Biden in the firing line but the Democratic race is still his to lose

Two nights of debates see the party struggling on whether to adopt a progressive or moderate vision to take on President Trump.

By Cordelia Lynch and Emily Purser in Detroi,

The tone of the debate was set with the first five words uttered by a candidate: "Go easy on me, kid."
It was the plea by Joe Biden to his rival Kamala Harris, who had left him grasping for answers when she pushed him on his record on race at the last Democratic debate in June.
But it was a plea that fell on deaf ears, not just those of Kamala Harris, but almost all of the eight other candidates on stage at the second of two Democratic debates in Detroit this week.
Again and again, Vice President Biden - who leads with double digits in the polls - was attacked on his record and his plans, at times leaving him struggling to keep up.
"It seems like some of us have learnt the lessons of the past, and some of us haven't," former cabinet member Julian Castro jibed at Biden during a spiky exchange over immigration.
Senator Cory Booker was close behind him. "Mr Vice President, you can't have it both ways. You invoke President Obama more than anybody in this campaign.

You can't do it when it's convenient and then dodge it when it's not," he fired at Biden when he refused to reveal conversations he had with President Obama in the White House over immigration issues.
But it was Senator Harris, the former Attorney General from California, who most clearly arrived with a strategy to criticise the front runner.
She was prosecutorial in her attack, challenging him several times on his healthcare plan. "You are simply inaccurate," she told him early on.
Biden was more prepared for the challenge than at their last meeting, and over several moments, they sparred over the relative costs and coverage of their healthcare plans.
As with the first night of debate, the majority of the candidates on stage had a sole ambition - increase their name recognition amongst Americans, in an attempt to garner the support of more than 1% of Democratic Party members.
For Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur, it was marketing himself as the business outsider: "The opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math," he quipped, of himself.
Senator Booker will walk away pleased with his performance, not least because he earned an unexpected compliment in this arena, when Joe Biden mistakenly called him "the President".
Booker drew on his experience as former mayor of the New Jersey city Newark, a city that has struggled with crime, impressing the audience with his answers on criminal justice.
He found the opportunity to knock Vice President Biden for his age, telling him "you're dipping into the Kool Aid without knowing the flavour".
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, another candidate who's campaign has thus far failed to lift off, despite impressive credentials in the Senate, didn't get as much air time as she would like, and failed to land her own attack on Vice President Biden over a remark he had made about working women decades ago.
She did, however, walk away having delivered one of the only zingers if the night, raising a laugh from the Democratic audience when she said her first job on arrival in the White House would be to "Clorox the Oval Office" - or rather, get out the Dettol.
There were times that Kamala Harris behaved and was treated like the front-runner in the race, despite being more than 20 points behind Joe Biden in the polls.
And while he countered some of the attacks with his characteristic charm and wide smile, there were again moments that he seemed less dexterous than his rivals, and unable to stand up for his record.
For Biden it was only a moderate night, but crucially, not as bad as last time.
But just as important as the candidates who were on the stage are the ones who were not. Senator Elizabeth Warren had a successful night on Tuesday, and may have been pleased with how the forum unfolded on Wednesday.
The time the candidates spent sparring diminished the quality of the policy debates - not helped by one-minute time limits set by the moderators - and didn't match the loftiness of the progressive pitch made on the first night.
After two combative nights, the party continues to wrestle with the vision it wants to present in 2020 - progressive or moderate.
It looks no closer to deciding which will help serve it better and it could take many months before it does.
Expect plenty of attacks in the meantime, ones the president will inevitably revel in.
Joe Biden looks on shaky ground. But these are debates, often poured over by the Twitteratti and sometimes ignored by voters.
Name recognition still counts for a lot in this country and this is still arguably Biden's race to lose. He's not making it easy for himself.

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