I suffered through another debate.  I was thinking about skipping this one, but the presence of Tulsi Gabbard, along with the recent Biden/ Trump/ Ukraine saga, was enough to get me to tune in.

I will go through the 12 different candidates with a little bit of commentary.

Tom Steyer

He was new to the scene, and he immediately fell flat.  He started out saying how much better all of the people on the stage are than Donald Trump.  He waited for applause and got just a little after an uncomfortable pause.  I thought he was going to pull a Jeb Bush and say something to the effect of, “It’s ok to applaud now.”

Steyer is going nowhere.

Kamala Harris

She is still an authoritarian.  She is still unlikeable.  Luckily, I think others are not finding her likeable either.  I don’t think she will gain more traction, and I really hope that I’m right.  Her main platform at this point seems to be that Twitter should be forced to ban Donald Trump’s account.

Pete Buttigieg

Mayor Pete, as they call him, is certainly more likeable than many of the other candidates. I am not counting him out yet. If Joe Biden goes down quickly, I think someone will fill the void.  It won’t just be a runaway for Elizabeth Warren.  Buttigieg still has a chance at the nomination.  He doesn’t seem as scary as some of the others, but maybe we should fear him more because of the fact that he can be likeable.

Cory Booker

Cory Booker just seems mediocre in everything.  Even if you are a hardcore Democrat, I don’t see how Booker stands out or really excites anyone.  We would have to see 4 or 5 of the other candidates implode for Booker to have any significant chance.

Andrew Yang

Andrew Yang is likeable.  He is different. I don’t think the establishment really wants him because he is a little too forward with his welfare.  He is not engaging in the trickle-down (from government) theory.  He wants to give everyone cash directly.  He doesn’t understand the Democratic playbook of funding bloated bureaucracies.

Because he is likeable and little bit different, I don’t fully discount Yang’s chances.  I doubt the Democratic establishment will allow him the nomination, but he may be around in this race for a while.  I disagree with most of what he says, but at least he is mildly interesting.

Joe Biden (and CNN)

Anderson Cooper, when asking Joe Biden about impeachment, said that Trump made false allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden.  I guess CNN doesn’t even try to give any appearance of objectivity any longer.

I wonder why Anderson Cooper didn’t ask Joe Biden about the video of Joe Biden bragging about threatening to withhold money to Ukraine unless a prosecutor (who was investigating the company that employed Hunter Biden) was fired.

In spite of the existence of the internet, my guess is that way more than half of voting Americans have not seen the video of Biden bragging about what he did, which is an explicit version of what Trump is being accused of doing.

I think the impeachment proceedings against Trump are ultimately going to take down Joe Biden if Biden doesn’t do it to himself first.

Julian Castro

Castro is just annoying.  I don’t think he has any significant chance of getting the nomination.  He is horrible on virtually every issue, and have I mentioned that he is annoying?

Beto O’Rourke

Luckily for Castro, he isn’t the most annoying candidate on the stage.  Beto is so incredibly annoying and obnoxious; I don’t understand how he almost beat Ted Cruz in Texas in the senate race.  This guy can’t drop out of the race soon enough for me.

Bernie Sanders

Sanders may have just had a heart attack, but he is still high strung.  He is also still a socialist wanna-be.  He goes on and on about going after the wealthy. He should really say “high-income earners”.  It is Elizabeth Warren who more often talks about an actual wealth tax.

Bernie focuses all of his energy on expanding the welfare state.  He does not focus on foreign policy, which is a place where some money (and lives) could actually be saved.  He opposed Trump on withdrawing troops from Syria recently. He campaigned in 2016 for the bloodthirsty Hillary.

Bernie said that Trump’s withdrawal of troops in Syria sends a message to others to not trust the president.  He was basically saying that the Kurds or any other group will never trust the U.S. as an ally again in engaging in war.  But isn’t that what someone should want if they are anti war?  Sanders’ position on this issue is despicable. He is just trying to score political points against Trump.  Sanders is an interventionist to the bone, and it isn’t just domestically.

