PBS Milwaukee, WI Democratic debate @9pm ET **live commentary thread**

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yay for FDR!

[Antonio the Sixth]

Very good line from Hillary on Obama.

[Antonio the Sixth]

"One of us ran against Barack Obama. I was not that candidate." - Bernie Sanders

Best line of the debate

Haha, yeah.


Also tremendous closing statement from Bernie!

[Antonio the Sixth]

Bernie's closing statement goes to the core of his political philosophy.

Hillary's is just a list of policy positions.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Bernie's closing statement goes to the core of his political philosophy.

Hillary's is just a list of policy positions.

We're electing a president, not a philosopher. Bernie can wax as much as he wants about a movement, but after the election his campaign will close down, his staffers will move on, and his volunteers will return to their lives.

The US President in general has little power over the detail of policy. A Democratic President facing a Republican Congress will have no power at all.

So yeah, I'd say it's more important for a President to have a clear vision rather than a list of policies.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I like Bernie's philosophy. I think it's great. I just thinks it shows a certain naivety to talk as if the president is a dictator who can impose his vision on the country. Hillary sounds like someone who has actually tried to get things done and knows what it's like. She sounds more engaged with the world than him.

This is a ridiculous non-issue.

Bernie won't get anything done with a Republican Congress. Hillary won't get anything done with a Republican Congress. So she is the one who is lying by claiming that she can. All Bernie is doing is stating what he believes in, and calling up to the American people to join in a movement to try and make it happen. He knows it's a long shot, but at least he's actually trying.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Bernie's closing statement goes to the core of his political philosophy.

Hillary's is just a list of policy positions.

One of the things that stuck with me from the 2008 campaign was Obama's constant reinforcement that, it's not about experience, or about what a person is promising you. It's about judgment, about where a person was when it counted. I'll always keep that in mind in campaigns going forward for the rest of my life. I trust Bernie's judgment, and because of many things from Hillary (her vote on Iraq being one) I can never trust her judgment. Ever.

His philosophy may not matter to Beet, but it matters to me.

Obama never came off as ignorant as foreign policy as Sanders does. Judgment works in more than one way. Sanders would definitely be capable of making major foreign policy errors. One vote doesn't mean that he is qualified to be in Commander in Chief.

If he wins the nomination, his lack of foreign policy chops will be a major problem.

Like Jimmy Carter in 1976. 

Jimmy Carter was great on foreign policy.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Exactly - this is such a stupid position for the Hillary campaign to take. The only way she's getting legislation through a Republican congress is if she goes Bill Clinton on them and starts signing off on right-wing legislation.

Which is a distinct possibility.

Yup. I am increasingly starting to fear that a Hillary victory would bring us back to the nightmarish dystopia that the late 1990s-early 2000s period was for the left. The only way we can avoid that is if grassroots progressive never once stop holding her feet on fire. That's why Bernie's campaign will do a lot of good even if he doesn't win.

[Antonio the Sixth]

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No, I actually like that he's trying. Still, at some point he is going to hit reality, win or lose, and we have no idea of how he is going to deal with it. With Hillary, it's true she won't get her proposals either, but she shows awareness with everything that she says that it won't be easy. Bernie doesn't.

To the contrary. Hillary shows lack of awareness of the political reality, by thinking that politics as usual and the trite 1990s democratic campaigning style will lead her to achieve anything.

Bernie is aware of the fact that the only way we have any chance to move America forward is through by trying to inspire a massive popular movement, and energize people who normally don't participate in the political process.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Exactly - this is such a stupid position for the Hillary campaign to take. The only way she's getting legislation through a Republican congress is if she goes Bill Clinton on them and starts signing off on right-wing legislation.

Which is a distinct possibility.

Yup. I am increasingly starting to fear that a Hillary victory would bring us back to the nightmarish dystopia that the late 1990s-early 2000s period was for the left. The only way we can avoid that is if grassroots progressive never once stop holding her feet on fire. That's why Bernie's campaign will do a lot of good even if he doesn't win.

You do what you can with a Republican Congress.  If you want her to do more for the progressive cause, then give her a Democratic Congress.   

Sanders has a strong plan to elect a Democratic majority in Congress because he's building a movement that's not just about himself.... oh wait.

Yes, that's exactly what he's doing.

See below. It's even his campaign slogan!