Tom Steyer’s new Need to Impeach ad airing on CNN may have been the best thing about the first debate night.
MSM really wants the sizzle of primary candidate conflict, and “moderates versus progressives” didn’t disappoint. CNN tried its hardest to manipulate the possibility of usable soundbites in its format.
The second night could feature greater ham-fistedness in their production of media frames. OTOH, perhaps Zucker’s CNN is more about the WWE kayfabe.
Secondary agendas seem to drive the effort as the second night may see the last of a few candidates before the September debates.
Participation is still about donor money, even if there’s some interesting (if irrelevant) metrics at work.
Without further ado, night one in headlines:
Nate: In Fiery Debate, Democrats Battle For The Soul Of The Party
Clare: Debate More Substantive Than Expected; Too Long
Julia: Democrats Divided On Medicare For All
Amelia: Democrats Battle Over Big Ideas And Practical Solutions
Nathaniel: Moderates Line Up Against Progressives In Substantive Debate
Geoffrey: Democrats Disagree On Many Issues — Except Beating Trump
Micah: Democrats Divide On How Much Change You Can And Should Believe In
fivethirtyeight.com/…
Nate Silver:
Well, at the start of the night I had the following set of goals for Buttigieg.
The CNN attempt to foment conflict among Democrats seems clear. The author of the below CNN piece distorts the meaning of Buttigieg’s statement by framing it solely as a leftwing statement — the omitted sentence is included below in bold.
One Democrat on stage on Tuesday, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, argued that clarity of leadership and conviction was just as important as the party's ideological positioning.
"It is time to stop worrying about what the Republicans will say," he said.
"It's true that if we embrace a far left agenda, they are going to say we are a bunch of crazy socialists."
("It's true that if we embrace a conservative agenda, they are going to say we are a bunch of crazy socialists.")
"Let's just stand up for the right policy and go out there and defend it."
Other notable strangeness from last night.