If Bernie becomes president, I don’t think foreign policy will change.  He will be taken over by the establishment quickly.  He will also be put in his place in regards to the welfare state.  He will probably get a slightly higher tax rate on high-income earners. Maybe he will get some more spending if the conditions permit.  But overall, a Sanders administration will bring the status quo for the most part, and the leftists who support him are delusional if they think otherwise.

I think Bernie is done.  When I saw him on Joe Rogan’s podcast a while back, I thought he had a good chance because of the positive comments I saw on YouTube in favor of Sanders.  But I have since changed my mind.  I think his heart attack is a major setback. People were already questioning his age.

He may stay in the top 3 for a while, but the Democratic establishment runs away from the far leftists when it comes to a presidential nominee.  I don’t think Sanders will be the nominee.

Amy Klobuchar

She is trying to play the role of moderate, which would make her a disaster when it comes to foreign policy.  She is hoping for the downfall of Biden.  Her only hope is to take some of the Biden supporters when they finally realize they must abandon him.

She may end up getting the support of the Democratic establishment.  She would certainly be acceptable to them.  If Biden goes down quickly and she picks up a sizeable percentage of his current supporters, then she may be around for a while.

The only problem (for her) is that she doesn’t exude a lot of confidence.  During the debate, it sounded like she was going to cry.

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren is still Elizabeth Warren.  She is still Pocahontas, or will be if she is up on the stage with Trump. She has a plan for everything, so I don’t know what her plan will be when Trump is up on a debate stage with her calling her Pocahontas.

She has so many plans, I am not so sure that we should fear her too much.  She will be an establishment shill if she becomes president.  She certainly won’t be good for liberty, but I don’t think most of her crazy ideas will be implemented.

She is the frontrunner at this point, especially with Biden having been damaged.  But it is far from being a done deal.  She will be accepted by the establishment, so that is in her favor.  I still think her phoniness will present a problem for her.

Tulsi Gabbard

And then there’s Tulsi.  I am glad she didn’t go through with her threat of boycotting the debate.  Tulsi is likeable and unique.  She has a unique name.  She is from Hawaii.

I think she should stress foreign policy even more than she does.  With that said, when she was asked about Syria, I thought she was great.  She called out the New York Times and CNN, the debate sponsors, for smearing her.  She blamed the media and both parties for the war in Syria.

Her exchange with Mayor Pete was good.  I think she should have pointed out that the chaos in Syria happened because of the U.S. intervention in the first place.  Aside from that, I thought she was strong and showed confidence in that exchange.

She wasn’t all that good when responding to the question of age.  She criticized Trump on Syria, which I think would only confuse people with her previous message of supporting a withdrawal.

I believe that Tulsi needs to be less afraid of going against the grain, which seems funny to say because she is already the most unique candidate of the Democrats. She should not be afraid to praise Trump when he does something that deserves praise.  She should not be afraid to go against the leftist talking points.  She should focus on getting independents, libertarians, and even conservatives on her side. It’s not that these people need to like everything about her, but she needs enthusiasm.

I hope she stays in the race and in the debates.  She is a lone voice of a peaceful foreign policy.  I don’t think she is as good as Ron Paul on foreign policy, but she’s close.  She needs to gain the enthusiasm that Ron Paul gained in 2007/ 2008 and 2011/ 2012.

She recently did an interview with John Stossel.  It was a good discussion.  Stossel challenged her on some things.  For example, since she favors marijuana legalization, he asked why she didn’t favor the same thing for harder drugs.  Even when I disagreed with her, she came across as likeable.  She needs to make more appearances on the libertarian circuit, including podcasts.

I don’t think Tulsi stands a chance to get the nomination because the establishment is so against her.  Trump somehow got through, but I think it’s even harder in the Democratic Party.  I appreciate her voice though.  I wish Trump had made her Secretary of State instead of Mike Pompeo.  We – the anti interventionists in foreign policy – need to unite against the establishment.

Let’s hope we see Tulsi in the next debate so that Americans can hear a pro peace message.  We sure aren’t hearing it from the other candidates.