So that was all for nothing
There are times when following politics is frustrating. These days most of those instances involve Donald Trump, his supporters, and his complicit Republican Party. But this past week, mainstream Americans were subjected to an entirely different kind of political frustration: the overcrowded and randomly split Democratic debates. If you felt that they didn’t really serve any purpose, there are some new numbers to back you up on this.
Two new major polls have been conducted and released since the latest debates, one from Politico and the other from Harris. In both polls, Joe Biden still has the same size lead he did before the debate, within the margin of error. So for all the talk about whether his uneven but improved second debate performance helped or hurt him, these polls suggest zero mind were changed. There’s more โ or should we say less.
Most people think Elizabeth Warren won the first night’s debate. In one new poll she went up two points. In the other poll she went down a point. Lots of people think Cory Booker was the breakout star of the second night’s debate. He stayed the same in one poll and went down a point in the other.
You get the idea. The polls say that this latest round of debates didn’t change anyone’s minds. In other words, it was all for nothing, right? Well, maybe not. If you tuned in to the debates, what you heard was a spirited discussion on some of the most important issues facing America. So even if the debates didn’t change any minds about who should be the nominee, they at least provided America with a dose of presidential leadership at a time when America has no president.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report