In a mostly out-of-control debate with moderators letting candidates break into each other’s time and go past their 75 seconds to answer questions, one of the big surprises of the night was when Mike Bloomberg praised Trump’s handling of the military. 

Bloomberg said, “The military today is better prepared than they’ve been in an awful long time and that the monies they are spending on the war of weapons we need for the next war and not the last, a common mistake that they’re not making now. They’re doing a good job.” 

Bloomberg got quite a lot of airtime unlike the last debate and was better able to stay on point. That was helped by most of the candidates going after Bernie Sanders instead of Mini Mike – except for Warren who mostly looked like she was angling for the job of Bernie’s VP. 

Bernie spent the night defending his radial ideas, pretending they are well received and normal. He told everyone his favorability was the highest of anyone on stage.

Warren mostly agreed with Bernie’s radicalism and talked a few times about how Bernie’s progressive ideas are popular and spent a good chunk of her time going after Bloomberg like the last debate.

Warren brought up Bloomberg’s non-disclosure agreements again and talked about how Bloomberg is the riskiest person on the stage considering his past support of Republican candidates including one who ran against her. She said the core of the Democratic party will never trust him. Warren also resurrected her false story about being fired for being pregnant that has been debunked.

When a moderator asked if Bloomberg’s nanny state policies of banning trans fat and large surgery drinks would be policies he would enact across the whole country, he said, “Well, I think what is right for New York City isn’t necessarily right for all the other cities otherwise you’d have a naked cowboy in every city.”

The Naked Cowboy is a street musician who often performs in Times Square wearing white underwear, an acoustic guitar and cowboy boots. He ran for Mayor of NYC in 2009. Maybe a good joke for people in NYC but the audience in South Carolina would have to Google it.

Biden spent most of his time complaining about not getting enough time to talk and was, as usual, unable to complete full sentences on any given topic so it was good that he didn’t get enough time to talk.

The debate started out on a stage without an American flag and didn’t get much more pro-American after that. They argued about how to better destroy the economy with their proposed spending on climate change, health care for all, child care, teachers, housing, free college, etc. etc. etc. and Bernie pretended that the economy is only working for billionaires despite the record unemployment numbers.

Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar were separated during this debate so that meanie Pete couldn’t go after her like last time. Instead, Buttigieg focused a lot of attention on Bernie Sanders. He said, “if you think the last four years have been chaotic….spend the better part of 2020 with Bernie vs. Donald Trump – think about what that would be like for this country.”

Buttigieg continued to make the point all night that Bernie Sanders should not be the nominee and would be catastrophic for Democrats running for the House and Senate as well. He told Sanders that the people who turned the House blue are not running on Sanders platform.

Buttigieg probably had one of the better quotes of the night when he said, “I’m not looking forward to a scenario where it comes down to Donald Trump for the nostalgia for the social order of the 1950’s and Bernie Sanders for the revolutionary politics for the 1960’s…. this is about the future – 2020.”

They all spent a large chunk of time arguing how they’d be a better president for black Americans even though all of the candidates on stage were white.

Amy Klobuchar talked about being the only one this, the only one that… the usual stuff about she’s the only qualified person from the middle of the country. She said near the end that there’s a misconception that she’s boring. Not a misconception. She’s boring.

I haven’t mentioned anything about Tom Steyer because he’s about as relevant as talking about Cory Booker at this point.

Through the night, they talked about Syria, the Coronavirus, gun control, North Korea, Russia helping Trump win the election, Bloomberg’s stop and frisk policy, Bernie’s $60 trillion spending plan, the inequality of blacks, charter schools and education, health care in rural areas, legalizing pot, having troops in the Middle East, China’s role in our infrastructure, Bernie’s support of communist regimes, and Israel.

Nothing new was learned. Their answers and policies are horrible for the country. Nothing positive was said about the United States or how great we are. 

In the end, they were asked about personal mottos and beliefs. They all pretended to be running for the “people” and not themselves. Sorry. If that were true, there would only be two candidates on stage because the true believers would remove themselves from the race to make sure Bernie doesn’t get the nomination.