This debate struck me as low key. No one had a big night. Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar performed well. But Klobuchar needed an especially strong performance to breakthrough to the top tier, and that didn't happen.
Steyer came across as angry and peculiar. Sanders and Warren tried to outflank each other to win the hearts of progressive voters.
No one mentioned the man not in the room: Michael Bloomberg. The New York billionaire who is self-funding his campaign did not participate in the CNN/Des Moines Register debate because he did not meet the donor threshold to qualify.
The first half of Tuesday's debate focused on national security issues and trade. What was striking were Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders' rejection of incremental change on health care and trade, respectively.
On trade, Bernie Sanders moved to the left of union president
Richard Trumka and the AFL/CIO. There will never be a trade deal he could support. Biden, on the other hand, made an important point: The US and our allies together must lead and write the rules and set the standards of trade rather than the Chinese. Good for Joe.
The second half of the debate focused on domestic issues. Once again, Warren and Sanders are still pretending their Medicare for All plans add up. Combined with free college, free childcare, the Green New Deal, a ban on fracking and the manufacture of pharmaceuticals by the federal government, these two candidates, in their lust to secure the support of progressive voters, turn off independent and swing voters who would appreciate some measure of restraint and have no desire for a revolution.
Pennsylvania voters and those in critical swing states like
Michigan and
Wisconsin will not respond well to the Sanders-Warren brand of progressive politics, when a bright light is shone on the costs and impacts of their proposals on working Americans. Trump's unpopularity makes these states competitive, even for Sanders and Warren, but there are limits.
Voters looking for an alternative to Trump's exhausting behavior and disruptive politics will not likely embrace these extreme proposals from the far left that offend their sensibilities and threaten their economic self-interest.
Bottom line: No clear winner and no major mistakes. Nothing Tuesday night changed the dynamics of the race. Iowa's still a jump ball.