Commentary: The first Democratic debate, night two – CNN

I’m enjoying this debate a lot more than last night’s JV game. From the jump, frontrunner Joe Biden zeroed in on his target. The first words out of Biden’s mouth were “Donald Trump.” He went on to excoriate what he called “Donald Trump’s tax cut for the wealthy.”

Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, too, seem to be keeping their eyes on the prize. Rather than ripping each other, they are drawing strong distinctions with the current President.

Then Eric Swalwell took a cute but snide shot at Joe Biden’s age, noting that when Swalwell was six, Biden called for passing the torch to a new generation. Biden refused to take the bait, and responded with a passionate plea for free community college and freezing student debt for low-income Americans. 

The debate soon descended into a free-for-all, with multiple politicians talking over each other. But when the smoke cleared, Kamala Harris had the first home run of the night. “Guys,” she said, “America doesn’t want to witness a food fight; they want to know how we’re gonna put food on their table.”  That’s how you create a Moment in a debate.

 Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator, was a political consultant for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign in 1992 and was counselor to Clinton in the White House. Follow him on Twitter @PaulBegala.

This post has been updated to correct Kamala Harris’s quote.