For Democrats, attacking former President Barack Obama is so last month. Showing some respect for his vice president, however, isnt yet in style.
The top 10 Democratic presidential candidates gathered together, on one stage and on one night, in Houston on Thursday, and actually had good things to say about Obama, the last Democrat to serve as president. This stood in sharp contrast to how Obama was spoken of at the previous two debates, when, over the course of back-to-back nights, the former president was soundly criticized, especially for his stance on deportations, but also on trade and for his signature issue, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, frequently called Obamacare, which was often treated like some sort of foolish half-measure.
What a difference a few weeks makes. In Houston, nearly every candidate went out of his or her way to praise Obama. Instead, they took shots at his vice president, Joe Biden, who has consistently been leading the outsized field in public opinion polls.
At nearly three hours long, and with fully 10 candidates on stage, the third Democratic debate wasnt all that easy to watch. It wouldnt hurt to see the field shrinking further, and soon. …
Thursdays debate wasnt all about personality, though. Early on, Biden sought to draw a solid contrast between his health-care plan, which would expand Obamacare, and the proposals championed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, and Bernie Sanders, a Vermont socialist, both favoring a huge, government-operated plan called Medicare for all. Sanders, of course, made that proposal the centerpiece of his failed bid to win the Democratic Partys presidential nomination last time around, and has seen the proposal become more widely adopted by many on the progressive wing of the party since, most notably Warren.
Biden, positioned on the debate stage between the two progressive darlings, turned toward Warren and said, I know that the senator says shes for Bernie. Well, Im for Barack.
Good for him. Have those who now pound the table for Medicare for all forgotten how difficult it was to get Obamacare through the Congress less than a decade back? Have they forgotten how much Republicans set their minds on tearing down the accomplishments of the landmark legislation? Do they really believe that pushing to have the federal government make private health insurance illegal is a winning formula with a broad swath of the citizenry?
If so, these folks need to get out more.
There were, of course, other substantive policy matters discussed at Thursdays debate. Gun control. Climate change. The right way forward in Afghanistan.
But in the end, it might be fair to suggest that things on Friday morning werent all that much different from where theyd stood a day earlier. Biden is the front-runner, and has been for quite some time now. Warren is his top rival, with Sanders seeming to have been fading a bit. And then theres the rest of the pack.
One imagines that when the next debate is held, that may well be more or less the same situation. The Iowa caucuses are five months away, with the New Hampshire primary soon thereafter. Can Biden continue to hold onto his lead until February? Will he face more attacks going forward? Will the party ever begin to present a united front?
Though those questions cannot be answered right now, at least the griping about Obama may finally be in the rearview.
