With less than 70 days until the Iowa caucus, the fifth Democratic primary debate should have been a debate about distinction. Instead, the candidates mostly played nice, refusing to have any serious contact with each other about their policy differences or how they would find legislative success with a Republican-controlled Senate. Surprisingly, the moderators didn’t even bother to challenge any of the candidates on how they would achieve their lofty legislative agendas. This becomes more important on the healthcare front, particularly the healthcare plans proposed by Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, which former Vice President Joe Biden noted wouldn’t even get congressional support from all Democrats.

The debate was remarkably flat and dull, and the candidates didn’t finally come alive until New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker joked that Biden “might have been high” when Biden said he doesn’t support legalizing marijuana. The problem with that, though, is the debate ended 20-30 minutes later, meaning it took more than half of the debate for the candidates to start making direct contact with their opponents, and that’s just entirely too long.