Before we get into my analysis – what’s you’re take?
Off the bat, I thought the biggest loser was Univision. While the young man singing the Star Spangled Banner, their production values flagged after that. The microphones didn’t seem to work well, and the juxtaposition of both English and Spanish made things difficult to understand. It seemed distracting. The interviewers kept interrupting that time was up, which brings up an overall question I have about debates: who’s voice is most important in a debate? If you’ve got two candidates on the stage legitimately engaging in discourse on a topic, do we really want the questioners to move on? I’m not talking about a free-for-all (Little Marco and Big Donald you know who you are) but a legitimate back and forth – I always thought that’s what debates were supposed to be. The moderators do get kudos for pressing for answers on tough questions, and indicating that sometimes their questions were not directly answered, but…. My other overall debate question is that in this time of technology, if moderators at ALL the debates want to enforce time limits, why don’t they just turn off the candidates’ microphones. Okay, I’m done now. onto substance.
It was obvious that gloves were off in this session. While the candidates still showed basic respect for one another as people, they were all over one another in terms of substance. Sometimes, though, it was off base. Hillary Clinton attacked Bernie Sanders because the Koch brothers put out an ad supporting his stance on the Import-Export Bank. There is not one person who can spell “Koch” who believes that Bernie Sanders is in their pocket. She also cherry picked little pieces of major legislation to knock Sanders’ vote. Most legislation, barring naming post offices in the House, is huge. I remember pouring through the 3,000+ page ACA legislation. There are often good things and bad things in the same bill, and it’s necessary for Senators and Congressmen/women to make an overall judgement on what is best for their constituents even if they must swallow a paragraph they don’t like. It was very disingenuous of her.
Both candidates did well in discussing climate change impacts on South Florida, which is one of the hardest hit places in the continental US. They both had decent positions on immigration. Their positions on the latter were slightly different, but in case you were thinking of not voting in November, both were worlds better than the GOP position of deportation, walls and family break-ups.
One of the most telling points on immigration related to the 2007 immigration bill which included a guest worker program. Sanders had opposed it, Clinton had been in favour. They were both in the Senate at the time. Here’s the thing about that guest worker program. It was SUCH a bad program that it was worth it to vote down the rest of the bill. Here in Pennsylvania, we had experience with that program. Kids aged 18 – 22 were hired to work the summer under a guest worker program to work for Hershey’s candy. They came through an organization that placed mostly college kids throughout the country. These kids (or their parents) paid for an “educational experience” where the kids would work some of the time for pay, and spend the rest of their summer here getting to know America’s sites and people. Instead, the kids were forced to work 12 – 18 hours a day, put up in substandard housing, and when they complained were threatened. The program was a money maker for the companies that attracted and placed the kids. They never actually got paid because money was taken for housing and food. And don’t forget their passports were held.
The moderators really went after Hillary Clinton, asking her if she would quit the race if indicted. As is her wont, instead of answering yes or no, she just said it wouldn’t happen. They pressed her on her loss in Michigan, and on her high unfavourables. she said “I am not a natural politician”. Really?
In the end, while I believe Sanders won on facts (which is always my marker) – it really was a draw because neither was mortally wounded by the other, and nothing changed the calculus of the race.
