I feel like I have known Tom Steyer all my life because if you work from home and sometimes let MSNBC or a Law & Order marathon play in the background while you work, you will see this man hour after hour asking you to join the efforts to impeach Donald Trump. I don’t begrudge Steyer; in fact, in spite of my contempt for our de facto oligarchy, at least Steyer is one of the more useful billionaires. His money goes a long way to advance Democratic causes and the leaders behind them. However, why are you running for president? For the few minutes Steyer did speak, he mainly agreed with Elizabeth Warren’s complaints of a broken, imbalanced system that favors the rich (lest he earn her scorn), but seems to believe him being a genuinely rich person (as opposed to being a scammer like Trump) makes him uniquely qualified to run against Trump. Money can buy a lot of things – including a slot on the debate stage – but it can’t make me believe bullshit like that.

I really don’t care what Tucker Carlson’s professional homegirl thinks about anything, so I continue to find her presence grating. She took a swing at Elizabeth Warren, hoping to do to her what many felt she did to Kamala Harris at the last debate. Unfortunately, she was a candidate, not a moderator, thus not allowed to pose Warren questions out of thin air as if this production was put on by her. I think she got the better of Pete Buttigieg more than a few let on, but more than anything, she wasn’t needed. Meanwhile, why hasn’t anyone called her out on her love affair with despot Bashar al-Assad?

For the first half-hour of the debate, Booker was largely ignored and I was waiting on him to run to the middle part of the stage to do jumping jacks in order to remind those CNN/NYT folks that he exists. Bless his heart. Here’s the thing about Booker: he’s often solid at debates if not an arguable standout. On the other hand, though it may be natural for him to consistently speak about love and unity and how Democrats shouldn’t fight, this is a primary and this is a debate for a party full of righteous indignation. The reason why Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren collectively hold such a huge pool of Democratic voters is that each speaks to that. If Booker is now running for VP, this strategy helps. But if he still wants to be president, he should find a way to speak to that in a manner comfortable to him.

To be a political novice, he’s a lot better at this than veteran politicians. Even so, it may be clear why he is gaining appeal among some voters, he still comes across as more of an interesting sideshow if anything. Also, his points about the role automation will have on the workforce should be taken seriously, but with respect to his claims Warren’s emphasis on wages, unions, monopolies, et. al is misguided, the role automation will play on the workforce remains inconclusive, so it was odd to see him go after her so hard on that when he has no plans to address at all. That aside, he is the person responsible for getting the major candidates to talk about universal income. I’m still not over what he said about SNL, though.

His invocation of Atatiana Jefferson in a response to a question centered on gun control – notably that police violence is gun violence – is yet another reason why I appreciate his campaign. He speaks with the nuances often lacking in these big policy debates. Sadly, he wasn’t given that much time. Realistically, he may fail to make the next debate, which would be a pity in both his case and ours. I hope he’s given serious V.P. consideration. That is, unless a miracle happens and more realize if there’s any mayor to get excited about in this race, it’s not the one Black folks in the Midwest have to yell out in fury.

I genuinely appreciate Bernie’s consistency. Every few minutes it’s basically “Cut that bullshit out, we need a political revolution.” It usually works well as a retort. To be almost 80 and having just had a heart attack, Bernie was more lively than many of his younger competitors, and thankfully like Warren, he didn’t take any bait to attack a fellow progressive. If you like Bernie, you loved him last night.

I was into Beto 2.0 for a smooth minute, but last night reminded me that the initial dream to make him Oak Milk Latte Obama is not happening. He also might have blown his chance to be Slimmer VP Biden after he came for Liz’s check for saying she sounds “punitive” in her political rhetoric. This is the guy saying we should strip tax exempt status from churches that discriminate against queer people and flat out says he wants to take people’s assault rifles away from them. I’m fine with each proposal, but snowflake, you’re not, beloved.

After every date, a bunch of older white moderates hired to spew punditry absent of reality to me makes it seem like Amy Klobachur had a good night. The repetition of this lie may help her temporarily in the polls, but she did not have a good night. She kept swinging at Elizabeth Warren, but “Stop dreaming” is quite the campaign argument in a political climate consisting of a game show host destroying a republic tweet by tweet.

Kamala Harris is stronger in some parts than others but fine overall. She needed to be more than fine to re-energize her campaign, however. I continue to believe she is an attractive candidate with a plausible path to the nomination and the presidency, but it’s being stymied by an overall campaign that often feels aimless. As I mentioned recently, voters tend to like Harris personally but there’s no specific policy vision or overarching theme to captivate you fully with her candidacy. Good luck with that because I don’t think randomly poking a fight with Elizabeth Warren about banning the president of the United States of America is it. To her credit, though, she explained the matter better in a post-debate exchange with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. Then again, it’s the second debate I can think of where her best moment was after the debate.

The people impressed with Pete Buttigieg tend to enjoy him because he offers what we’ve come to expect from many national Democrats in recent decades: someone who can speak the language of progressivism on the campaign trail but govern from the perspective of the monied-interests who bankroll their campaigns. That is why last night we so often heard Pete, like Amy Klobuchar, go on and on about what can’t be done. To push that we all strive to be more reasonable! Your risk is not in enacting policy that would better your lives. No, no. The risk is electing the white gay man who plans to be exactly like the other politicians who have failed you. The significance of the symbolism is supposed to get you through it all. As a gay Black man who appreciates the presidency of Barack Obama but also understands what little that did in the way of eliminating a racial inequity, spare me, Pete. He talked about Elizabeth Warren lacking specifics with regard to Medicare for All (guess which industries have donated to him most?), but this is the same man whose own health plan lacks specifics — something he found novel months ago. No thank you.

Early Monday morning, I heard a pundit on MSNBC describe this exchange involving Joe Biden shouting at Elizabeth Warren and essentially taking credit for a federal agency she is responsible for creating say it reflected on the “smallness” of Warren. Yes, he was old, white, and obviously, clueless. If you think this exchange is good for Joe Biden, you are out of your mind. Biden faded for much of the debate, which is a bad enough sign-in of itself, but at that moment we finally saw how much Biden and Warren cannot stand each other — only one kept cooler than the other. By the way, for all the lecturing on Castro on decorum over how he spoke to Biden at the previous debate, Biden flat out needs to be told you don’t yell at women while taking credit for their work.

I assume Elizabeth Warren does not want to answer the question about the role of taxation plays in Medicare for All because she rejects the premise, which is arguably disingenuous. Moreover, she likely doesn’t want to provide video and audio to a GOP in waiting. So, it makes sense that she refuses to frame her plan in that manner and fall for the okie doke. Still, as important as it is to stay on message, although costs do matter more than premiums that ultimately go to a policy that will likely not cover all costs to treat larger medical problems, she needs to find a way to say such. The question will only keep coming up now.