On February 14, 2019, the 9th Democratic debate, emanating from Las Vegas, further accentuated what had by now become acceptable in such political forums: an overt disrespect that pervaded the scene and led the GOP, predictably and rightfully, to accuse their opposition of being hypocrites.

If my side is to be the party of unity and — let’s say it — civility — then we have drastically failed to this point.

As a former school teacher, if I was grading the performance of that particular group of debaters in the aforementioned debates as a collective, they would have received an “F.”

The complete transcript of the Las Vegas Democratic debate can be found here:

Elizabeth Warren was largely considered the winner of this one in post-show polling, and make no mistake, her effort was indeed a show. As were the performances of the rest.

Somewhere, though, between this debate and its followup, her fortunes began to change. The ‘Pocahontas” controversy did not seem to hurt her; I’m inclined to believe the damage was self-inflicted.

If the early days of Elizabeth Warren’s campaign as everyone’s best friend were a bit pandering, she scored major points by consistently bringing to the table platforms and solutions on which she would be working.

As to the debates, to be clear, Warren absolutely should expose Bloomberg and anyone else who has been accused of questionable practices in a professional environment. Said candidate must answer to such charges.

Her major issue has become one of image, in my opinion. Warren was once considered a frontrunner as a highly-experienced, concerned contender who introduced solutions to real world problems. Though those solutions were also sometimes controversial, such as her plan to pay for Medicare for All, she was consistent in her messaging.

Of late, however, she has been drawn into the pervasive political ugliness of the day, spending considerably more time cutting down her opponents, primarily Bloomberg, than discussing her platforms. Bloomberg, the late-comer to this contest, has been near the bottom of every poll since he announced his candidacy.

His Super Tuesday results were expectedly negligible, winning only American Somoa.

So why the bother? Why the loss of focus on what brought this most talented and knowledgable of candidates to the party?

Her polling now is not much higher than the billionaire she’s excoriated.

Speaking of, after saturating the airwaves with unprecedented levels of advertising for nearly three months, Michael Bloomberg was on the defensive from the opening gun in his first debate. Mr. Sanders hit him for his support of stop-and-frisk police tactics. Ms. Warren eviscerated him as a sexist (“a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians”) who had “muzzled” women with nondisclosure agreements.

Does anyone remember the issues in this election?