If we take it as a given that each of the candidates practiced and tried to deploy the persona they thought would best serve them in a debate, it’s worth taking stock of what they each projected here, separate from the policy specifics:
- Joe Biden seemed to be attempting discipline and sticking to talking points, with varying success.
- Cory Booker positioned himself above the fray—where the fray he was observing included the moderators—and always came back to his good-natured, friend-to-all moral plea.
- Pete Buttigieg was there to mix it up. In a shift from the earlier debates where he mostly steered clear of conflict, he went after Warren, Gabbard, and O’Rourke, at times showing what would have looked like real anger if it hadn’t looked so much like part of a strategy—and if he hadn’t repeatedly tried to have his cake and eat it too by attacking and then calling for unity in the same answer.
- Julián Castro had learned his lesson from the previous debate when he took heat for pressing Biden, and generally played nice with his fellow Democrats while keeping the focus on Trump and immigration where he could.
- Tulsi Gabbard sought to project serenity and moral certainty in white, while highlighting her military background wherever possible.
- Kamala Harris embraced being a prosecutor and mostly stayed out of the fray. She wanted clips of her answers to be played in isolation, not as stories about exchanges with other candidates—with the one exception of her effort to press Elizabeth Warren into agreeing with her that Twitter should ban Donald Trump.
- Amy Klobuchar spent much of the debate vibrating with a rage that made the stories about her abusing her staff entirely believable.
- Beto O’Rourke continued to kinda sorta try to do 2008 Obama combined with extra urgency on guns. Polling has not suggested his would-be Obama routine is working, and this performance is unlikely to change that.
- Bernie Sanders showed that he’s still fully on his Bernie game after his heart concerns. No shade there: He had to show he hadn’t lost a step, and he 100% did that.
- Tom Steyer … was there.
- Elizabeth Warren doggedly did Elizabeth Warren even as she came under attack from all sides.
- Andrew Yang continues to struggle with tones other than deadpan full speed ahead.
Warren came into this debate ascendant in the polls, and it was clear throughout that her competitors saw her as the de facto frontrunner. The repeated attacks on her across the board left no doubt about that. It also meant she didn’t stand to be helped by the debate. Warren wasn’t looking for a breakthrough moment—she never has been. She was looking for the same consistency that has led to her rise, and, presumably, to avoid being taken down by attacks.
Once again Medicare for All took up a big chunk of the debate, with the exact same question we’ve heard every time: But won’t it mean higher taxes? Warren was steadfast with her answer that taxes for the wealthy and corporations will go up and costs for middle-class families will go down. Warren’s answer became the subject of a pile-on, from a condescending Buttigieg and a vibrating-with-rage Klobuchar and even to some extent Sanders. The thing is, Warren’s answer is both absolutely correct—taxes are not and should not be the be-all and end-all of how we talk about money—and evasive in the literal sense. Her answer is outside the realm of answers U.S. political discourse admits as acceptable, and as such she will always be attacked—by moderators and competitors alike—as evasive or dishonest. No matter how correct she is on the merits, the pundits’ takes will be that she evaded the question rather than that she reframed this particular part of the discourse. Does that mean she needs a different answer, whether a retreat or attack? She clearly doesn’t think so at this point.
From that early phase where basically everyone wanted to pile on Warren—especially a visibly enraged Klobuchar—she may have been relieved to fade into the pack a little. Yet while she could have tried to just avoid taking hits, she didn’t shy away from taking on Biden when he went for the “I am the only person who’s gotten things done” line he’d previewed at a recent campaign event. Sanders got to Biden first on that issue, and he was effective by pointing to Biden’s record on the Iraq war, the horrible bankruptcy bill, and bad trade agreements. But Warren’s account of her press for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau seemed more infuriating to Biden, who began ranting about the votes he rounded up for her vision—giving her a chance to show her toughness, the toughness that will be so familiar to so many women who’ve kept a smile on their faces when confronted with male condescension or aggression.
Everyone else was looking for that moment of elevation. There were strong contenders, like Castro’s “This president is caging kids on the border and effectively letting ISIS prisoners run free,” and a number of moments of Booker’s reach for inspiration and unity, but it seems unlikely that anyone managed to fundamentally alter the shape of the race. Sanders’ performance, both energetic and so wholly himself, may have arrested any slide in the polls he was seeing due to his health scare. Biden seemed a little sharper than in past debates. Booker and Harris both had overall strong performances. Buttigieg’s pivot to aggression may have been compelling for some voters. But a sea change in the race it was not.