在这个选举季的民主党辩论中，第一次以领先者身份出现的候选人毫发无损地完成了当晚的竞选。皮特·巴蒂吉现在在爱荷华州领先，他受到了老兵图西·加巴德的几次猛烈抨击，但没有动摇。当晚的另一个大赢家是参议员卡马拉·哈里斯，他以相反的立场参加了周三的辩论，在竞选季开始时表现强劲，后来逐渐消退。

哈里斯一直在民调中苦苦挣扎，不得不裁员，以重新聚焦于早期的核心小组州，他周三晚上出柜。她也是一个重要辩论时刻的一部分:舞台上女性首次超过男性，有四名女性候选人和一个全女性主持人小组。他们的存在占据了主导地位。在第一个小时，发言时间最多的前四名候选人中有三名是女性:参议员哈里斯、伊丽莎白·沃伦和艾米·克洛布查尔。

在舞台上的六个人中，巴蒂吉格预计今晚离开，至少看起来像是走进了一个校园大喊比赛，如果不是被打得遍体鳞伤的话。当沃伦在10月的辩论前短暂超越前副总统乔·拜登时，几乎所有的候选人——由巴蒂吉领导——都对她投怀送抱。因此，当皮特市长在今晚的辩论前跃居爱荷华州第一名时，专家们已经准备好了战斗。

妇女争取胜利

 

2019年11月20日，佐治亚州亚特兰大市，民主党总统候选人众议员图西·加巴德(左)、参议员艾米·克洛布查尔(右)、印第安纳州南本德市市长皮特·巴蒂吉格和参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦(右)在泰勒·佩里工作室参加民主党总统辩论。

所有三名女参议员都有望站出来反对巴蒂吉格:沃伦回应了他对她在10月份为全民医保付费的抨击她暗示的性别歧视倾向于市长哈里斯因为巴蒂吉竞选失误一名肯尼亚妇女的照片曾在他的网站上展示一名非洲裔美国女性。

尽管克洛布查尔和哈里斯确实拍摄了照片，但他们早期的大部分讲话时间都集中在女性选民身上(在哈里斯的案例中，集中在对有色人种女性影响特别大的问题上)。

“女人有不同的标准。否则我们可以在这里玩一个叫做“说出你最喜欢的女总统”的游戏。他们都是男人，”克洛布查尔对观众的笑声说。“我想每个职业女性都知道我的意思。我们必须更加努力工作。这是事实。”

她引用了自己赢得选举的记录，并补充道，“如果你认为一个女人不能打败唐纳德·特朗普，南希·佩洛西每天都会这样做。”

该小组还就带薪育儿假和支付育儿费用的计划提出了深思熟虑的问题，这个问题可能比其他讨论花在与弗拉基米尔·普京交谈上的时间更多。谈到堕胎权的候选人说，支持选择是，也应该是民主党候选人的试金石——主张严格限制晚期堕胎的加巴德可能不同意这一立场。

企业家杨安泽说得很好:“世界上只有两个国家没有给新妈妈带薪探亲假:美利坚合众国和巴布亚新几内亚。这是完整的名单，我们需要从名单上删除。”

卡玛拉全力以赴

哈里斯的竞选活动一直在无人区进行，他一再提请人们注意黑人妇女的困境，黑人妇女历来是民主党的中坚力量。卡玛拉批评该党在选举季节之外没有为这些选民做更多的事情。

“人们厌倦了说哦，谢谢我的出现，然后说——好吧，为我出现！”她说。

但她最强有力、最具战略性的时刻出现在傍晚时分，当时她大胆批评加巴德贬低民主党，并“巴结”史蒂夫·班农。“在这个舞台上，有人试图成为民主党提名的美国总统候选人，他在奥巴马政府期间花了四年时间在福克斯新闻上批评奥巴马总统。”

皮特市长的持久关爱

 

民主党总统候选人，南本德市市长皮特·巴蒂吉格(左)，马萨诸塞州参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦(中)和前副总统乔·拜登，于2019年11月20日在佐治亚州亚特兰大的泰勒·佩里工作室登上由MSNBC和华盛顿邮报联合主办的2020年总统竞选季第五次民主党初选辩论的舞台。

但是吉吉和加巴德在晚上进行了最激烈的交流。她批评他说他会在墨西哥雇佣军队；他反驳说评论断章取义。他痛斥她与叙利亚领导人巴沙尔·阿萨德会面，她还痛斥他缺乏勇气。人群喜欢烟火，但双方似乎都很高兴。

沃伦，可能对唤醒十月份的全民医疗保险很警惕，没有理会。但是克洛布查尔和哈里斯被直接问到他们对巴蒂吉格的批评，然后就走了过去。

克洛布查尔先走了。一位主持人问她最近的评论是什么意思，“在舞台上的女性中，我认为我们会站在舞台上吗，如果我们有他[·巴蒂吉的经历？”？不，我没有。”明尼苏达州参议员在回答时小心翼翼地避免直接挑战市长。

