At a previous Democrat debate on NBC, one of the moderators asked for a show of hands of whose “Medicare for All” plan would cover illegal aliens. The result was an optics backfire and the Dems knew it, as did some in the media:

Friday’s NY Post cover on #DemDebate2: “Who wants to lose the election?” pic.twitter.com/JizEFdB0FD — David Caplan (@DavidCaplanNYC) June 28, 2019

At tonight’s CNN debate in Detroit, there was some good news for the candidates: Similar backfires would be avoided:

Well, Mayor Pete is regretting his previous show of hands participation. — Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) July 31, 2019

But Buttigieg will be happy to know he won’t be a part of another similar backfire:

Buttigieg: The show of hands format is exactly what's wrong with this race….@DanaBashCNN: "We're not doing that here." #DemDebate — MJ Lee (@mj_lee) July 31, 2019

How nice of CNN.

“We’re not doing that here.” — Dana Bash about CNN’s refusal to ask show-of-hands questions #DemDebate — Matthew T. Hall (@SDuncovered) July 31, 2019

CNN throws shade at MSNBC on show-of-hand questions (which reduce complex issues to, well, a show of hands). "We're not doing that here," anchor says — Michael Barbaro (@mikiebarb) July 31, 2019

It was nice of CNN to agree not to provide the Dems a chance at additional horrible optics.