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Amy Klobuchar hasn’t gotten much love in this presidential race. Her poll numbers are consistently miserable. Debate analysts don’t single out her performances.
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But by God were her final remarks last night terrific. She was asked, as were the other Democratic candidates onstage, to talk about a surprising friendship, and she didn’t just poignantly describe her relationship with John McCain, the Republican senator who died last year. She also reflected on the importance of respect and the vanishing civility in American life.
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“What unites us is so much bigger than what divides us,” she said. “And we have to remember that our job is to not just change policy, but to change the tone in our politics, to look up from our phones, to look at each other, to start talking to each other.” Alone in my living room, I almost stood and cheered. I probably would have if Regan, my dog, hadn’t been sleeping so soundly at my feet.
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In my quickie debate analysis for The Times, I ticked off three reasons that I found the latest Democratic showcase so worthwhile. But there’s a fourth as well: The debate harbored moments of real eloquence in which candidates enunciated values — and captured feelings — that cried out for such compelling expression. It’s easy to be cynical about our politicians, and I often am. But at times last night, my cynicism dissipated.
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Cory Booker’s concluding comments were as stirring as Klobuchar’s. “This election is not a referendum on one guy in one office,” he said. “It’s a referendum on who we are and who we must be to each other.” He said that we need a leader who “can revive civic grace in our country, teach us a more courageous empathy, and remind America that patriotism is love of country, and you cannot love your country unless you love your fellow countrymen and women.”
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Then there was Pete Buttigieg, a veteran who served in Afghanistan, explaining how wrong President Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of troops from Syria and betrayal of the Kurds were.
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“When I was deployed, I knew one of the things keeping me safe was the fact that the flag on my shoulder represented a country known to keep its word,” he said. “You take that away, you are taking away what makes America America.”
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“What we were doing in Syria,” he added, “was keeping our word. Part of what makes it possible for the United States to get people to put their lives on the line to back us up is the idea that we will back them up, too.” Trump’s decision, he continued, “is undermining the honor of our soldiers. You take away the honor of our soldiers, you might as well go after their body armor next.”
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There’s much worry, which I share, that we don’t have the right Democratic candidate, someone of such unquestionable strength and broad appeal that Trump doesn’t stand a chance at re-election. But let’s take a pause from our hand-wringing to appreciate that there are nonetheless some impressive individuals and expert communicators in the mix.
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And on a frustratingly crowded stage last night, a few of them really did manage to shine.
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How the Moderates Got Their Groove Back |
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I noted in my debate analysis that the Democratic candidates were more focused on Elizabeth Warren than ever before, an orientation that underscored her new status as, effectively, the front-runner in the race for the party’s presidential nomination. Concerned that she’s too far to the left and too divisive to beat Trump, Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Beto O’Rourke pressed her as never before on the attainability and expense of her plans and on whether she’s the right person to heal a country of such bitter partisanship and severe polarization.
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Buttigieg and Klobuchar also described themselves as denizens of the heartland who could win the hearts of swing voters. Warren’s potential with that bloc is in doubt.
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But Buttigieg, Klobuchar and O’Rourke weren’t solely trying to halt her momentum before it’s too late. They were trying to position themselves as the best alternatives — the most attractive fallbacks — for supporters of Joe Biden who decide that he just isn’t a safe bet anymore.
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That’s one of the big if unspoken narratives of the primary now: the belief that the Ukraine mess, Trump’s unjust smearing of the Biden family and Biden’s own flaws (his seemingly limited energy, frequent verbal stumbles and occasional unsteadiness) will soon be reflected in a defection of his supporters, who no longer see him as the most electable candidate and look for someplace else to go. Each of Biden’s 11 rivals onstage last night want to be that place, and if any of them siphons off enough of his backers, he or she might be in a position to compete with Warren.
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I’ve talked to many Democratic strategists and sages and I’ve given the matter a whole lot of my own thought, and it’s utterly unclear who would rise most if Biden falls.
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Buttigieg radiates a similar decency and practicality, but he’s four decades younger than Biden and untested on the national stage. That makes him a significantly less cautious choice.
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O’Rourke has some of Biden’s appealing looseness and sunniness but little of his experience: He’s as green, really, as Buttigieg. Klobuchar, as I noted above, has never caught fire, so rallying behind her probably seems pointless to many Democratic voters.
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Had Kamala Harris managed her campaign better and taken more fruitful advantage of a few fleeting passages of velocity, she might be where the Biden diaspora could relocate. But I don’t see that happening. She has strayed too far and too erratically from the center, and many Biden supporters found her attack on him in the first Democratic debate an unwarranted turnoff.
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Could the alternative to Biden be … Warren herself? I’m skeptical, but if that turns out to be the case, the contest is over.
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Of course there’s an additional scenario, which is that Biden hangs in there. He did nothing last night to hurt himself seriously. At times he exhibited his trademark warmth and at times he projected more passion than he had at previous debates.
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While I have doubts about his ability to get to the White House, I’d certainly trust him there. Right now enough voters feel that way to keep him in the hunt.
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