September 12 2019 Democrat Presidential Primary Debate 3 ANALYSIS!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Her presence is missed...

Last night from 8 PM Eastern to almost 11 PM, ten Democrat candidates for President of the United States debated their positions on ABC (with some idiot from Univision thrown in for bad measure), vying to be the last person standing to get the opportunity to take down incumbent President Donald John Trump. The Democratic National Committee imposed arbitrary rules (that everyone DID agree to beforehand, though) that ended up excluding the best candidate that Democrats have to offer. (And that hyperlink is meant to point to the second paragraph that is about Tulsi Gabbard, not the rest of the article about John Delaney.) She's still running, so we might see her in the October debate.

But for now, we saw (in order of their stage podiums) Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Andrew Yang, Beto O'Rourke, and Julián Castro. I'm choosing not to give a section to each candidate this time like in the second debate (part one and part two) or the first debate (part one and part two). (You can see the whole index of who these people are over here.)

You can watch the entire debate for yourself here (ABC won't let me embed it to this article page) but I don't recommend that, out of respect for your time and sanity.

Speaking of time, here were the talking times for all the candidates as compiled by NPR:

No one is surprised that Andrew Yang got the least speaking time for the third debate in a row, right?

The talking heads wanted to make a big deal about this being the first time that Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden got to share a stage together. That wasn't really a factor. They hardly interacted, other than her ignoring Biden's question about how she'd pay for the government takeover of health insurance. Bernie Sanders also didn't do much besides have a very sore, croaky throat right from the beginning. He must have over-prepared with a CHORDS OF STEEL work-out.

Instead, gratuitous Spanish speaker Julián Castro, who I've previously disliked because of me having to write an accent mark, spread blatant lies in an attempt to make an ageist smear against Joe Biden. Joe Biden claimed that, under his healthcare plan, they will automatically be able to join the public option and get health insurance. Castro attempted to claim that Joe Biden said that poorer people will have to opt-in (which takes a step, instead of it being automatic), even though that's not what Biden said. But Castro insisted that Joe Biden JUST FORGOT what he said “two minutes ago”, strongly implying that Joe Biden is not only incoherent (which isn't debatable), but senile. Castro claimed “I can't believe” that Joe Biden would forget saying something that he never said. I believe the hip kids call this “gaslighting” although that's a term with a weird definition so I'm never sure.

That “Andrew Yang” at the end from the moderator didn't actually represent Andrew Yang getting to talk. Instead, Pete Buttigieg interrupted Yang's chance to speak and said, “This is why presidential debates are becoming unwatchable.” Yes, you speaking out of turn is one of the reasons too, Buttigieg. But I guess when they say “Andrew Yang” you don't think it matters to anyone that they expect to hear Andrew Yang's thoughts on healthcare.

Speaking of not caring about the rules, there's law-and-order prosecutor Kamala Harris. It's rare that anyone ever mentions the Constitution or limits on power in a Democrat debate, but Joe Biden did it (very Smart of him) by stating that Kamala Harris's gun ban proposals via executive order would be unconstitutional. That's not saying that no one on the stage disagrees with banning and confiscating guns, and Beto O'Rourke's talking time was pretty much dedicated to taking your guns away (or having large amounts of White Guilt), but here's what Kamala Harris had to say about the constitutional authority of her proposal:

“Hey Joe, instead of saying no we can't, let's say ‘yes we can!’ [evil giggle]” Her defence of her willful disregard for the rule of law was a fake emotional appeal, which totally undermines her “look at me I'm a tough prosecutor” image. (Note that a real emotional appeal would be equally invalid as an argument.) Though I guess she's trying to undermine that image, since Democrats don't like cops.

But, yeah, let's be clear here. Democrats no longer are saying that they aren't trying to take Americans’ guns away. The whole point is confiscation, and they will do it illegally if they must. That alone is an extremely compelling reason to never vote for a Democrat for president.

On trade policy, they all attacked President Donald John Trump's tariffs on China (as does the gaming industry) but then they all admit that they'll use the tariffs as leverage to negotiate a deal with China.

Are none of them aware that that's why the tariffs exist? Are they really criticising President Donald John Trump for giving them the ability to do their plan, which is the same plan that he has? Idiots. 

Cory Booker finds Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's hair to be very menacing, but that's no reason to tariff Canada.
...By the way, in honour of it apparently being National Bald is Beautiful Day, we give Cory Booker the Beauty award.

As for other foreign policy matters, Andrew Yang said that Puerto Rico is a country, so maybe it's better not to let him talk.

Let's instead examine Joe Biden's Cool arms-crossed pose.
His remark when Castro claimed he is the one continuing the legacy of Barack Hussein Obama while Biden isn't was also Cool.
“That'll be a surprise to him.” (Surprise to Barack Hussein Obama.)

By the way, Joe Biden made a lot more sense when he was defending himself from attacks (whether they were unfounded like Castro's or were policy-based like from Bernie Sanders) than when he actually answered questions. That's Tough stuff. But you can't help but feel like the man is Cute when he goes on incomprehensible and answers supposedly about repairing the legacy of slavery in America. (This took a while for me to manually transcribe, but try reading it out loud for yourself if you won't listen to the speech.)

“Well they have to deal with... look, there's institutional segregation in this country. And from the time I got involved I started dealing with that. Redlining banks. Making sure that we are in a position where—look, talk about education. I propose that what we take is those very poor schools. The Title One schools. Triple the amount of money we spend from fifteen to forty-five billion a year. Give every single teacher a raise, to equal, raise, to getting out... the sixty-thousand dollar level. Number two, make sure that we bring in the helpless, the students, the teachers deal with the problems that come from home, the problems that come from home. We need, we have one school psychologist for every fifteen-hundred kids in America today. It's crazy. The teachers are kind, I'm married to a teacher. My deceased wife is a teacher. They have every problem coming to them. We have make sure that every single child does in have three, four, and five year olds go to school... SCHOOL! Not daycare. School! We bring social workers into homes and parents to help them deal with how to raise their children. It's not that they don't wanna help. They don't know quite what to do. Play the radio, make sure the television—excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night. The...the phone... Make sure the kids hear words! A kid coming from a poor school—a v-very poor background, will hear four million words fewer spoken by the time they get there! There's so much we can... [interrupted by moderator to move on] no, I'm going to go like the rest of them do! Twice over! Okay? Because... because... h-h-here's the deal. The deal is that we got this a little backwards! AND BY THE WAY, in Venezuela, we should be allowing people to come here from Venezuela. I know Maduro. I've confronted Maduro. Number two! You talk about the need to do something in Latin America. I'm the guy who came up with seven hundred and forty million dollars to see it those three countries in fact changed their system so people don't have a chance to leave. Y'all actin' like we just discovered this yesterday! [Moderator says thank you Mr. President.] THANK YOU VERY MUCH!”

He's more tangential than a KoopaTV article.

A Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Spirit event endorses
Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders
over the likes of Pete Buttigieg, Eric Swalwell, and Tulsi Gabbard. And Julián Castro.

Rankings

To summarise, here are the Super Contest winners for each category for this third debate:

• Beauty: Cory Booker
• Cool: Joe Biden
• Cute: Joe Biden
• Smart: Joe Biden
• Tough: Joe Biden

Ludwig really, really wants Tulsi Gabbard to come back for Debate 4, because rooting for Joe Biden feels really weird. But what do you think?


Tulsi Gabbard did come back for the fourth debate, but it may be her last.
Ludwig formally explains what gaslighting means in this article.