August 3, 2019
Last Tuesday and Wednesday evenings a Kentucky Derby‘s worth of Democratic Presidential hopefuls faced off in televised debates on CNN. Locally, Buunni Coffee, Uptown Progressive Action, a NYPAN chapter, Action Potluck, Inwood Indivisible, and Progressive Power Inwood Heights hosted a gathering to watch them at the cafe’s Inwood location on Broadway near Good Shepherd. Around 80 people attended, watched and sipped coffee while candidates tried to break through the crowded field.
Early Birds availed themselves of a delicious vegetarian/vegan Ethiopian dinner for only 15 bucks from 7-9PM. It’s way early so a win here doesn’t mean much, but a Rick Perry-esque gaffe could easily sink a campaign. The closest we came to that was John Delaney‘s flummoxed look when Elizabeth Warren surprised him with this zinger, “I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.” Sanders also landed a solid shot when he thundered back at a doubtful Tim Ryan, “I wrote the damn bill!” on M4A covering dental, eyeglasses and hearing aids.
Mayor Pete and Beto elicited scattered applause from the room. Dark horse Marianne Williamson stood out in a way reminiscent of “outsider” President Trump’s role early in the 2016 cycle, with pundits tending to dismiss both as flukes, flakes or joke candidates. Obviously, her ‘politics of love’ campaign theme stands in stark contrast to Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ rallies, message wise.
“I’ve heard some people here tonight – I almost wonder why you’re Democrats.”
It must be noted that these television events aren’t really even debates at all, rather something between a news conference and oral final exams in college. Moderators ask candidates different questions and then set them up against each other based on who interrupts most effectively, whose name was dropped or some arbitrary standard only the mod knows. For some actual, although non-presidential, debates check out intelligence2.