Undecided Bay Area Voters Not Moved Much After Watching Fiery S. Carolina Debate
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- In the last debate before Super Tuesday, the Democratic Primary looked very much like a race with a frontrunner. Bernie Sanders took a lot of shots from those now trailing in delegates and the polls.
"It seemed like he was being attacked very rapid fire, back to back," said Adriane Williams, one member of KPIX's panel of undecided Democratic primary voters. "They were pointing out obvious criticisms of his radical ideas, or his perceived radical ideas, and some of his track record in the past"
Three members of the voter panel watched the debate in the KPIX studios and they all agreed that the headline was the frontrunner under attack. And then there was Elizabeth Warren's pointed attack on Michael Bloomberg over his non-disclosure agreements.
"Warren's performance, aside from just attacking Bloomberg, left a little bit more to be desired in terms of what distances herself, or makes herself more unique in the face of Sanders' record," explained Sharon Chung.
"And because Elizabeth Warren was so strong against him in the previous debate, it may not have been a great idea for her to just keep attacking. Like you're beating a dead horse," added Williams.
The panelists agreed that Joe Biden showed more life tonight, and they also had some praise for Tom Steyer.
"He's been polling well in the state, and I think he helped himself," Don Surath said of Steyer's performance.
"Having Steyer be the only one to come out so far as saying, 'I believe in reparations and revising the years of history,' it got huge applause," Chung noted of Steyer's comments.
So the big question: did tonight's debate move anyone in any direction?
"Honestly, I'm still torn between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders," Williams said. "But I think it might have put me 1% more in Bernie's camp."
"I moved a tiny bit closer to Buttigieg today," Surath said. "He commands the stage really well, and I hadn't really paid attention to that as much as I thought I would."
One more thing the three panelists agreed on was that they all wanted to hear questions, and answers, about the coronavirus, and they were a little puzzled as to why that issue that did not come up until the back end of the debate.