On the second night of the first debates, the other 10 candidates for the Democratic 2020 presidential nomination took the stage at the end of a day in which Russian President Vladimir Putin said liberalism had outlived its purpose and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it would not get involved in gerrymandering.
Joe Biden, the overall frontrunner, needed to look good, offer some liberal bromides, invoke Barack Obama and run out the clock. The point was to escape unscathed. Instead, California Sen. Kamala Harris took his bark off, particularly for his record opposing federally-directed school busing. “And, you know,” she said, “there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.”
That was enough for many pundits and others to declare Harris the debate’s winner. And it is strong stuff. Having sided with segregationists in defense of states’ rights on matters of race and integration is probably a bad look for any Democrat in 2019. But while Biden loses, it is not clear that Harris benefits, unless you score a 10-person debate like a prizefight.
Can she make it to the nomination by waving Biden’s ears and tail?
We have our doubts. Harris, a former prosecutor, has her own record to deal with on race and criminal justice, which went unmentioned by anyone on stage Thursday evening. For example, writing in The New York Times back in January, law professor Lara Bazelon asserted “In her career, Ms. Harris did not barter or trade to get the support of more conservative law-and-order types; she gave it all away.”
Former Gov. John Hickenlooper was his usual steady, moderate self, touting cooperation to little avail. Most of the candidates interrupted one another and succeeded in raising such a din that Sen. Michael Bennet, Colorado’s other favorite son in this race, came off as the epitome of graciousness and collegiality simply by being thoughtful and giving credit to his opponents where he thought it due. It was almost radical. He had no taste for the jugular. We wonder whether those are precisely the qualities Democrats do not want in 2020, even though Bennet has much to claim on liberal policy – that is, to show liberalism is not outmoded.
Bennet might also have mentioned that the wise people in his state acted last November to set up a bipartisan redistricting commission that suddenly looks like a sturdy umbrella, but time was short so we will do it for him.
