huge missed opportunity. mike: do they look to take on their closest rivals to have a moment on the debate stage or do they try to stay focused on going after president trump? mike, i think it is a combination of all of the above. you noted in lead-in to the segment this is the first time that all the top candidates will be on stage together. it is the first time that vice president biden and senator warren will face off in one of these debates. mike: uh-huh. if you look at polling, the top five candidates, biden, sanders, warren, harris, buttigieg, roughly account for about 70% of all of primary voters support among democrats. mike: uh-huh. for these five, this is about not only consolidating their position, but obviously moving ahead, and i agree with brad, that when you re running against somebody like joe biden, who is consistently at the top of the polls, you ve got to find a way to differentiate yourself. mike: right. conversely, if you are the former vice president biden
is seeking to define the race. presidents get re-elected when they are able to define the race and by definition define their opponent opponents. so it is a mix of both. mike: joe biden is representing the more mainstream democrat while warren and sanders representing the more progre progressive wing. how do you expect that battle to sort out? i think biden has a real problem. in my opinion he s been running for president for 30 years. the current state of the democratic party has long since passed biden by in policy and direction. if you add up the support of bernie and warren and buttigieg and harris, biden is under water. so people are looking for an alternative, and i don t think joe biden can outsocialize the younger crowd that he s up against, and i think if he tries to do it, it will not be seen as genuine, not be seen as real, nor credible. mike: dave, do you worry about some of those progressive voices and liberal freshman members of