Instead of an informed discussion, voters were treated to a bad-faith fiasco in the service of narcissism, dishonesty and petty grievance
For reasons that remain unclear, there was yet another Democratic primary debate on Tuesday night, the 10th such event of the presidential contest. The seven candidates who qualified convened in Charleston, South Carolina, ahead of the South Carolina primary on Saturday and the slew of Super Tuesday contests next week. It will not be the last debate that we are subjected to – yet another is scheduled for 15 March. Tuesday’s debate, hosted by CBS, was mercifully short compared to some others, wrapping up after just two hours. For my sins, I watched the whole thing.
Perhaps because there have been so many of these debates, the candidates seemed determined to make it dramatic television. At times, they seemed to be vying for ratings. Much of the evening was spent in shouting and cross talk. Biden pointed; Sanders threw his hands in the air in exasperation; Bloomberg delivered practiced jokes he had paid someone to write for him, exuding all the charisma of a rubber chicken. Everyone had grievances; everyone had accusations and recriminations to make against the others. Not that you could hear them: the shouting often made it hard to make out just quite what anyone was saying. The event was heavy on vitriol and light on substance.
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Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
