I had a few quick thoughts to share over the two nights of debate. For
the first night, I think all the contestants pretty much won. With
two small exceptions. Overall, I don’t think the big hitters per
say, like Elizabeth Warren, successfully lifted themselves further
from the crowd, but her performance was fine.
I think the only one who didn’t
perform fantastic was Beto O'rourke. First he was asked “yes or
no, do you support a 70% tax rate on the highest income earners. He
failed on two occasions to answer this question. This is a big minus
points in my book. You have to answer the question. sure, there is
some benefit in not taking policy position too quickly, but this is a
policy blog. This is what we are all about. Additionally, Beto seems
to come across as young and inexperienced with his exchange with
Mayor De Blasio.
The was one candidate that seems to
rise a little higher than the rest, and that is Julian Castro. Castro
was no body prior to entering this debate, at least, I hadn’t even
heard of him, and I run a politics blog! His strongest point in my
opinion was his closing statement. I thought he even had some of the
vocal qualities of Barack Obama, at the very least, he seemed to
evoke the image of Obama in my mind.
I think the next night was a little
more difficult to follow. The candidates were a little more unruly
and have less thoughts on this. I was, however, very glad to see
Andrew Yang on the debate stage. I thought some of his performance
was a little lackluster. Like having the moderator repeat the
question on universal basic income was a little bit of a flop. This
was pretty much the perfect tee up for Yang, and while his response
wasn’t a bad, he didn’t blow it out of the park. Personally, I
think one way to address the issue of funding the freedom dividend,
is to talk about all the programs we can cut and where we can save
money. For example, as I mentioned in UBI
the Solution to Homelessness a single homeless
person can cost $31,000 or more a year. Clearly, $12,000 is much less
than that. So why might less more help more? Well one because the
free market can create solutions and two, prevention is worth much
more than cure. With money in their pockets, homeless people can
afford a small micro home. They can buy basic nutrition, and avoid
costly hospital visits. I think discussing a VAT was a mistake.
Overall, I enjoyed listening to both
nights of debates and I am excited for what comes next.
