Press

Thanks to CNN’s penchant for elaborately staged political melodrama, it’s easy to dismiss Round 2 of the Democratic presidential debates last week as a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. But amid all the sniping and squabbling, a larger theme did emerge: Democrats won’t beat an unpopular president with unpopular ideas.

The pragmatic candidates in the field finally found their voice and pushed back hard against what Montana Gov. Steve Bullock called the left-wing “wish list” that so far has dominated the debates. They took aim at the massively expensive “Medicare-for-All” schemes pushed by Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris; at calls from former HUD Secretary Julian Castro and others to decriminalize illegal immigration; and, at racing to shut down U.S. oil and gas production as part of the “Green New Deal.”