That's A Wrap
As spirited as last week’s debate was this one was a bit more muddled. The candidates sparred and shouted, but FiveThirtyEight’s live bloggers were left a bit confused as to who had a good night and who had a bad night.
We were pretty confident Biden did well all things considered, though. And considering South Carolina votes first on Saturday, that isn’t a bad thing. He currently leads there in our forecast, and if he does win there decisively, that could be just the kickstart his campaign needs going into Super Tuesday.
But while it’s clear the candidates were in full Sanders attack mode, it’s a little less clear how those individual punches landed. Did it do enough to sway the voters watching at home who were considering Sanders to lean toward someone else? Remember, the main objective tonight was to at least stop Sanders from continuing to rise further in the polls — candidates didn’t actually need to hurt his overall standing to keep Super Tuesday and the contests beyond interesting.
That’s it for now — be sure to check back tomorrow for our post-debate poll with Ipsos that measures how the debate changed voters’ views of the race to see what things look like headed into South Carolina, and in the meantime, as you relieve the live blog in all its chronological glory, here’s the team’s take on tonight’s events in a newspaper-ish headline:
Perry: Everybody Hates Bernie
Laura: Drawing Lessons From New Hampshire And Nevada, Candidates Decide Attack Is The Best Strategy
Geoff: Sanders Gets The Front-Runner Treatment And Biden Has Maybe His Best Debate Yet
Amelia: Democrats Scuffle And Attack Sanders In Possibly the Loudest Debate of the Primary So Far
Galen: In Disjointed Debate, Biden Fights For His Political Life
Micah: This Was Probably Biden’s Best Debate, But No One Stood Out That Much
Nate: Biden Pulls Out His Best Debate With His Back To The Wall / But is that damning him with faint praise?
Meena: This Was The Last Debate Before South Carolina And Super Tuesday. It Was Fine.
Kaleigh: A Policy Heavy Debate With Fewer Jabs And More Tabs
Nathaniel: Tons Of People Are Voting In A Week, And They Have To Make Up Their Minds Based On That
Watch our post-debate podcast here:
Politics Podcast: Biden Fights For A Win In The South Carolina Debate