Days 299 and 300: 3/14/20-3/15/20

Well, we survived another debate. I didn’t mind the lack of audience–it was nice to hear the old men not shouting–but I wish it had been more engaging. Can we make an agreement that in 2024, we’ll pick candidates who aren’t old men?





Not much difference between the campaigns.

While Joe Biden managed to stay ahead, barely, with 8 emails over the weekend, Bernie Sanders was right behind him with 7.

Sunday was debate day

Debate day had a couple extra emails, but nothing excessive. Nothing I wasn’t expecting for it being a debate day.

Honestly, only receiving 16 emails on a debate day was more of a surprise.

Joe Biden offered merch!

Unsurprisingly, both candidates sent me a pre-debate survey, just to see where my opinions stood. Joe Biden offered his survey for the very first time just a few hours before the debate, while Bernie Sanders‘ survey was a reminder of the survey he had sent earlier in the week, to better prepare.

Joe Biden also offered me a chance to get a President Biden sticker if I donated anything to his campaign. I managed to restrain myself.

Most of the weekend emails were about the big night.

There was actually some overlap in topics, though I ended up dumping most of them into Debate. Bernie Sanders talked about the coronavirus a lot, and how this crisis is demonstrating that we absolutely need him to be our leader, as he demonstrated during the debate.

Huh. I wonder if we watched the same debate.

I was bored just five minutes in, though I marveled that Sanders had an inside voice. The debate was a pair of old men arguing over how they voted half a lifetime ago (mind you, if Biden voted something uncool by today’s standards, it was hammered home, and if Sanders voted something uncool by today’s standards, it was brushed aside with an “eh, let’s not debate the past.”) When they talked about the coronavirus, Biden kept stressing the urgency of handling the crisis now, while Sanders kept trying to change the topic to underlying economic crises.

Yes, it’s horrible that there is extreme wealth inequality and if a kid breaks his leg the family might not have the money to pay for it. But right now, the problem is that people might not be able to breathe. The immediate virus killing people and hospitals running out of capacity is what I am concerned about and what I want to know how the President will handle. Sanders talking about dismantling what little systems we have in place was not as comforting as Biden explaining how we can mobilize the military to get emergency 500-bed tent hospitals set up and safe.

Biden also committed, during the debate, to picking a female VP. Sanders, on the other hand, hemmed and hawed and said that they were moving in that direction, but he didn’t sound very enthusiastic about this.

After the debate, both Sanders and Biden emailed me. Sanders wanted to point out how he had always been on the right side of issue after issue, unlike Biden. While Biden could have pointed out the exact same thing (and did, during the debate), instead he simply asked if he made me proud during the debate.

Not really, but at least he didn’t make me want to throw things at my TV the way Sanders did.

One of these candidates has not been emailing me much…

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