Lessons from the So-Called New Hampshire Presidential Debate

What did we learn from the so-called New Hampshire Democratic presidential debate?  The simple answer is that if they keep it up the Democratic Party will debate itself into losing the 2020 presidential race.
The New Hampshire debate, like all of the previous ones over the last few months, was  not a debate.  They have been simply media events, Jerry Springer shows full of one-liners, petty attacks, and vacuous positioning on issues that hardly count as debates and  where CNN or the moderators egg on the participants.  Real debates are when individuals take positions on issues, argue to points, and provide reasoned arguments and evidence to support their claims.  This was not what happened in New Hampshire or in any of the previous debates. There was no substance here.  To recall a famous line Walter Mondale once used against Gary Hart: “Where’s the beef?”
What we saw in New Hampshire was predictably boring.  The front runners Buttigieg and Sanders were attacked by Klobuchar and Biden who has to recover from Iowa.  Warren, Steyer, and Yang did their best to be relevant, and all of them tried to argue that the reason to vote for them was that they hated Trump the most or they were the most electable.  None of them, bar Sanders, really spent much time articulating their narrative for why they should be president, what they hoped to do, or what they sought to accomplish in a meaningful way.  It was a boring Jerry Springer show. 
What one took away was a choice: Vote for an inexperienced frontrunner who takes money from billionaires or vote for a billionaire directly who was a mayor of a city 86X more populous, or vote for me because I tell  folksy Midwestern jokes, because I will do well in South Carolina, or because even though I did bad in Iowa and probably will do so in New Hampshire, I am still the most electable.
Moreover, the debate seemed to show that there is a collective action or tragedy of the commons problem with the Democratic Party.  By that, Ronald Reagan famously declared the Eleventh Commandment that: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”  For Democrats their Eleventh Commandment seems to be: “Thou shalt only speak ill of any fellow Democrat.”  It is in the collective interest of the Democratic presidential candidates and party not to attack one another, but it is in the interest of each on individually to do so.  The presidential candidates view the presidential race as a zero sum game, I win only if you lose.  The path to the nomination is dirty and attack everyone else, rendering you the last one standing,  fully damaged by the process.
The two biggest winners of the so-called  New Hampshire presidential debate were Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg.  All agreed Trump needed to go but failed to say much beyond that in terms of a clear vision of where to go next.  All of them also could hear Bloomberg’s absence as deafening, feeling the need to attack him because as one watches his ads you get the sense that “Mike will get it done” gut the others are clueless regarding what its is or how to get it done.
The biggest losers were the Democratic Party and the American public.   This media event simply torn one another down and did little to repair the debacle of Iowa.  The American public, still registering high disapproval for Trump and yearning for an alternative, did not find it here, at least with the format offered.

Michele Bachmann's Meltdown

The Iowa presidential caucuses of January 3, 2012 are less than 75 days away and their outcome are more in doubt today than ever. What once looked like a certain victory for Michele Bachmann now looks less and less likely, and talk of her presidential prospects sounds more like a deathwatch especially in light of the resignation of her New Hampshire staff.

August 13, 2011 seems so distant now. Barely nine weeks ago Bachmann surprised many by winning the Ames straw poll. She was on top of the world, leading the GOP pack as the darling of the Tea Party. But then came the collapse. Rick Perry entered the race eating at her conservative base. Bachmann was unable to move to the center given her rhetoric and positions, and she disavowed any intention to do so. Media attention and scrutiny mounted, missteps and statements about HPV and retardation damaged her, and the cycle of decline began.

In the last few weeks numerous problems have mounted. Declining poll numbers followed with dismal debate performances that revealed no more than canned vacuous answers. All this was followed by poor third quarter fund raising and campaign debt and now her New Hampshire staff has stepped out.

Is Bachmann done?

Essentially, yes. As noted in several of my blogs, her campaign rested upon an Iowa strategy that is faltering even now. The belief before was that a victory in Iowa would be the springboard to success in other states such as New Hampshire and South Carolina. But she never did much to campaign there and her presence and infrastructure there was always weak. But now with Nevada and Florida moving up their delegate selection, Bachmann’s campaign was damaged even more because she did not have staff there to help her. The point here is that the Iowa strategy presupposed that she had money and structure in place in other states to take advantage of the Iowa victory. But she did not have this and thus, even if Iowa does still become a victory for her, she will be unable to take advantage of it. (Here are similar comments of mine in a story about Bachmann).

