EDITORIAL: What we learned from the Democratic debates in Miami: Biden’s a vulnerable front-runner

Jun. 28--For two nights this week, America took the measure of 20 people seeking to replace President Trump. It was crowded and chaotic, and looked more like a casting call, but it was democracy in action.

Assembled in Miami were a former vice president, seven senators, five current or former members of Congress, two mayors, a former mayor, two former governors, an entrepreneur and a self-help author. Six of them were women, a first in the history of U.S. politics.

To borrow from NBC's debate moderators, let's have a show of hands, readers: Have you decided which Democrat should get the party's nomination? Probably not.

But for all the shouts, interruptions (mostly from New Yorkers Bill de Blasio and Kirsten Gillibrand), and hurry-up, time's-up, 60-second answers, we saw candidates tested on live TV, and they wisely didn't spend all their air time talking about Trump. The Democrats know they'll lose again unless they give voters a positive alternative to Trumpism.

It was only one debate. But at the moment, it seems former Vice President Joe Biden is a vulnerable front-runner.

He came across as old and out of touch, mostly due to the verbal pounding on issues of race he took from Sen. Kamala Harris of California, the clear winner of Debate II.

It was Harris' breakout moment and Biden's breakdown moment. Biden never looked older than when he was shown in a split-screen image next to the much younger Harris.

NBC's moderators wisely stepped aside as Harris said in deeply personal terms that she experienced busing as a child ("that little girl was me") and how it was "hurtful" to hear Biden say recently how well he worked with two segregationist senators.

In a rambling response, Biden said he opposed federally-ordered busing, and that it should have been a local decision, "made by your city council." His real-time response needed to be from the heart. Instead, America heard this: "If we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, I'm happy to do that."

Biden should have learned from Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old leader of South Bend, Indiana, who was calm, conversational and exceptionally direct.

Struggling to lead a city torn apart by a white officer's fatal shooting of a black man, Buttigieg was asked why his city's police force doesn't reflect a population that's 26 percent African-American.

"Because I couldn't get it done," he said. A rare virtue in politics. When was the last time we heard that kind of candor and self-criticism from the current occupant of the Oval Office?

"Mayor Pete" also spoke to the deep frustration felt by so many young people bypassed by the booming economy: "You should be able to live well, afford rent, be generous to your church and Little League, whether you went to college or not."

He also scored points when he condemned the Republican Party for rank hypocrisy for cloaking itself in Christian language while also condoning placing children in cages.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was his grouchy old self, arms flailing, railing against massive income inequality, special interest corruption and arguing for a single-payer health care system, Medicare for All. On stage, he was literally, and figuratively, caught between the more popular Biden and the more exciting Harris.

Wednesday's Opening Night belonged to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former San Antonio Mayor and ex-HUD Secretary Julián Castro.

Warren's populist economic message focused on how corporations get rich at the expense of most Americans, and the need to end private insurance and rid Washington of corruption.

Castro verbally elbowed his way to the front of the line by repeatedly blistering the Trump administration's immigration policies and calling for an end to "criminalizing desperation," by locking up border-crossers. That got applause from a liberal audience in Miami but it's an incendiary position in a general election.

The entire debate ignored the mushrooming national debt and virtually overlooked reparations for slavery, mentioned only in passing. Scarcely mentioned was the U.S. Supreme Court's far-reaching decision Thursday legalizing political gerrymandering. Climate change, the signature issue of former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, got short shrift.

None of the candidates had a good answer to a question about what they would do about abortion rights if the Supreme Court repeals Roe v. Wade. Sanders was explicit about having a pro-choice litmus test, but didn't specify what he would do if the damage is done.

This was the first of 12 scheduled Democratic debates, so the crowd of candidates will eventually shrink, but the chaotic atmosphere of this campaign is not going to disappear anytime soon.

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O'Hara, Sergio Bustos, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.

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