If Vice President Joe Biden won Tuesday’s Day 2 of the second Democratic presidential debate, as some argue, then Sen. Elizabeth Warren won on Wednesday.
Biden was on defense all night — blocking left, dodging right. He was hit on 
healthcare, on race, on immigration. He stammered and stopped several times, failed to seize opportunities to strike back — or was weak when he did — and rambled, often ending before his time was up and abruptly instead of with a call to action or any umph or … anyway.
He can say the name as many times as he wants, none of Obama’s mojo rubbed off on Biden.
Some say he was better than in the first round in Miami but Ladra isn’t so sure. Biden seemed unprepared, especially when he tried to beat back an attack from New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and sort of lost focus midstream.
Someone on the campaign ought to get fired.
Booker kept getting the best of him.
Read related: Day 1 of the Democratic debate: Winners, losers and observations
So did Harris on racism. So did Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on sexism. The two ladies almost high-fived about it afterwards.
But it may backfire a little. Ladra doesn’t think that voters are going to like 
two powerful women beating up on an old white guy. No matter how much he deserves it, at some point it just hurts to watch.
In fact, it seemed that Biden’s heart just isn’t in it. He just sat there and took the hits, sometimes refusing to even look his accuser in the eye. He almost seemed scared to strike back. Or like he couldn’t be bothered.
“Everybody is talking about me and how terrible I am. Barrack Obama had ten lawyers,” vet him before he was chosen to be his running mate, so he can’t be that bad, he said. Yeah, he really did say that.
The standouts Wednesday were former U.S. Housing Secretary Julian Castro — of course, it took a Latino to mention Puerto Rico — Hawaii Sen. Tulsi Gabbard and, to a lesser extent, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who called Biden out on his Obama addiction after Biden failed to denounce his former administration’s penchant for deportations and said he liked immigrants with PhD degrees better.
“Mr. Vice President, you can’t have it both ways,” said Booker, whose attacks seemed more resepectful than Kamala’s. “You invoke President Obama more than anybody in this campaign. You can’t do it when it’s convenient and then dodge it when it’s not.”
Booker was also offended by the classifying of immigrants by education.
“I heard the vice president say that if you got a PhD., you can come right into 
this country. Well that’s playing into what the republicans want, to pit some immigrants against other immigrants.”
But Booker lost major points on criminal justice after several Biden pointed out his spotty criminal justice record as mayor of Newark.
“You engaged in stop-and-frisk. You had 75 percent of those stops reviewed as illegal. You found yourself in a situation where three times as many African-American kids were caught in that chain and caught up,” Biden said in a rare moment of clarity and zest. “The Justice Department came after you for saying you were engaging in behavior that was inappropriate, and then in fact nothing happened, the entire time you were mayor.”
Then came Booker’s most memorable line: “You’re drinking the Kool-Aid and you don’t even know the flavor.”
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Castro finally explained why decriminalizing border crossings does not mean “open borders” as Republicans like to scare, because there is still b
order patrol, miles of fencing and a deportation process for people who are here illegally. But there is no separation of families and warehousing of refugees in for-profit prisons. His immigration policy is not only humanitarian and decent, but smart and forward thinking in terms of partnering with Central American countries.
“It looks like one of us has learned the lessons of the past,” Castro said, turning his head toward the VP, “and one of us hasn’t.”
He was also good at education and affordable housing, his wheelhouse.
Gabbard — who looked like a glowing lesbian bride in white and is spending tons of cash on commercials, probably so she can stay on stage in September — took Sen. Kamala Harris, who had won her debate in Miami, down a notch. Or two. Biden should send her a check.
“Sen. Harris said she is proud of her record as a prosecutor…but I am deeply concerned about this record. There are many examples, but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and laughed about it when she was 
asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” Gabbard said.
“She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so,” she added. “You owe them an apology.”
Harris basically said something along the lines of at least she didn’t kill any innocent people. “My entire career I have been opposed to the death penalty.”
Um, not really a good response.
On the other side of the spectrum, was Harris, who lost much of the momentum she gained at the first debate, Gillibrand and New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio.
At least we know we won’t have to see DeBlasio or Gillibrand up there again. Who needs opposition research when the candidate self-proclaims as the poster child for white privilege? We knew, Senator. Because the R in your first name is in the wrong order.
DeBlasio — who also got hit by both protesters and fellow candidates for not firing the cop who killed Eric Garner — knew he was going down and wanted to bring down as many candidates as he could with him. Or just Biden. He acted like the kid who can’t play anymore and wants to take the ball home.
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Other random observations include:
Security must have been more lax Wednesday night as several activists groups disrupted the debate at least twice — against DeBlasio and Biden. “Three million deportations! Three million deportations,” people chanted as Biden tried to defend his track record on immigration and immigration reform. This didn’t happen on Tuesday but maybe there was nobody to protest?
Now we know why Washington Gov. Jay Inslee looks familiar. He used to be MTV’s Max Headroom years ago.
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet looked like he was nervous and took a Xanax right before going on stage — he was so monotone and talked so slow. Even when he was most animated, he seemed tired and a little sleepy.
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang scared me with talk about artificial intelligence replacing us and climate change deadlines. “It is already too late,” he said. “We have to start moving people to higher ground.”
Gillibrand may have helped sales of cleaning fluid when she said one of the best quotes of the night: “The first thing I’m going to do as president is I’m going to Clorox the Oval Office.” Go out and buy stock in Clorox now.
More important, however, than my own jaded observations, snidely made for your entertainment, are those of my 18-year-old daughter, who voted for the first time last November and is somewhat misguidedly enamored of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Cecilia is the demographic that these Democrat candidates need to move. Hell, they need to light a fire under her ass. Her whole generation’s ass. We cynical adults will vote no matter what. We’ll hold our noses and pick the lesser evil if we must. My daughter won’t. She’ll stay home if she is not moved.
On Tuesday, she was moved by Bernie Sanders, though she liked how Marianne Williamson talks. On Wednesday, she liked Castro, Gabbard and Yang. Biden? Yawn. Booker? Blah.
Cecilia used to like Harris, until Gabbard attacked her record as a prosecutor and said she held back evidence that could have freed someone. That was enough to turn the teenager.
“She’s dead to me,” my daughter said.
How many other voters lost trust in Harris Wednesday?
Trust may be the only saving factor for Biden, who managed to keep that through all the fray. But he needs to step up his game for the next, count ’em, eight debates if he wants to stay in the lead.
Observations from Day 2 of the Democratic presidential debate added by Ladra on
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