Winners and Losers of the Democratic Debate

Throughout the long Democratic primary process, Opinion columnists and contributors have ranked each candidate’s debate performances. Now, after the 13th and potentially final Democratic debate, we’re presenting the results.

Overall, Bernie Sanders had the most consistent performance, according to our columnists and contributors, winning one contest and scoring 7 out of 10 overall. Joe Biden fared worse than Mr. Sanders in most debates, but he finally placed first in our rankings with Sunday’s debate.

Other recent contenders are reflected here, too: Elizabeth Warren was an early favorite, earning the highest overall score with 7.1 out of 10. Amy Klobuchar started low, with 4.6 in her first debate, but climbed steadily and peaked with two No. 1 performances before dropping out of the race.

On Sunday night, Opinion writers again ranked the participants for the March 15 Democratic presidential candidate debate in Washington, D.C., on a scale of 1 to 10: 1 means the candidate probably didn’t belong on the stage and should probably drop out; 10 means it’s on, President Trump. Here’s what our columnists and contributors thought about the debate.

Read what our columnists and contributors thought of the Feb. 25 debate.

Gail Collins (9/10) — The huge question was whether Biden would stumble, fall into one of those oh-whoops-sorry moments. And he didn’t! Made perfectly rational arguments on every point. That’s really all he needed. So he won. The Democratic Party clearly prefers Biden and just needed to be reassured Sunday night that nothing disastrous was going to happen. Don’t know that it’s fair, but the “you have a single-payer system in Italy …” comeback pretty much took care of the Medicare for All argument for the evening.

Nicole Hemmer (9/10) — The smartest move Biden made in the debate — other than committing to a female running mate — was tying revolution to disruption. At a moment when the world’s been turned upside down, he offered to flip it right side up, not shake it up more. His reassurances send a powerful general-election message — and why he won the debate.

Michelle Goldberg (8/10) — Biden’s insistence that he was never open to cutting Social Security was dishonest. His attack on Sanders for saying obviously true things about poverty reduction in China was smarmy. But his performance should reassure Democrats who worried about his mental acuity, and his promise to choose a female running mate will likely dominate headlines.

Wajahat Ali (8/10) — Biden flexed with his recent victories and appeared confident, presidential, calm and compassionate. His opening provided people a soothing balm they desperately craved during the coronavirus crisis, one lacking from Trump’s narcissistic grandstanding and selfish hubris. Sanders’s attacks won’t stick, because Biden, in his closing, reminded everyone that the No. 1 priority is to “get rid of Donald Trump.” That’s it. He showed he’s the one to do it. He won the debate and will win the Democratic nomination.

Michelle Cottle (8/10) — From his stance to his tone to his opening comments that his “heart goes out” to those impacted by the coronavirus, he was there to promote his brand as a steady, experienced leader. During the first 40ish minutes, rightly devoted to the pandemic, he kept the focus on urgent needs and how he would concretely tackle the crisis. Made some news with his pledge to pick a woman as his running mate.

Gil Duran (8/10) — Biden won the night by announcing that he’ll pick a woman as vice president. But when challenged on issues like climate change, he chose to be defensive instead of aspirational. To take on Trump, he must stop taking the bait.

Melanye Price (8/10) — He successfully positioned himself as a pragmatist who can put forth immediate solutions to very real problems. His perennial issue is having to convince voters that he can fix these problems, when he helped create many of them as a leader in the Senate (even if they were the unintended side effects of well-intended legislation). He promised that his V.P. choice would be a woman, and all the men who thought they had a chance began to weep.

Peter Wehner (8/10) — In a shrewd political move, Biden ensured that the only thing people will remember about this debate is his promise to pick a woman as vice president. It was also his best political debate. He was fairly sharp and focused, empathetic and crucially he didn’t fade. Biden should have focused a lot more on Trump and a lot less on his record, Sanders and the 1980s. Still, from coast to coast, Democrats are breathing a huge sigh of relief.

Jamelle Bouie (7/10) — The choice for Democrats is clear. Do they build on the legacy of Barack Obama or do they go beyond his presidency to forge a new kind of Democratic Party? Joe Biden did a strong job defending the Obama administration and making the case for a restoration. His problem, as always, is a career that includes four decades of Democratic retreats and Democratic compromises. And he still can’t quite answer for it.

Daniel McCarthy (7/10) — Biden was confident, had the best lines and if he was occasionally tongue-tied, voters have proved willing to overlook that. But they should mark his words carefully: Biden talks of administering the border and fighting the coronavirus as a “surge”; he presented Sanders’s factual claims about Chinese economic progress as pro-dictatorship; and he downplayed his own support for the Iraq War. He campaigns on a return to the Obama years, yet his words hearken back to George W. Bush.

Mimi Swartz (7/10) — Who knew? Joe Biden saved the Western world while he was V.P.! Yes, he was substantially better debating one person instead of a basketball team. He was as usual better at the beginning than the end, and convincing and calming on his plan to fight the coronavirus. His tack to the left was less convincing. Promising to put a woman on the ticket was a good move. “Results, not revolution” will be the mantra until the convention, whenever that will be.

