Part 1 is here.

The transcript is here.

4. Asshole comment of the night: Pete Buttigieg saying that we have to ask how Donald Trump even got “within cheating distance of the Presidency.” The Democrats still refuse to admit that the election of the President was legitimate, without any evidence whatsoever. I don’t care who they are running for, the White House or mayor of East Podunk. I am not forgiving or trusting such a party until they recant, or are properly punished.

5. Do these people realize how ridiculous and irresponsible they sound regarding climate change? Beto O’Rourke: “I listen to scientists on this, and they are very clear. We don’t have more than 10 years to get this right.” Mayor Pete Buttigieg: “Science tells us we have 12 years before we reach the horizon of catastrophe when it comes to our climate.” How many times does the boy have to cry wolf before people catch on?

And, incredibly, there was support expressed by the two top demagogues on the stage for the absurd and totalitarian “Green New Deal.” Warren  (who proved her intellectual dishonesty and lack of integrity by co-sponsoring the Green New Deal bill, though it wasn’t worthy of a sixth grade science student, much less a Harvard professor): “Climate crisis is the existential crisis for our world. It puts every living thing on this planet at risk.”  Classic fact-free fear-mongering. Absolutely no scientist has suggested that “every living thing” is as risk even with the most dire climate chance models. As I have noted before regarding Warren, she deliberately tries to exploit public ignorance, and asserts things that we know she knows are not true. How can anyone support someone like that?

Then comes Bernie Sanders: “We can create what the Green New Deal is about. It’s a bold idea. We can create millions of good-paying jobs. We can rebuild communities in rural America that have been devastated. So we are not anti-worker. We are going to provide and make sure that those workers have a transition, new jobs, healthcare and education.”

The crypto-communist knows that what the Green New Deal is all about is, as Ocasio-Cortez’s guru, Saikat Chakrabarti, explained to the Washington Post,  the  Green New Deal isn’t “a climate thing at all,” but a stealth “how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.,” and, necessarily, a put government’s iron boot down on personal liberty thing, though neither Bernie, Liz, Saikat or the other aspiring totalitarians in the party will say so out loud.

6. When moderator Jake Tapper asked “whether the middle class should pay higher taxes in exchange for universal coverage and the elimination of insurance premiums,” Sanders rebuked him for using “a Republican talking point.” Thus was born a new progressive dodge. The next night’s debate participants quickly took up the task of distorting yet another term to make honest debate more difficult.  My favorite was Julian Castro’s “Open borders is a right-wing talking point.”

Talking points are packaged arguments that the speaker often can’t support or doesn’t really understand. I’ve flagged the parroting of talking points here and on social media, such as when a friend recently said that Trump has violated “democratic norms.” I don’t want to get ahead of my Big Lie posts, but having studied the Presidency obsessively since I was ten, I think I am qualified to call “bullshit” on that claim. Breaking old traditions and Presidential “norms” are what Presidents do: the norm claim, like so many others, is designed for people who can’t name ten Presidents and who fall for the hypocrisy that what Trump does is wrong because Trump does it.

But using the “talking point” label to silence the truth is unethical. “Medicare for all” will require taxing the middle class, much as Bernie’s infamous Bizzaro World math would have it otherwise. Decriminalizing illegal immigration, as most of the Democratic field support, equals open borders. Refusing to accept a deliberate Democratic Party obfuscation isn’t being partisan.

7. To be fair, some of the 2A candidates sounded like they challenged the pro-illegal immigration fad, perhaps sensing that its a loser. Beto said, “I expect that people who come here follow our laws, and we reserve the right to criminally prosecute them if they do not.” He did not clarify whether breaking the law to get here should count, however. WHY would he expect that people who come here illegally to follow our laws? I don’t. Tim Ryan said, “If you want to come into the country, you should at least ring the doorbell!” Whatever that means: if nobody answers the bell, can you then break in the window?

Of course, none of CNN’s three moderators had the wit or integrity to follow up with that question.

8. Runner-up asshole statement of the night, from Sen. Warren (I’m shocked…shocked!): “The point is not about criminalization. That has given Donald Trump the tool to break families apart.” Right. Because the Evil Orange Man’s goal is to break up families.

9. Here’s more deceit from Pete Buttigieg: “Nominate me and we will have a different conversation with American voters about why the president of the United States thinks you’re a sucker when the problem in your life is your paycheck is not going up nearly as fast as the cost of housing.” Houses are increasing in value, which is nice for those who own homes. Mortgages are near historic lows, which means a lot of those increased housing costs are made up in lower interest rates. (My mortgage rate was originally 12%.) Rental rates have not increased as much as home costs, especially away from some infamous large cities. But here’s the New York “factchecker” covering for Buttigieg. They term his assertion as “the economy is not as strong as Mr. Trump likes to argue because expenses are rising faster than wages,” and rule “This is true. A March study from the National Association of Realtors found that in the past six years, from 2012 to 2018, median home prices across the United States increased by 47 percent while monthly wages rose 16 percent.” Wait: how does that study prove, or even suggest, that “expenses” are rising faster than wages?

10.  Here’s an example of a statement that should disqualify a candidate from being taken seriously, from Pete “This is why we don’t elect people under 40 as President” Buttigieg:  “So-called conservative Christian senators right now in the Senate are blocking a bill to raise the minimum wage, when scripture says that whoever oppresses the poor taunts their maker.”

Cheap shot, hypocritical, absurd appeal to authority. Does Pete know he is running under the banner of the same party that is increasingly challenging conservative judges on the basis of their Christian faith? He’s gay: does this mean that he supports the Christian bakers?

Summary of debate 2A: This is why, as pathetic a candidate as he is, Joe Biden still leads in the polls.