What Went Down On Night Two Of The First Democratic Debates

I continue to think that 10 people is just too many for a debate — it makes it so hard to engage, and even the major candidates disappear from view for long stretches. And since there are 45 possible pairings of 10 people, there are way too many possible exchanges.

Trade is a really fun (I mean complicated) issue for the two parties right now. Decades ago Republicans were for free trade and Democrats were less so. Then, in the era of the new Democrats, mostly everyone agreed that free trade was good. Now there are meaningful segments of both parties that are skeptical about free trade. Given that Trump is enacting tariffs, and candidates want to be anti-Trump, I assume that we’ll hear more in favor of free trade. But it’s still a messy topic for Democrats.

Did Biden raise his hand or not on making illegally crossing the border a civil offense instead of a crime? I don’t think I know. He literally put his hand up halfway and wouldn’t answer when asked if he was raising his hand. Biden was ducking questions before this debate, and now he is doing that during the debate. I know he is the front-runner and maybe these dodges won’t matter. But I tend to think being vague and forcing people to pin you down is not super helpful in the long run.