why does the media push warren? because it thinks a warren-trump matchup will bring the highest ratings. that would not be a valid option if warren's plans were not status quo (what is the consumer protection bureau up to nowadays?), but that is the only reason why, and don't fool yourself into thinking otherwise; they have an existing feud over twitter, and it looks to make for good theatre. and, he might beat her because of it, but they don't care about that.
so, she's going to continue to get preferential treatment over all of these charades because she's the candidate that can best maximize profit for the media. expect it. what i'm a little surprised about is that she avoided any direct attack last night.
broadly speaking, i found myself largely in disagreement with pretty much everything all of them said. i may share certain principles with the soft left on display here, but i'd argue that essentially all of these actual proposals would be total disasters. so, i'm not going to suggest that i found myself connecting to any of them; i was turned off by all of them. rather, i want to point out who sounded halfways intelligent and who didn't.
booker was the clear winner in terms of brain power, followed by de blasio and warren. but, booker had a contemplative nature in his responses, whereas de blasio and warren were more cocky about it. beta fell into a middle point, in the sense that what he was saying sounded good, but it was just a string of memorized talking points, with little projected thought behind it. if the criticism of beta was that his policies were vague, he was probably the most detailed on this night.
the rest of the candidates mostly came off as of below average intelligence for various reasons. klobuchar's accent, for example, is a non-starter. and, i think tulsi gabbard is running for the wrong party with the whole veteran shtick. castro's demand that everybody agree that illegally crossing the border be decriminalized fell absolutely flat, and both isolated him and made him look like a clown. and, while i thought inslee might be the sleeper pick, he didn't articulate himself well on this night. at all.
i'm not a democrat - neither literally nor figuratively. so, i'm not a good case study for a primary voter; i'm a better case study for a left-leaning independent voter in the general, that is going to waver between the democrats and a third party (or not vote at all). but, i wouldn't say anybody won the debate or convinced me they'd be a good candidate, even if booker seemed the least scary of the bunch.