“皮特有资格站在这个舞台上，我很荣幸能站在他旁边，”她开始回答。

当被问及巴蒂吉格网站上的股票照片错误时，哈里斯也做出了类似的举动，她几天前还打趣道。“市长为此道歉，”她说，然后转向关注黑人选民。

但是迪吉格触及了他所有的谈话要点，保持冷静，甚至设法挤进了《福布斯》把他列为“这个舞台上最不富裕的人”的行列

可选择性，可选择性

拜登甚至连他的第一句话都说不出来，“谁最有可能赢得总统大选？”民意测验显示他仍然处于有利地位，但事实上他很难把声明拿出来，这表明候选人可能不是他。拜登继续打出他的奥巴马牌——“我来自黑人社区..就我的支持而言，并引用他在华盛顿的丰富经验，这可能不如巴蒂吉的卖点不在华盛顿有丰富的经验。

几分钟后，拜登第一次失言是在谈论他的医疗保健计划时，该计划“不会让人们做出选择”。我应该说，允许人们选择。”

后来，当谈到对妇女的暴力时，他说政治家和社会需要“继续抨击它，继续抨击它”。不是一个很好的词语选择。他说男人永远不应该向女人伸出手，“除非是自卫，这种情况很少发生。”

这些失态在过去对拜登选民来说似乎并不重要。尽管如此，当他开始竞选时，提名是他注定要失败的——而且他似乎有能力输掉它。

候选人看起来像他们...玩得开心

 

民主党总统候选人前副总统乔·拜登和加州参议员卡马拉·哈里斯在2019年11月20日由MSNBC和华盛顿邮报在佐治亚州亚特兰大的泰勒·佩里工作室共同主办的2020年总统竞选季第五次民主党初选辩论中开怀大笑。

拜登在谈到获得“唯一当选参议员的黑人女性”的支持时又犯了一个错误参议员科里·布克看着舞台的另一边，停了一会儿，可以听到哈里斯大喊:“不，我就站在这里。”

片刻之前，布克重定向了一个问题，他说，“我想回到黑人选民的问题上来，我一生都是黑人选民。”观众喜欢它，几乎和布克说他认为拜登“可能很高”时一样，当时副总统说他反对大麻合法化。

在其他新闻中，沃伦有一个计划，伯尼·桑德斯呼吁政治革命，汤姆·施泰尔谈论气候变化。随着领域逐渐缩小，核心小组越来越近，候选人实际上似乎更享受自己，这使得辩论更加有趣。

下一次民主党辩论是在12月19日。

以下信息图由提供Statista，显示了辩论参与者发言的分钟数。

 

11月20日民主党辩论中候选人的发言记录。

WHO WON THE FIFTH DEMOCRATIC DEBATE? ANALYSIS OF THE WINNERS, LOSERS AND HIGHLIGHTS

For the first time in this election season's Democratic debates, the candidate who came in as frontrunner finished the evening unscathed. Pete Buttigieg, now leading in Iowa, took a couple of hard hits from fellow military veteran Tulsi Gabbard but didn't wobble. The night's other big winner was Senator Kamala Harris, who came into the Wednesday debate in the opposite position, having started the campaign season strong and then fading.

Harris, who has been struggling in the polls and has had to lay off staff to refocus on early caucus states, came out fighting Wednesday night. She was also part of a significant debate moment: for the first time, there were more women than men on stage, with four women candidates and an all-women moderator panel. And their presence dominated. In the first hour, three of the top four candidates with the most speaking time were women: Senators Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar.

Of the six men on stage, Buttigieg was expected to leave tonight looking, at the very least, like he got into a schoolyard yelling match, if not battered and bruised. When Warren briefly eclipsed former Vice President Joe Biden before October's debate, nearly all the candidates—led by Buttigieg—turned on her. So when Mayor Pete leapfrogged into first place in Iowa ahead of tonight's debate, pundits were ready for a fight.

Women for the Win

 

Democratic presidential candidates Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) (L), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), (R) participate in the Democratic Presidential Debate at Tyler Perry Studios November 20, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia.

All three women senators were expected to come out swinging against Buttigieg: Warren in response to his jabs at her about paying for Medicare for All in October, Klobuchar over the issue of sexism that she intimated had favored the city mayor and Harris over a Buttigieg campaign misstep that saw a stock photo of a Kenyan woman used to illustrate an African American woman on his website.

And while Klobuchar and Harris did take their shots, they spent most of their early speaking time focusing on women voters (and in Harris' case, on issues that particularly affect women of color).

