Here & Now

Who Stands Out Among a Crowded Dem Field?

Frederica Freyberg:
In national politics, the 20-candidate slate of Democrats in the running for president have taken to the airwaves the past two nights in primary debates. In tonight’s inside look, experts from the UW-Madison Elections Research Center took to Twitter to live-tweet Thursday night’s debate. The crew included Professors David Canon, Barry Burden and Mike Wagner. Journalism and Mass Communications Professor Mike Wagner is an expert on elections and political communication. He joins us now with his take. And thanks for being here.

Mike Wagner:
It’s my pleasure.

Frederica Freyberg:
What was the overall take from the three of you as to winners, losers and standouts? Did you have different takes?

Mike Wagner:
We were fairly united I think in our views about what we thought about last night’s debate or the second debate and the first debate. Kamala Harris I think really had best night of anybody across the two nights. She had a lot of air time. She was calm, poised, direct. She went after the frontrunner Joe Biden without being mean about it but just direct about how his policy views affected her life and the lives of people like her. And she was very strong on a variety of issues. I think she had a great night. Pete Buttigieg also in the second debate, I think had a fairly strong showing. On night one, Elizabeth Warren did no harm which was her goal as the frontrunner in that first set of debates. Cory Booker did well for himself. I think Senator Jillibrand did well for herself as well as Julian Castro in that first debate. So those are the folks I think who were getting the good spin out of what’s happened so far.

Frederica Freyberg:
Were any of those surprises to you?

Mike Wagner:
Well, I think Gillibrand, we thought maybe she would do better out of the gate than she had in terms of her polling. It had been not so great and you know, she kind of famously had her roommate from college, Connie Britton, the actress on social media trying to get people to give donations so she could qualify for that first debate, which she did. And I think she took that opportunity and said this is a chance to get noticed in a group of 20 and I think it was surprising for me to see her be that aggressive and do so successfully.

Frederica Freyberg:
Did the pointedness against Joe Biden end up feeling or looking like what people call a circular firing squad at all?

Mike Wagner:
I don’t think so and I think part of it was Biden’s reaction. He kind of lurched around. He kind of almost yelled a little bit at Kamala Harris. He didn’t have a great response when Swalwell went after him on another issue. He seemed that he wasn’t so prepared. His staff was willing to leak to reporters that he hadn’t prepared very much and wasn’t taking their advice. So I think Biden came out looking a little worse, which is typical for a frontrunner whether it’s in a primary or a general, they often stumble in the first debate.

Frederica Freyberg:
At about 9:30, you tweeted, “Here in the Elections Center bunker, we were fans of the Chuck Todd question about prioritizing as president. A question that asked candidates to reveal whether they understand how politics works and what their major focus would be.” What were you talking about there?

Mike Wagner:
So Chuck Todd asked a question saying, you know, Barack Obama had to focus on healthcare and really put all of his eggs in that basket in the early part of his first term, knowing that that’s where he had to hold Democrats to get something major done. What would be your thing if you had to pick just one? What would be the first thing you did? That suggests you have to understand as president how legislating works. You can only get so many things done at a time. And usually it’s one big thing and usually it’s early in your term if that’s going to happen. So getting folks to think about here’s how I would prioritize as president is a revealing question about whether they understand how the system really works.

Frederica Freyberg:
Who do you think did that best?

Mike Wagner:
I think Harris, Buttigieg, Swalwell all had pretty good answers for that question. Senator Sanders rejected the premise of the question and said we’ll just do everything and put the system on trial, basically, which is his strategy. But I think the others had a better first response to that question. But in all the candidates’ defense, Todd did ask for a one-word answer which — that’s kind of the lousy part of that question. It’s nice to reveal priorities. It’s bad to say one word and nothing else about how you would do it.

Frederica Freyberg:
From your perspective, which of the candidates if you can say so at this point would be best to mix it up with Donald Trump on a debate stage?

Mike Wagner:
I think Harris was showing how she would do it. Calmly prosecuting a case with facts and personal story. She did that quite well. I think Elizabeth Warren revealed that she’s pretty good at that thing. Cory Booker, Julian Castro, all of those folks I think made it clear they would be good at mixing it up with Trump. Others, Biden and Sanders, have their style, and they’re not really trying to reveal through their style how they would go about mixing it up with Trump. They’re just saying look at me, I know what I’m doing. I’m a strong candidate. That would work with Trump. Whereas I think the other candidates are trying to show voters you may not know me but here’s how I would look in a debate against President Trump.

Frederica Freyberg:
A lot of Democratic candidates are saying this isn’t about Donald Trump. We don’t want to talk about Donald Trump, but isn’t it really all about Donald Trump?

Mike Wagner:
Re-election campaigns are often about the incumbent and the job that they’re doing. And so it was a little surprising that the night one debate, the folks didn’t mention Trump very much. I think the night two folks got the memo and mentioned him quite a bit more, but a re-election campaign for a sitting president are often mainly about the job that person is doing. How well is the economy faired under that person’s leadership? What’s our foreign policy situation? What’s the mood of the country? All those kinds of things.

Frederica Freyberg:
We leave it there. Michael Wagner, thanks very much.

Mike Wagner:
My pleasure.