https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/fir...-2020-election

A livestream is available on the home page at nbcnews.com

Who is debating?

Wednesday, June 26

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
Former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii
Former Housing Secretary Julián Castro
Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee

Thursday, June 27

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont
Sen. Kamala Harris of California
Former Vice President Joe Biden
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana
Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado
Author Marianne Williamson
Rep. Eric Swalwell of California
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang
Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado.

For the first one hopefully they only let Warren, Booker, Castro and Inslee talk, because I don't have a big attention span and I've already decided to ignore everyone else :P

There are only two possibilities. Complete snooze-fest or absolute chaos. With this many bodies up there, you either have time for nothing more than mini version of their stump speech regardless of what question is asked, or you have the most desperate people turn it into a WWE event while the moderator does their best to act like their authority matters.

There's no Trump on the democrat side, so my money is on people ignoring questions and simply giving as much of their stump speech as they can squeeze into their 3 minutes.

Still, I'll watch on the off-chance that it turns into a contest on who can promise the most free ponies on national TV.

What's the basis for your selectivity? Electability?

I wasn't being entirely serious (if someone else says something interesting I certainly hope to notice), and there is no coherent basis. It's just whatever vague notion I have about which candidates have some minimum actual chance of being the nominee + my also-vague notions of which candidates are likely to say things that appeal to me.

I think Klobuchar could surprise to the upside tonight, she seems like she could be good in a debate setting.

But yeah this seems like a clown show, probably 5 people with any legit chance to win over both nights. Hopefully a bunch of people drop out pretty quickly after these debates don't give them a bump.

Can we post questions we'd like to have asked ITT?

Easy Yang win there.

Fivethirtyeight is running a panel survey where they re-interview the panel after the debates to see how opinions change. Should be interesting to watch.

MNSGA

Alright. I'm prepared to be some combination of annoyed and bored. Wine and chocolate will see me through.

lol I'll give you an additional 10 seconds to actually answer the question.

ok, already annoyed by Beto refusing to answer the question about top marginal tax rates.

They really need something other than the host to constantly say "that's time".

Plus it seems like answering in Spanish just cuts your time in half, and any Spanish speakers are going to be watching a translated version anyway?

Yeah I feel like Warren's first answer was pretty well delivered and so far after that it's all kind of blah.

Wait, Castro is going to actually answer a question. that's nice.

Warreners, come out and plaaay. Why even bother with the rest of this charade? Just let Bernie and Warren debate for the next 18 months. De Blasio is on the stage, oy dems in big trouble... and he got a bigger pop than Booker.

I'm always a fan of the completely blatant ignoring of the question. Good job Gabbard.

Kind of surprised De Blasio is coming out swinging and not hedging

Delaney saying "fix the education system" got a reaction out of Mrs. Well Named: "fund it!"

I didn't know you could get hash at McDonalds now, but I might have to stop by.

I'm really surprised only two of them (Warren and... de Blasio?) raised their hands for swapping their private health insurance for a government-run program.

"All foam and no beer". That's what Klobuchar said before throwing a beer stein at an aid.

maybe it was the word "abolish", I guess. I wasn't paying close enough attention. Although Mrs. Well Named thinks it was just about swapping their individual insurance, not ending private insurance for everyone.

"Hi, yes, I can explain. There are these things called lobbyists...."

lol Beto gets another 10 seconds to actually explain.