# Democratic Debates 7/30 & 7/31 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 30, 2019, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867 "2019-07-30T13:07:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/141 "2019-07-31T23:47:45Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Oh. Now I’m extra embarrassed. \<-(real) I guess I was serious and being a sexist idiot, which is pointed out to me regularly. I’ll continue to work on it. Thank you for rubbing my nose in it; it’s the only way I’ll learn. Truly seriously. ☹ I didn’t say anything about sexist. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/142 "2019-07-31T23:48:15Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The question is, would Pence consent to be in a room alone with Buttigieg? Buttigieg has his good points, but I don’t think he’s really Pence’s type: > [@](#): > > Mike Pence is into shoulders. He talks about shoulders constantly, saying things like, “To be around Donald Trump is to be around a man with broad shoulders,” and “He’s a man with broad shoulders, he’s got a clear vision, he’s strong,” and Ronald Reagan’s “broad-shouldered leadership inspired my life.” It seems Pence has found another pair of broad shoulders to inspire him. The New York Times, in a report on Pence’s influence on the party’s campaign strategy, shows him putting his beliefs into practice: “Mr. Pence stood behind [Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad] Parscale, rubbing his shoulders, as Mr. Trump spoke.” [Mike Pence Shoulder-Fetish Update](http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/05/mike-pence-shoulder-fetish-update.html) So it’s probably safe for Mayor Pete to be alone with ol’ Mikey. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/143 "2019-07-31T23:55:07Z")
> [@LoneRhino](#): > > I wish the governors in general were getting more traction. I consider it a slightly better resume point than senator for president. Granted, none of the governors currently running are charismatic. Presidential politics is attracting more and more bizarro candidates and the ‘debates’ are nothing more than a reality TV drama show. There’s nothing substantive that comes out of this circus. What comes out of it are the candidates who put on a show, which Williamson surely did last night. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/144 "2019-07-31T23:57:39Z")
> [@LoneRhino](#): > > Am I the only one that liked Hickenlooper? A big part of his message is that he actually enacted progressive policies. And that he did it in a purple state. > > I wish the governors in general were getting more traction. I consider it a slightly better resume point than senator for president. Granted, none of the governors currently running are charismatic. I’ve liked him in the past when I’ve heard him interviewed. Last night he seemed a little low on charisma. I personally don’t care, but I don’t see him catching fire. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/145 "2019-07-31T23:59:30Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Yeah, everybody just \*loves \*the private insurance companies, don’t they? > > It’s supplemental only, just like with Medicare. Where UHC exists as a basic, tax-paid right for basic but adequate coverage, there is simply no room for private insurance except to cover some extras. That’s not true at all. About 10% of British buy private insurance. No waiting, ect. [https://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2012/01/16/the-awkward-world-of-private-insurance-in-the-uk/](https://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2012/01/16/the-awkward-world-of-private-insurance-in-the-uk/) "\*The insurance part isn’t too difficult to understand. People living in Britain can obtain private insurance, and about 10 percent of them do. About one-third of people with private insurance purchase it with their own money, while the rest receive it as a benefit of employment. Many of the big multinationals provide such insurance, either to all their employees or to senior executives. It’s considered a plum perk for everyone, and most expats coming to work in the UK consider it an essential benefit. Private insurance covers care provided outside the tax-funded NHS system. Sometimes, people use it to obtain items that the NHS has chosen not to cover, like medications or devices with low cost-effectiveness ratios (as I described in my previous blog on NICE). But that’s unusual. Far more commonly, the insurance is used to purchase services that are freely available in the NHS, such as subspecialty consultation and elective surgery. The delivery side is more interesting – and fraught – than the insurance side. Private insurance generally doesn’t cover primary care; most patients seem relatively satisfied with their publicly funded general practitioners (whom I described here) and most GPs make enough money that they don’t seek more work. The action in the private world stems from occasionally poor access to specialty care in the NHS, both because of limited numbers of specialists and gatekeeping by GPs. The result of these limitations is the famously long NHS queues – in the 1970s and 80s, patients often had to wait up to a year for an elective hip replacement…"\* So, while I think UHC is a great idea, the idea of banning private insurance and doctors is a bad one. If you wanna pay extra for fast service, fine by me. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/146 "2019-07-31T23:59:57Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Presidential politics is attracting more and more bizarro candidates and the ‘debates’ are nothing more than a reality TV drama show. There’s nothing substantive that comes out of this circus. What comes out of it are the candidates who put on a show, which Williamson surely did last night. This is what really bugs me. The fact that someone’s political career can be made or broken on one great sound bite or one faux pas. It’s nuts and it’s so emblematic of today. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/147 "2019-08-01T00:01:55Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > Regarding Bullock’s “Nucular”: Yeah that drove me crazy too. It’s also a sign that he’s either too dumb to hire good consultants or too dumb to listen to them if he did. A word mispronunciation that is so blatantly associated with the mannerisms and administration of such a shitty president in such recent history, should have been immediately flagged during his debate preparations as something to avoid. > … It is a legit alt pronunciation, and people need to get over it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/148 "2019-08-01T00:03:08Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Nope. If the GOP got to choose their opponent, they’d pick Sanders/Warren or maybe Warren/Sanders. The extreme left just doesn’t get how completely out of touch with mainstream America those two are. Or mayor Pete. Never Biden or Harris or Beto. Those guys are dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/149 "2019-08-01T00:04:00Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > It is a legit alt pronunciation, and people need to get over it. No. It’s not. And no. We don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/150 "2019-08-01T00:24:08Z")
What were they chanting when Senator Booker was speaking just now? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/151 "2019-08-01T00:34:24Z")
“Boo-urns”. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/152 "2019-08-01T00:36:11Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > This is what really bugs me. The fact that someone’s political career can be made or broken on one great sound bite or one faux pas. It’s nuts and it’s so emblematic of today. Howard Dean agrees with you 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/153 "2019-08-01T00:37:15Z")
I was wondering that myself. Got it > **[Audience at Democratic presidential debate interrupts with a message:...](https://pix11.com/news/local-news/audience-at-democratic-presidential-debate-interrupts-with-a-message-fire-pantaleo/)** > > Activists who want justice for Eric Garner five years after he died during a confrontation with the NYPD took the fight to the Democratic presidential debate. “Fire Pantaleo,” people ch… ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/154 "2019-08-01T00:41:47Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > No. It’s not. And no. We don’t. I’ll point out that Jimmy Carter, who served as an officer in the nuclear Navy, also pronounced it “nucular”. It’s not an indication of ignorance, it’s an indication of regional dialect. Using this sort of idiosyncrasy as a metric to measure anyone’s capabilities is kind of like judging a car’s power train by the sound the electric windows make. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/155 "2019-08-01T00:49:05Z")
Thanks, **E-DUB**! ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/156 "2019-08-01T01:00:01Z")
Biden has a few fumbles over his words but seems to have hit a better stride. I think Harris’s talking over the moderators and fairly constant same indignant tone is going to grate some really soon. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/157 "2019-08-01T01:03:43Z")
Biden’s wading into dangerous waters here. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/158 "2019-08-01T01:18:35Z")
If I was Biden, and someone snarked me on a vote I did in the 70’s or 80’s, I’d just ask _"well, how did you vote?_" “I was just in high school!” _"Exactly_". ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/159 "2019-08-01T01:23:29Z")
Booker really landed some blows in that exchange. He was tough but fair, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2019, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867/160 "2019-08-01T01:25:06Z")
Is it just me or is Castro doing a Barack Obama impersonation? He’s pausing and saying “Uh” just like Barry used to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democratic-debates-7-30-7-31/837867.md?page=9)