The Democratic debates are just a sideshow for now – Washington has bigger issues

Elizabeth Warren was the big story of the latest Democrat debate. Having been steadily climbing in the polls, she cemented her place as the new leading candidate by facing a barrage of questions from a number of the lesser lights looking to knock her off her perch.

It was bad news for Joe Biden, who had a mostly quiet night having been top of the majority of the polls for months. It is clear that other candidates are starting to believe he is not the force they feared.

But beyond the two-hour debate and the reaction on Twitter, Facebook and the cable news networks, what of any significance is there to take from the debate?

Warren’s rise was well documented and while the public can only gain from having opponents trying to pick holes in her policies, as scrutiny of all candidates is a good thing, there was little else to get excited about on the night.

The field is still too big at 12 to really get a handle on all but the candidates with the most polling clout – in fact, the debate stage had an entirely new face in Ohio. The billionaire Tom Steyer, who jumped into the race in July, is best known for funding a campaign pushing for the impeachment of Donald Trump. He did not make much of a mark.

The return of Bernie Sanders after heart surgery was another talking point, but the major political action is taking place outside of the debate schedule. Sanders’s biggest piece of news across the evening was the announcement that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will join him at a rally on Saturday to endorse his candidacy. That could lead to AOC’s entire “squad” of first-time congresswomen backing Sanders. Such endorsements will likely help the senator’s campaign much more than a debate performance.

Autumn in the year before a presidential election is the time when Washington normally turns its attention to the primary debates, but with an impeachment inquiry under way, the Democratic Party has bigger fish to fry at the moment.

Given the Trump administration’s abstinence about allowing information to make its way to the investigation or for witnesses to give testimony, the party’s leading figures are concentrating on fighting that battle.

The impeachment proceedings will have a larger impact on 2020 than the debates, if the Democrats get what they want, so it is little wonder.

With the Democrat presidential candidate field so large, there is also increased focus on the early polling in some of the first states to vote in the primary race as analysts look for anyway to whittle down the field. While such early data can be untrustworthy in the long run, polls from Iowa and New Hampshire are starting to be pored over.

There may be more focus on the next Democrat debate in November if the field is slimmed down further, or if Warren, Sanders and Biden begin to attack each other more. But for now, Washington has only one major focus – Trump and impeachment.