Poitico: The winners, losers and biggest takeaways from the Iowa debate

[JoeOtterbein]

Politico

Here's what surprised us and what will have the biggest impact from the last debate before Iowa's caucuses.

By POLITICO STAFF

01/15/2020 12:35 AM EST

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Democratic presidential candidates had one last chance to contrast themselves on national TV before the Iowa caucuses. And in between slams of President Donald Trump, they delivered.

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders traded criticisms of their long records on trade, foreign policy and health care. Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar reprised their December clash about experience in the Oval Office. And Elizabeth Warren turned a question about her allegation that Sanders said a woman couldn’t beat Trump — a comment Sanders has repeatedly denied making — into a call to recognize female political power in the Democratic Party.

What did we learn? We asked four POLITICO campaign reporters — Laura Barrón-López, Natasha Korecki, Holly Otterbein and David Siders — for their takeaways from the two-hour showdown.

snip

opinions at link

[KPN]

1. Meh. I didn't see it the way the Politico folks did at all. I saw Biden

as having lost both to Sanders and Warren last night. I do have a bias toward them however, so we'll see what Iowans think I guess.

Frankly, I saw SIX great candidates last night. And that includes Steyer -- it's the first time that he has made a dent on me. Until tonight, I've always just appreciated the money he has poured into global warming awareness and impeachment and not his ability as a potential WH occupant. I'll give him more credit than in the past, But I still don't see me voting for him in the primary.

[Amishman]

2. Biden did fairly well compared to prior debates

Biden is winning by being vanilla. vanilla is very appealing after the horseradish and arsenic enema that was Trump's win.

All he has to do is appear calm and reasonable, and he did that.

[KPN]

3. That may be so. But I'm not convinced. I'm ready to move on from past leadership personally.

Joe strikes me as the same old same old. Maybe that’s what the majority wants. We shall see. As I said, we had six great candidates on the stage last night. That includes Biden.