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reviewing the 3rd Democratic debate

September 13, 2019 – The debate field has been winnowed to 10 candidates, and they're finally all on the same stage. Check out which ones strayed off topic or didn't answer their questions here. Read below for more details.

Penalized candidates

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren
Penalty for not answering the question – George Stephanopoulos asked Senator Warren if middle class taxes would go up in order to pay for her healthcare program. She reiterated that total costs for middle class families would go down because their health care would be cheaper, but she never explicitly addressed whether this savings would be paid for through higher taxes. (Btw, this is not the first time Senator Warren has been flagged for this penalty regarding health care.)

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar
Penalty for not answering the question – During her opening statement, Senator Klobuchar said she wanted to represent the people caught between the “middle of the extremes” (seemingly referring to Senators Warren and Sanders). But when asked to identify who she was talking about, she instead talked about how often she had worked with Sanders to bring down pharmaceutical prices.

California Senator Kamala Harris
Penalty for changing the subject – Senator Harris was asked why she went from supporting Bernie Sanders’ healthcare plan to rolling out a plan of her own. She briefly mentioned a policy difference between the two plans, but spent most of her response praising Sanders, President Obama, and John McCain’s vote to save Obamacare, and denouncing President Trump.

South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg
Penalty for not answering the question – Mayor Buttigieg was asked about his comments that anyone voting to reelect President Trump was “at best, looking the other way on racism.” Rather than directly criticizing potential Trump voters, he attacked racism across the country and talked up his bona fides on addressing its impacts on black Americans.

Former Vice President Joe Biden
Penalty for not answering the question – When asked to contrast his criminal justice policy with that of Senator Booker, Biden touted his own plan but didn’t mention Booker’s.

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The Penalties

Candidates can receive a penalty for the following infractions:

• Failing to answer a question

This one is pretty self explanatory. Candidates might have a good reason to avoid the question, but this is a debate and if you're not here to answer the questions, then it's just a televised press conference. 

• Failing to stay on topic

For instance, in an earlier debate, Lindsey Graham was asked about his opinion on the right of bakers to refuse to cater a gay wedding. He responded: "Whether you're the wedding cake baker or the gay couple or the Baptist preacher, radical Islam would kill you all if they could."

• Candidates can receive a technical foul by comparing their opponents to the Nazis.

​​This rule might be controversial due to the innumerable times Donald Trump's opponents have compared his xenophobic policies to Nazism. However, going back to the first debate, we, at Ballotball, have held a zero-tolerance policy towards Nazi comparisons. We flagged Lindsey Graham for comparing ISIL to the Nazis, and we were watching Governor Mike Huckabee closely after he compared President Obama to the Nazis after he agreed to the Iran nuclear deal (this didn't happen during a debate, so no penalty was issued). The reason for this rule is threefold:

1. Nazi comparisons are lazy. If you'd like to compare Donald Trump's ban on Muslims entering the country to a historical precedent, why not try McCarthyism, or the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, or the Jim Crow south? Instead, people always grab the low-hanging fruit of the Nazis to make their point.
2. Nazi comparisons ignore the fact that there are still Nazi parties alive and well in many countries. They have not receded to the dustbin of history and currently have at least one member sitting on the European Parliament. 
3. This is a debate. And nothing shuts down a debate faster than a Nazi comparison. It is our strong opinion that such comparisons send all parties to the barricades and prevent anyone from actually communicating. Disagree strongly, and make your case the best you can, but leave the Nazi metaphors at home, please.