But now she is losing even in Iowa. Evidence is seen in the polls and in other candidates now returning to it to campaign with the belief they can win the state. She is falling back in the pack. She increasingly looks more like Rick Santorium than a leader in Iowa. She gives speeches to a few faithful but continues to slip in the polls. She has little new to say and the buzz she once had is gone. She has been unable to take advantage of Perry’s drop and instead Cain has benefitted. While potentially she can recover to win Iowa, the new January 3 date gives her less time to do that. Thus, an earlier Iowa date gives Bachmann too little time to recover and her dismal fund raising and failure to plan beyond Iowa make it unlikely she can go much further beyond Iowa.

Lessons Learned

What we learn from Bachmann’s collapse in part is that her great congressional campaign machine was unable to transition to a presidential level. You cannot win the presidency with a $40 average campaign contribution and an unwillingness to grow and expand a base, especially when others are also competing for that base. Bachmann took for granted that she owned the Tea Party–never do that.

In addition, her electoral skills were always vastly over-rated. She had a plus-6 GOP district in Minnesota–a district tailored to her. Her victories were over weak opponents or took place in the banner Republican year of 2010. In many ways, she looked stronger than she really was and perhaps she believed she was the star that the media had declared. While I always thought she had a chance to do well as an Iowa candidate and perhaps beyond, what is most striking is how amateurish she turned out to be as a candidate. That is the product of never facing a serious primary for Congress nor a serious contest in the general election.

Bachmann’s Clouded Future

So what next for Bachmann? Does her December book even have value now? Hard to say and it is unlikely it will save her campaign. Do we see her move on to CNN or another network with her own show? Her increasingly collapsing campaign makes that even less of an option.

Does Bachmann return to run for her congressional seat again? Maybe, she has until June to decide. But redistricting uncertainty and the prospects of a less friendly set of lines for the sixth district pose challenges. Moreover, the worse her presidential campaign looks the more it makes her potentially vulnerable to a primary challenge. Bachmann has never attracted big donors and if she were to run for Congress again her small donors may be tapped out or unwilling to give. She is in a bad situation right now and her options are ticking away along with the clock to Iowa.

And the Winner is. . . Preliminary Thoughts on the New Hampshire GOP Presidential Debate

Who won the debate last night? Bachmann and Romney emerged as winners in very odd ways.

Bachmann won but not really on substance. She won by her announcement that she was officially running for president. Her announcement was brilliant in the sense that she knew it would be the major news or headline item the next day. Yet again with this announcement she proved her ability to capture headlines and to shine the spotlight on her. Thus, Bachmann wins the public relations battle.

Romney was also a winner. The expectation was that the other candidates would go after the frontrunner and smear him with the phrase Obamacare. They failed to do so. Even Tim Pawlenty, who just a couple of days earlier had attacked Romney for creating Obaneycare, shrank for doing it. Because Romney held his own, did not suffer an attacks, and also managed to attack Obama himself, he appeared to escape the debate without scars and therefore won.

Beyond the Bachmann announcement and the failure of the field to attack Romney, there were no surprises in the debate. All of them attacked Obama and all of them more or less said the said thing when pressed on the economy, health care, abortion, and gay rights. What was most striking was how little they really disagreed, with all concurring that any of them would be better presidents than Obama.

But even more striking was how bland all were and how little they had to really offer as president. They were all strong in their criticism of Obama and the government but offered little in terms of real solutions. They all said the problems in the economy and the world were rooted in too much government and taxes, contending that by cutting both the private sector would solve our problems. Government thus crowds out real private sector innovation. Paul was most clear in arguing this. But beyond saying government was bad they offered little in terms of what government could do or why they wanted to be president. Instead, they all seem to be running for a job they want to eliminate.

Tale of Two Pawlentys

Pawlenty was interesting. It was a tale of Two Pawlentys. There was the governor of Minnesota who liked to describe himself as a moderate. Now it is a Pawlenty who took pride in passing pro-life laws, packing the court with pro-life judges, and a candidate against law rights and any type of government action. Who is the real Pawlenty?

Quick note on Bachmann

With her formal declaration that now means her congressional seat is up for grabs. All along it seemed clear that November, 2010 was the last time she would run for the House of Representatives. At that time it looked like redistricting or a run for the senate would be next for her, not the presidency. Nonetheless, Bachmann’s seat is open and that should begin a scramble for it. Moreover, think about her poor constituents. From the day she was sworn in this January Bachmann has been effectively running for president. She will now continue to do that leaving her district without any real representation.

At the debate Bachmann held her own and looked and sounded like the rest of the field. She turned away comments about her extremism and association with the TEA party may hurt her. She did a good job in sounding as bland as the rest.

Also, if Bachmann does not succeed in her presidential bid, running for president does not hurt her marketability or chances to challenge Franken in 2014.