The Missing Handshake

The usual disclaimer: Did not stay up until 3 in the morning to watch the debate. This blog is just based on news accounts of the debate

Two big losers from last night’s debate, as I see it, and that’s not counting CNN, who I didn’t really have any expectations of fairness from. Elizabeth Warren, of course. If it comes down to a he said/she said (and it does), then Bernie, with his impeccable record of honesty and consistency as well as his long and noteworthy record of fighting for equal rights for women, wins. Elizabeth Warren, deserved or not, is noted for dishonesty and inconsistency.
But the capper was her refusal to shake his hand. That was just plain rude.
The other big loser, IMO, was Trevor Noah. I was just coming around to liking him. After all, he’s a comedian, he’s expected to make jokes. And when he’s telling stories of his life I find him very human and relatable. So, I’d kind of forgiven him for his earlier attacks on Bernie. O.K., he was a bit obsessive about the old man jokes, but they were jokes. Right? Well, now I’m back to thinking he’s a slimy, corporate owned attack comedian. Laughing like crazy about the ‘low energy’ of a video of Bernie backing out of his driveway. Admittedly, not the greatest Bern video ever, those show him saying beautiful things to huge crowds of adoring people, but it did show two things: Bernie lives in a normal house, and drives a normal car.
Then, he jokes about how you can’t believe the video of him saying a woman could be elected president was really from 1989 because he looks the same. Oh, that joke never gets old. (I am being sarcastic. That joke is so old it smells bad)
Last night’s big winner? Of course I’m going to say Sanders. I clicked on a couple of online polls this morning, which are, admittedly, not reliable polls, but…the DailyKos poll, which tends to go for centrist candidates, had Bernie with over 50%. And another one, Heavy.com, showed Bernie at near 80%. Obviously, I thought, this is from a Bernie group. But I read the accompanying article, and the winner of their poll last month was Andrew Yang. The takeaway? Eventually, Bernie’s going to wind up inheriting almost all of Yang’s support.