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Yes, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren exceeded expectations in tonight’s second round of Democratic presidential debates. But the indisputable breakout star of the night was Marianne Williamson, likeable soul, conjurer of “dark forces.”




And people stood up and took notice:


Williamson, a longtime author, speaker, and self-help guru who was once Oprah’s spiritual advisor, has been picking up meme-steam for some time. (Please, spare me, I know she won’t be the nominee, and I don’t really want her to be.) But stay with me here: As the CNN moderators repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to get Sanders and Warren to slip up—ping-ponging to the conservative Democrats on stage for deeply unearned rebuttals—Williamson nailed questions on reparations and racism , Donald Trump, and the water crisis in Flint.

Here she was on the issue of reparations, in which she also disputed the disingenuous framing of the question, saying they are not “financial assistance” but the payment of a debt that’s owed:


This was her answer about Flint, when she said—100 percent correctly—that such a thing would never have happened in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe:


Don’t miss that that answer also featured her dispensing with pointless “wonkiness,” saying the instantly-memorable phrase “dark psychic force” to refer to Trump’s influence on the country.


Willamson also managed to say what everyone was thinking about the likes of Tim Ryan, Steve Bullock, and John Delaney: “I almost wonder why you’re Democrats.”


See? Marianne is already the president...of my heart.