Not much to say about the Sad Six that hasn’t already been said elsewhere, though I agree with John Podhoretz that it was the greatest debate in human history as they all gripped their club of choice and took turns bashing the skulls of everyone else. Bloomberg was an instant loser and probably still is unaware of the fact, given that his own news company is forbidden from reporting anything on him. He probably thinks he was being clever when he told Elizabeth Warren that he would not release any former employees (all women) from their NDA’s. I doubt he even noticed the long strips of his flesh she was deftly removing with a filleting knife. He looked supremely inconvenienced that he was there at all. Good news, Mike: it was probably your last appearance.

Amy and Pete pounded each other all night, to the diminishment of both. Pete makes you wish he wasn’t such an economic and political moron. He sounds that good. Amy, on the other hand, can’t say “Hello,” without sounding like she’s reprimanding you for something. She acts like someone you should like, which makes it all the worse for her when you realize how much you don’t.

Warren had her moment and she took it out of the gate. Bloomberg won’t recover. But she peaked early. For the rest of the night she was stuck in the same mud the rest of them are bogged down in.

No one attacked Biden. He scarcely got a question. He’s old and on life support. No one wanted to disturb his slumber.

Sanders is still the one to beat and it will be interesting to see what is more repugnant to the party: The People’s Republic of Bernie, or Hillary, v. 3

So here’s my question: since when is it a crime to make money in this country? The best line out of Bloomberg was “I’ve made a lot of money, and I worked hard for it.” Time was, that would have been a sure-fire selling point, and if Bloomberg was really interested in pulling the party back from the brink, he’d be pounding that theme: “This is America, damn it. We don’t attack success! We’re inspired by it.”

He won’t do that, for the same reason that the entire field has been pushing, as if with one voice, policies that would have been suicide even four years ago. The socialist chimera has infected all of them, and even the ones who aren’t fully on board have no idea how to stop it.

That’s why they all come with ready-made plans. That’s what bureaucrats obsessed with the power of government do—they make plans. It matters not a bit if they fit the real world; what else is governmental power good for, if not to bend the world to your vision. That’s why they exude such morose pessimism. We just won’t conform to their plans, and there’s going to be a lot of work forcing us into line.

That’s why Trump’s rallies are such explosions of optimism. He trusts us. He wants government out of the way. He wants the free market to find its natural level. He inspires us. The rest of them put us to sleep arguing points in their plans.