RUTHFULLY YOURS

MIAMI — Ten candidates shared the stage on the second night of the first debate of the Democratic primary. After two hours of questions and cross talk, of impromptu barbs and prepared talking points, a tentative picture has emerged of the initial winners and losers.

Winner: Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris has arrived.

Pollsters and pundits had wondered whether the freshman senator from California could start to deliver on her well-received campaign rollout. She answered Thursday night by pummeling the front-runner in prime time, questioning former Vice President Joe Biden about civil rights.

Harris pushed the 76-year-old Biden to explain his record on federal busing, which he opposed while a young senator from Delaware, and his association with segregationists, which he has defended as necessary for compromise.

“I do not believe you are a racist, and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground,” Harris told Biden.

“But I also believe,” she continued, “it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing.”

Although that decades-old legislative record is hardly new, Harris made it personal.

“There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day,” Harris said. “That little girl was me.”

Biden seemed to be caught flatfooted, insisting busing was a local issue, highlighting his time as a public defender, and dismissing the attacks as “a mischaracterization.” The Harris campaign was clearly prepared, making the most of the exchange and tweeting an old school picture of a pigtailed Harris wearing a backpack.

Winner: Pete Buttigieg

Pete Buttigieg may have seemed out of place. At first.

Mayor of South Bend, Ind. (population 102,000), Buttigieg shared the stage with senators, a former governor, and a former vice president. And after the shooting of a black man by a white police officer last week, a question about local governance threatened to derail his national campaign.

Why was it, asked MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, that under his watch the police force of his city had become less diverse?

“Because I couldn’t get it done,” Buttigieg admitted.

“My community is in anguish right now,” the mayor continued, “because of an officer-involved shooting — a black man, Eric Logan, killed by a white officer. And I’m not allowed to take sides until the investigation comes back. The officer said he was attacked with a knife, but he didn’t have his body camera on. It’s a mess. And we’re hurting.”

Buttigieg then connected that tragedy to the larger issue of what he sees as systemic racism in policing.

“I am determined to bring about a day when a white person driving a vehicle and a black person driving a vehicle, when they see a police officer approaching, feels the exact same thing,” he said. “Not a feeling of fear but of safety.”

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper questioned police accountability in South Bend. California Rep. Eric Swalwell demanded the mayor fire the police chief.

Buttigieg, remaining calm and taking responsibility, walked the two through Indiana law, which requires an investigation, and promised the officer would be held accountable. He didn’t come across as defensive; he came across as knowledgeable and thoughtful – on this and a host of issues ranging from gun control to “Medicare for All.”

Winners: Undocumented immigrants

Ten years ago, President Obama promised that his health care plan would not cover illegal immigrants. Each of the Democrats on stage Thursday was much more generous.

“Raise your hand,” said NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, “if your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants.” Every hand shot up, including Biden’s, prompting a follow-up question for the former vice president.

Why would Biden offer health care to the same group that Obamacare excluded? Because, Biden explained, “you cannot let people who are sick, no matter where they come from, no matter what their status, go uncovered. You can’t do that. It’s just going to be taken care of, period. You have to. It’s the humane thing to do.”

Health care was only the most obvious benefit promised. Elsewhere during the night, the candidates responded to the nudges from NBC moderators to support a pathway to citizenship for immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, virtual amnesty for any undocumented person already living in the U.S., an end to family-separation at the southern border, and millions of dollars in foreign aid for Central America.

Loser: Joe Biden

For as much as voters tuned in to these debates to see and hear from new candidates, they also tuned in Thursday night specifically to take the measure of Joe Biden.

Would he commit a spectacular blunder? Could he display vim, vigor, and verbal mastery of the issues to put to rest the notion that he’s lost a step? Could he fend off the attacks from his rivals?

The answers were no, no, and no.

Biden did not commit any catastrophic mistakes. But he did die a death by a thousand cuts as he stumbled his way from answer to, quite often, non-answer.  He got dinged by ankle-biter Eric Swalwell over the issue of age, when Swalwell reminded voters he was 6 years old when he first heard Sen. Biden talk of “passing the torch” to a new generation of leaders. More importantly, Biden seemed caught off guard by Kamala Harris’ emotionally charged attack on him for praising the bipartisanship of a bygone era with a couple of noted segregationists and for his role in federal busing policies. Biden’s response to both seemed inadequate to the moment, especially when Harris interrupted him to continue pressing the attack.

By the end of the 120-minute debate, Biden’s front-runner status seemed anything but inevitable.

Loser: Bernie Sanders

It was obvious from the first question that things are different for Sanders this time around.

He is still the curmudgeonly revolutionist, but in a field this diverse and progressive he comes across as a more cranky, less charming version of the candidate who ran as the sole alternative to an unpopular establishment figure four years ago. He yelled a lot. He coughed on Kamala Harris. At one point he gesticulated so wildly with his right arm that Joe Biden expressed surprise, as if he almost got hit. If Biden seemed old, Sanders seemed old and angry.

Sanders teamed up with Biden to rebut the generational issue, arguing that it is ideas, not age, that carry the most weight. And he talked a lot about the necessity of having the “guts” to take on big corporations and special interests, implying that he was the only one on stage who possessed the requisite intestinal fortitude. But his main rival wasn’t at a lectern Thursday night – she gave a strong debate performance the night before.

Therein lies the danger for Bernie: Democratic voters attracted to a message of hard-core progressive economic populism might trade in the old, used version for a shiny, newer model.

Losers: The 1 Percenters

Unlike the 1 percenters from the first debate who managed to make a decent impression (Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar, Bill de Blasio and Tulsi Gabbard), Thursday night’s crop had a more difficult task.

Democratic voters must really be wondering why they had to listen to the odd ramblings of Marianne Williamson rather than the two-term governor of Montana, Steve Bullock, who did not qualify to be on the debate stage.

Andrew Yang had one thing to say – he wants government to send every American adult $1,000 a month – and he said it. After that, he had little to contribute. Swalwell’s contribution was to ding Biden, but it was a double-edge sword. The California congressman drew attention to his own callowness, and actually helped Mayor Pete by comparison.

Although Michael Bennet, Kirsten Gillibrand, and John Hickenlooper made the points they wanted to make and had their highlights – especially Bennet — the format and sheer number of Democratic candidates only underscored how difficult it will be for any of them to break out of the pack.