Elizabeth Bruenig (6/10) — With Covid-19 advancing and the White House bungling its response, those who just wanted to return to normal a month ago are likely hysterical with that desire now, and Biden is here to assure them that we can, with unspecified bipartisan elbow grease, live in 2013 forever. If 2013 was a good year for you, that has to be a sterling pitch.

Héctor Tobar (6/10) — The dramatic reduction in the field of candidates helped him tremendously. He’s selling competence and tonight he gave a competent performance, showing more spark than I expected. His message was “Bernie’s a dreamer, but I can get things done.” But where’s the old charisma and charm?

Elizabeth Bruenig (8/10) — What’s odd about Sanders is that he’s simultaneously the ideas candidate — unlike Biden, he has a philosophical brief against the excesses of American individualism — and the practical, materially focused candidate, worrying over how low-wage workers will survive this crisis financially. That breadth of interests came through strongly in this debate, and the no-audience format suited him well.

Gil Duran (8/10) — He was the most cogent candidate on the stage. In a subdued debate, he remained consistent. He’s the only remaining Democrat for big, structural change. He forced Biden in a more progressive direction, but his path remains unclear.

Jamelle Bouie (8/10) — If Biden tried at every turn to make the debate a question about what to do now, Sanders tried to turn the conversation to structural problems — to the larger dynamics that have produced the present crisis, whether it’s the devastating effects of coronavirus or climate change. It’s his most favorable terrain and he was strongest on that ground. Also, he seems much more vibrant than Biden, despite being a little older.

Nicole Hemmer (8/10) — Sanders turned the volume down and dialed the compassion up. He made a strong case that the pandemic crisis is actually a structural one, and while he won’t turn Biden into a Bernie bro, he (and Elizabeth Warren!) have lured Biden left on everything from immigration to college debt, a surprising win for the revolution.

Melanye Price (8/10) — He was effective at challenging Biden on his support of legislation that progressives view as problematic. As Sanders’s path to the White House disappears, he essentially vetted Biden for the progressive wing of the party, which will have to contend with Biden as the nominee. People like Sanders’s policies but they don’t trust that other Americans, particularly Republicans, will ever let them happen. It is not about animus toward Sanders but lack of faith in their fellow Americans.

Michelle Goldberg (7/10) — By repeatedly hitting Biden on his record, he made it seem like he’s still contending for the nomination, not just trying to secure progressive commitments from the front-runner. But while the coronavirus crisis strengthens Sanders’s case for radical reform of our health-care system, nothing that happened onstage is likely to change the dynamic of a race that he’s losing.

Gail Collins (7/10) — If you like Bernie Sanders, he was just fine. But he didn’t do what he’d promised: to set up a progressive ideological standard that Joe Biden couldn’t match. I suspect most voters who were listening thought these guys were pretty much on the same wavelength. But one has already been vice president. So that’s a huge win for Biden.

Michelle Cottle (7/10) — No matter the topic or question, he was there to make his standard case for the brokenness of the American system and the need for a revolution. Though clearly trying to play nice, he couldn’t quite shed his basic testiness. Not sure how this will resonate with anxious Americans worried more about how to weather the next few weeks than how to remake the economy or the political system.

Wajahat Ali (7/10) — Bernie, on the ropes, used the debate to promote his progressive policies and again call for a systematic overhaul of America’s corrupt economic and health care industries. He attacked Biden for his past votes and flip-flops, but the major victory for him moving forward would be Biden adopting his policies during this unprecedented crisis and beyond. It’s a bittersweet victory: Americans need Bernie’s plans, but unfortunately they want Biden to shepherd them.

Héctor Tobar (7/10) — Sanders makes a point, sticks to it. He believes in something. And in this battle of septuagenarians, he seemed more limber. But I’m not sure he changed many minds. While he landed blows on Biden (most powerfully on Social Security), none was close to a knockout.

Peter Wehner (7/10) — Sanders yelled less than he usually does and was less grumpy and more irenic than in the past. His best line was that on coronavirus we need to “shut this president up right now.” Sanders can also take some satisfaction in knowing how much he’s radicalized the Democratic Party (I do not). Still, he hardly laid a glove on Biden, and he seems to have internalized the fact that he won’t be the nominee.

Daniel McCarthy (6/10) — As Sanders himself noted, he’s the ideological leader of his party, especially of its youth. But most voters judge him too far ahead of them, and they seem less interested than Sanders is in how the Joe Biden of 20 or 30 years ago failed to live up to the standards of progressives today. Sanders has a command of legislative detail and of the big picture he envisions, but hasn’t shown he can build coalitions to make his dream real.

Mimi Swartz (4/10) — The virus gave Sanders an opportunity to keep attacking the inequities in American life, and he took it and ran. But his arguments are sounding tired because he so rarely expands on them in fresh ways, or even in specific ways. It’s not a good time to be an ideologue. Great that Sanders agreed to support the nominee. Let’s see if his followers do the same.