Democratic contenders for the party’s presidential nomination are in Las Vegas Saturday for a forum hosted by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
In a series of interviews with The Nevada Independent’s Jon Ralston and HuffPost’s Amanda Terkel, 19 candidates including Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and others will answer questions on labor issues and other matters, HuffPost reported. Union members in the audience will also ask the candidates questions.
The event began at noon Eastern time. HuffPost is streaming the forum live here, or watch live below:
As a format, this is much better than the debates, although perhaps too short to be really useful. Is there a link to what was already recorded?
This seems to be a link: https://www.c-span.org/video/?463244-1/democratic-presidential-candidates-participate-2020-public-service-forum&vod
There seem to be problems with the sound for Castro.
Edit: Oh, I now see that the live link lets you go back to the beginning, and it seems to have better sound.
Biden is just wrapping up now. It is interesting to see that several times he launches into a kind of “I’m one of you” story, but quickly catches himself and makes a statement to be clear that he has had a lot of privileges. For example, he started by saying that he grew up in a three bedroom house, and then notes that they were not poor, and without actually saying middle-class, that is what he implies. Later, he launches into his patented story of his first wife and her tragic accident, but qualifies it by pointing out that others have endured worse and with less support.
He may somewhat have undermined his campaign by saying that young people should get involved in politics, presumably allowing for a wide range of such participation and not requiring running for office. There are people who want to get involved, including running, but they keep being told that they cannot strive for what they want, and, essentially, that it ain’t gonna happen. That is a tough balance to maintain, encouraging while also tamping down expectations and enthusiasm.
It was an interesting performance, but I must say that it does feel a bit like a performance. On the other hand, he is not the only candidate where I get that feeling. I got it even more from Booker, who kept saying that pretty much everything was going to be his main priority, although not quite in so many words. He kept saying that I am (or we are) going to do this or stop doing this, without any implication of what the tangible means to do so would be. (Admittedly, even this format demands rather truncated and thus necessarily superficial answers.)
Only caught the tail end of Biden. Thought he looked relaxed and engaged, but yeah it was a bit of a performance.
Beto has been impressive, speaking on the El Paso shooting basically in real time. Weird to say that he’s underrated after all of last year’s hype, but he feels underrated to me.
Just tuned in, Beto comes across 10 times better than on those stages with 9 others. He is well spoken and knows his subjects.
I started it back at the beginning. Castro was okay, but he was a bit haltering when he spoke (uh . . . uh . . . uh), and he didn’t seem to have the same energy as in the debates. Maybe he does better with others to play off of. I like Warren (and she is still my preferred candidate), but she didn’t seem to come off as well here as elsewhere, including the debates and the town halls. I am not sure what the difference was. It may be that the union moderators seemed a little hostile (that is too strong a word, but it does cover the sense) to her, particularly on healthcare. (Her healthcare ideas may be hard to sell to unions who have often sacrificed a lot for the sake of better healthcare deals, although I think over time those agreements have not worked so well for them.)
Edit: Now she is talking about Goldman Sachs, and is doing much better. She points out the corruption factor with gusto.
Edit2: She got a question about people who have already paid off their college debt, and either didn’t quite hear it or dodged it a bit. (I am not sure what the right answer here should be. I think that there should be some kind of means test and perhaps performance, actually graduating with decent grades, and perhaps in some cases it should be tied to some kind of public payback, like teaching at an inner city school or working at a medical clinic. I am not sure what to say to someone who feels anger because they were responsible under the terms of their deal and don’t get the same kind of benefit as others. On the other hand, the more expensive we make it, the harder it will be to make it happen at all, and where do you make the cutoff that someone doesn’t feel on the wrong side of the line?)