"Women are held to a different standard. Otherwise we could play a game up here called Name Your Favorite Woman President. They've all been men," Klobuchar said to laughter from the audience. "I think every working woman knows what I mean. We have to work harder. That's a fact."

She cited her own record of winning elections and added, "It you think a woman can't beat Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi does it every single day."

The panel also provided considered questions on a paid parental leave and plans to pay for childcare, an issue that probably took up more time than other debates have spent talking Vladimir Putin. The candidates who spoke about abortion rights said that support for choice is, and should be, a litmus test for Democratic candidates—a position that Gabbard, who favors tight restrictions on third-trimester abortions, may not agree with.

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang got in a good line: "There are only two countries in the world that don't have paid family leave for new moms: the United State of America and Papua New Guinea. That is the entire list, and we need to get off that list."

Kamala Goes All In

Harris, whose campaign has been struggling in no-(wo)man's land, repeatedly drew attention to the plight of black women, who have historically been the backbone of the Democratic party. Kamala criticized the party at large for not doing more for these voters outside of election season.

"Folks get tired of saying oh thank me for showing up, and say—well, show up for me!" she said.

But her strongest, and most strategic, moment came early in the evening when she boldly criticized Gabbard for dissing the Democratic party and "buddying up" to Steve Bannon. "We have someone on this stage that is attempting to be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, who during the Obama administration spent four years full time on Fox News criticizing President Obama."

Mayor Pete's Enduring Endearment

 

Democratic presidential hopefuls, Mayor of South Bend Pete Buttigieg (L), Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (C) and former Vice President Joe Biden, arrive onstage for the fifth Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season co-hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia on November 20, 2019.

Buttigieg and Gabbard had the fiercest exchanges of the night. She criticized him for saying he'd employ troops in Mexico; he fired back that the comment was taken out of context. He lambasted her for meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, and she smacked him for lacking courage. The crowd loved the fireworks but seemed equally delighted by both sides.

Warren, likely wary of waking October's Medicare for All beast, left well enough alone. But Klobuchar and Harris were asked outright about their criticisms of Buttigieg and, well, walked right past.

Klobuchar went first. One of the moderators asked her what she meant by a recent comment that, "Of the women on the stage, do I think we would be standing on that stage if we had the experience he [Buttigieg] had? No, I don't." In her reply, the Minnesota senator carefully avoided taking on the mayor directly.

"Pete is qualified to be up on this stage and I'm honored to be standing next to him," she started her answer.

And Harris pulled off a similar move when asked about the stock photo error on Buttigieg's site that she quipped about just days ago. "The mayor has made apologies for that," she said, before pivoting to focus on black voters.

Buttigieg hit all his talking points, kept his cool, and even managed to squeeze in a line that Forbes had ranked him as "literally the least wealthy person on this stage."

Electability, Schmelectability

Biden couldn't even get out his first sentence without stammering, "who is most likely to win the presidency in the first place?" Polls say he's still in a good position, but the fact he could hardly get the statement out shows that candidate may not be him. Biden continued to play his Obama card--"I come out of the black community.. In terms of my support and cite his vast experience in Washington, which may not play as well with many voters as Buttigieg's selling point of not having vast (or any) experience in Washington.

Minutes later, Biden's first gaffe appeared in talking about his health care plan that would "not make people choose. Allow people to choose, I should say."

Later on, when talking about violence against women, he said that politicians and society need to "keep punching at it, keep punching at it." Not a great choice of words. He said men should never raise a hand to a woman "except in self-defense, which rarely happens."

These sorts of gaffes don't seem to have mattered in the past to Biden voters. Still, when he started the campaign the nomination was his to lose--and he seems up to the task of losing it.

Candidates Looked Like They Were... Having Fun

 

Democratic presidential hopefuls Former Vice President Joe Biden and California Senator Kamala Harris share a laugh during the fifth Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season co-hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia on November 20, 2019.

There was another Biden gaffe when he spoke of getting the support of "the only black woman to be elected to the Senate." There was a pause as Senator Cory Booker looked across the stage and Harris could be heard yelling, "No, I'm standing right here."

Moments earlier, Booker redirected a question thrown his way, saying, "I'd like to return to the issue of black voters, I've been one my entire life." The audience loved it, nearly as much as when Booker said he thought Biden "might have been high" when the former veep said he opposed legalizing marijuana.

In other news, Warren had a plan, Bernie Sanders called for political revolution and Tom Steyer talked about climate change. As the field whittles down and the caucuses get closer, the candidates actually seem to be enjoying themselves more, which made for a more entertaining debate.

The next Democratic debate is December 19.

The infographic below, provided by Statista, illustrates the number of minutes spoken by debate participants.

 

Minutes spoken by candidates in the November 20 Democratic debate.