The Debate of 2020/Mar/19---Bernie gets confused on Questions

The Democrat Candidate Debate of March 2020 was an unusual one.  There was no audience, no press, and it was held in the CNN studios (in Washington, DC, I believe).  Because of the COVID-19 epidemic, the candidates did not shake hands (they bumped elbows instead); and their podiums were spaced well apart from each other.

Bernie
Right from the outset, Bernie made a mistake in how he answered the first question.  To be fair, the moderator (a familiar face, but I forget her name) asked the question in such a way as to conflate the Trump Administration's response to the pandemic, with Bernie's Health Care Reform Plan, namely Medicare For All (abbreviated to MFA).

Whether or not MFA was in place---and of course, it wasn't---the answer would be the same; something like: "If there were a Pandemic Response Team, ready and able to deal with the problem, with sufficient funding for emergency equipment, and able to provide leadership across the country, I would allow them to do their job.  In addition, Congress and the Federal government would have to work on providing financial relief for those critically affected by the so-called Social Distancing that we have got to do.
"On the other hand, if I had do respond to the pandemic without a response team, I would have to improvise, just like the President is trying to do.  The difference is that he, personally, wants to micro-manage the response, pretending a scientific background he does not have.
"The important thing is not to have to improvise!  The basic elements of the response should already be in place!"

The main thing to bear in mind is that anticipating a possible pandemic is entirely different from setting up a Health System that is friendly towards those who are not wealthy.  Unfortunately, Bernie, (even if he realized the difference between the two questions) being better prepared to speak on the Health Reform issue, headed in that direction.

Joe Biden
Joe Biden shot back with the fact that in Italy, they already have "MFA", and it didn't work!  Why it did not work is probably a complex problem, tied to delayed leadership response.  You could have the best Health Service in the world, but if there is no competent political leadership to manage the social aspects of the pandemic, the virus would still defeat the Health System.

The Debate, and the Primary
As many newspapers and information sources point out, we have to completely change gears from now on.
*Voting will be very peculiar; it will probably have to be by mail, or online, or something problematic like that.  Or the election will have to be postponed, giving Trump an extra year.
*Conventions will be very peculiar.  Unless Bernie voluntarily drops out, I cannot imagine how the Democratic Convention could take place, given the (very reasonable) rules against gathering in large groups.  The DNC is doubtless engaged in overheated discussions about how to proceed.  But their recent performance does not give me a lot of confidence in their ability to make a reasonable decision.
*Bernie and Biden are both hamstrung, as far as campaigning is concerned.  TV, almost the only game in town, could deplete their coffers very soon, and Bernie, for one, will have to live with his messaging at the disastrous debate, without any alternatives that I can see!

Running mates
Both (male) candidates have either pledged to (in the case of Biden), or promised to work at (in Bernie's case) getting a female running-mate.  There was an excellent program on Democracy Now, in which two guests---one supporting Bernie, and one supporting Biden---discussed their responses to the female running-mate issue.  Dr. Taylor of Princeton, the Bernie supporter, supported her candidate eloquently.  Dr. Dyson of Georgetown, only gave the electability argument for his support of Biden.  He cautioned everyone not to underestimate the sophistication of the African-American portion of the Democrat electorate.  But unfortunately, it is impossible to overestimate the fear and the loathing of this component of the electorate to the prospect of another four years of Trump, and their sincere doubts about the capacity of the White population to choose wisely.

More interestingly, Biden can choose almost any female running-mate, and present a more intelligent, more able team to defeat Trump than he has at present!  As I have said earlier, Biden has no original ideas at all.  All he has is a superficial take on Obama's policies, with none of the flexibility that Obama's intelligence supplied his administration.

Bernie, in contrast, has very definite things he wants to do.  The running-mate Bernie chooses---and Dr. Taylor made this point---has to be at least as progressive as Bernie.  The only one who fills the bill is Elizabeth Warren, and she is more of a leader than Bernie, and would probably hate to be VP.
Moderates are anxious that Bernie is not sufficiently flexible to work with congress and the senate on compromise legislation.  In fact, I believe he is.  But, politically, he is afraid that his progressive supporters will feel betrayed if he shows a willingness to compromise now.  But . . . where are these progressive supporters?  Where have they gone?  Do they think Biden is a better bet?  Or are they too few in numbers to push Bernie into winning the nomination?  This COVID-19 business, if it had no good results at all, could at least have given Bernie a good leg to stand on.  Instead, it appears that Bernie's campaign has been outmaneuvered.

Economic Relief for Distressed Population
Have we all been outmaneuvered?  Has Trump been able to, despite his complete fumbling with the Pandemic, set up a winning game for the election?  The stock market is going daily lower, the population is uncertain whether to be panicked or not, hourly paid workers are losing their wages even as we speak, and Congress hands economic relief to big corporations, and forgets all about the most vulnerable in our midst.  Gas companies, for instance, say that they need billions of dollars in order to ride out this bear market.  People working in restaurants and grocery-stores, for instance, need a steady trickle of a few hundreds a week.  You could give relief to the poor for a decade, with what it takes to give the Gas companies what they say they need for a year.  Obama bailed out the car manufacturers, but not the workers.  Soon, as we have seen, the car companies moved out of the country.  Big Business is never grateful.

Trump and the GOP, no doubt, are wondering which demographic is most likely to reward them at the polls for economic relief.  But what the moment calls for is for relief without expectation of any return for the money.

Arch, with apologies for the fragmented nature of this post!