Who won the debate? Winners and losers from September 12

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I chose the best and the worst of the night. They are below.

* Joe Biden: The first 30 minutes of this debate – usually time with the largest number of viewers – have been Biden's best moments in his entire campaign so far. He did not stumble as he had done in previous debates and was able to show his righteous anger when Bernie Sanders seemed to suggest that the former vice president was responsible for cancer. (Note: During the debate, Biden stumbled further.) Biden was also lucky; Julian Castro's flagrant attempt to make Biden's age a problem – he was constantly asking the former vice president he "forgot" what had been said a few minutes before. Low-blow. And somehow ugly – and likely to make a boomerang back on Castro (more on this below). Biden's full membership in Obama – the eight years, "good and bad" – was also smart, as Obama remains an extremely popular figure in the Democratic Party, especially among black voters. Overall, Biden looked strong and presidential although it was not perfect – especially in his winding response (and Trumpian) on the way forward for Iraq and Afghanistan. But overall, good evening for the Vice President.

* Beto O 'RourkeSupporters of the former Texas congressman have been waiting for months for O. Rourke, who appeared on Thursday night. "Yes, let's take your AR-15," promised O. Rourke when the subject was discussed about gun control and recent shootings in Texas. And the public went crazy. Yes, O & # 39; Rourke was helped by his opponents, including Biden and Elizabeth Warren, who took the time to congratulate him for his statements on gun control. And, yes, this testifies to the fact that they do not believe that it poses a threat to their chances of appointment. Yet, for a candidate who loses altitude for months, O 'Rourke has had a memorable night.

* Barack ObamaAfter receiving a surprising amount of candidates from the July debate candidates, the former president made a big comeback on Thursday. Not only has Biden fully embraced Obama's eight-year presidency, but the former president has been praised by virtually every candidate on the scene. Which makes sense, politically. After all, Obama is by far the most popular democratic politician in the country.

* Opening statement by Kamala Harris: I thought that a group of Californian women senators prepared – and she had a lot of them – fell flat. (Example: "Instead of saying" no, we can not ", say" yes, we can. "" Oomph.) BUT Harris has devoted all of his opening statement to addressing Trump directly. And his last sentence – "And now, President Trump, you can watch Fox News again" – has been a salvo of applause in the room and will likely be replayed dozens of times over the next 24 hours.

losers

Julián Castro: The former mayor of San Antonio had a clear plan for this debate: go after Biden and present himself as the real heir to the Obama legacy. Unfortunately for Castro, he was way too hard at Biden on the age issue with his line "forget you", that he repeated four times. The attack eventually gave Biden a sympathetic air – and the former vice president's response, measured and mastered, made Castro appear small.

*Andrew Yang: Listen, I just wrote today about how Yang came from nowhere to be surprisingly relevant in this race. But he stinks tonight. His promise to give a dividend of freedom ($ 1,000 per month) to 10 families across the country at the start of the debate turned out to be a gadget rather than a provocative policy. His talk of knowing many doctors because he was Asian was painfully bad – and reinforced stupid stereotypes for no reason.

* Elizabeth Warren: The Senator from Massachusetts was not bad – she was just not very involved in the debate, which is odd given that she is widely considered the strongest opponent of Biden for the moment. For much of the first hour of the debate, Warren has sort of disappeared. Part of this is a function of not receiving questions from moderators. But Warren also needs to find ways to dialogue, especially given his central location on the stage. When she had questions, Warren was strong, especially when she talked about teachers and her personal narrative. But she did not have enough questions.

* L & # 39; economy: It was a looooong debate. And we know that, election after election, voters say that the state of the economy (and what they think of it personally) have huge impact on their vote. Which makes the fact that the economy has not been the object of a unique question at this remarkable time. And bad.

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