Leading conservative writer and author John Podhoretz picked a clear winner of night one of the Detroit Democratic debates on Tuesday. Sharing an unexpected choice, Podhoretz declared in a Wednesday op-ed for the New York Post that “New Age Marianne Williamson is [the] breakout winner of Democratic debate.”
Podhoretz, who regularly contributes to the New York Post and edits the conservative Commentary magazine, credited Williamson’s victory to her unorthodox past as a motivational speaker and her assertion that “dark, psychic powers” are the primary contributors to discord in the United States.
“Used to be that Republicans running for president had the monopoly on unknowns, also-rans and non-politicians who would suddenly step up and deliver standout performances in debates,” Podhoretz said. He further detailed how Williamson’s attention-grabbing language and unique approach resonated in the “age of Oprah.”
“To most of us elitists, this either sounds wacko on its own terms or is dismissible as a semi-pagan illiterate translation of classic Christian thinking about the devil’s role in ordinary life,” he said, “But we dismiss the power of this approach at our peril.”
Podhoretz, a co-founder of the now-defunct Weekly Standard, also criticized leading Democratic candidates on the Tuesday night stage, saying of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s noncommittal answers about taxation, “She did not bother to answer pointed questions about whether her spending plans would require raising taxes on the middle class (they would),” he said, “but instead threw out more argle-bargle about how millionaires and billionaires would just do it.”
Of Vermont socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, Podhoretz was particularly critical.
“He was unfortunately reminiscent of Austin Powers — not as an international man of mystery,” he said, “but as someone coming out of a 30-year deep freeze and discovering that he was ‘having difficulty controlling THE SOUND OF MY VOICE!’ Yell, yell, yell, yell.”
Podhoretz, 58, who was also a speechwriter for former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, summed up the first night of the Detroit debates by detailing the largely ineffective countermeasures of more moderate candidates against the far-left proposals of Sanders and Warren.
“But keep an eye on that ‘dark psychic force’ Williamson warned us about. It might have legs,” he concluded.
Williamson, despite getting fewer minutes of speaking time than her opponents, was the most-searched candidate of the night after garnering several rounds of applause for her debate answers.
