichever of them is the nominee, she or he will have my money, my time, my vote. But, sheesh. A little more class and savvy would be nice.

[brooklynite]

28. Disagree

There are differences between the candidates. They need to be pointed out.

There are vulnerabilities for each candidate. Better to give them a taste now, so they're ready for them when the GE starts.

An engaged debate will bring in a larger audience than an academic policy symposium.

[lillypaddle]

29. I was disgusted

sure took something away for me from Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Corey Booker. Sanders already was waaaaay at the bottom of my list. Those fuckers threw President Obama under the bus in a flash. I feel pretty disillusioned.

[Odious justice]

30. It was like a debate or something

Thought it went great for Biden. The rest kept pushing insanity that will give Trump four more years.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

31. So who negotiated for our side with CNN? They

Have 1/2 the blame imho

[BeckyDem]

32. It'll work itself out but yea, fuck CNN.