Article snippet: In the first two hours of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary debates, there wasn’t a single moment that could change the course of the race. And, along those lines, no one candidate so obviously crushed the evening, at least compared to the others. That said, some White House hopefuls did better than their competition, and so the letter grades below are based on two criteria. First is the candidate’s debate performance, including the substance of their answer and ability to captivate a television audience under pressure. The second is whether they accomplished what they needed in the context of the campaign. (So, for example, a front-runner might have wanted a boring debate, where as longshots needed to take risks in order to shake up the campaign.) Here’s the scorecard: Former US housing secretary Julián Castro Grade: A- Coming into the debate, Castro had good company — about half of the field — in that if things didn’t start to go upward soon, he wouldn’t meet the criteria to get into the next round of debates in September. (He has already qualified for a July debate, as have all others in these two nights.) He punched well above his weight on Wednesday night. He inserted himself into the discussion on a number of issues, but particularly immigration, where he had the best exchange of the night with former US representative Beto O’Rourke. He showed his policy chops on this issue by calling out his fellow Texan in one of the first shows of daylight betwee... Link to the full article to read more