Tonights Debate Onservations

Tonight's Debate Observations:

All the Candidates brought their A-game.

CNN did a better job managing the debate.

Donors, because of the good performances from all the candidates probably will not know who to donate to.

I think Pragmatic Progressives like Klobaucher, Hickenlooper, Bullock, O' Rourke, Ryan, and Delaney did show that there should be some reality brought to the Warren and Sanders ideas.

Klobuchar, Warren, Willamson, Buttigieg, and Sanders had the best one-liners if you measure performance by that sort thing.

However, it does come down to who, as Buttigieg said towards the end, can in part lay out a compelling vision to take the country forward.

It also comes down to who can inspire the people and give them something other than pandering promises of a to-do list that has to get past Republican opposition if the Democrats do not get the Senate back or do filibuster reform.

Overall, if you had to rank the top performers, viewers should have been impressed with Klobuchar, Warren, Bullock, Buttigieg, O'Rourke, and Sanders. That is not to say the others did not do well. They did. It is just that those six seemed to perform the best.

One thing that should still concern Democrats is that voters will not be enthusiastic about reparations for slavery 150 years after the Civil War, decriminalizing illegal border crossings, and letting illegal immigrants get free health care. Those are not winning issues.

Also, Democrats need to be for free trade like TPP and a revised N.A.F.T.A. that protects workers and the environment. 

It is astounding that voters in the Rust Belt voted for Republicans who embrace Free Trade and penalize Democrats.