It was a hot mess, and not in a good way.
I realize this is SOP for politicians, but a lot of it was "thanks for that question, Chuck...now let me not answer it, and instead fall back on the talking points I have rehearsed which sort of address the general topic."
With so many candidates, it came across as early auditions for American Idol, and some of them clearly shouldn't move on to the next round. Beto crashed and burned. Gabbard didn't do herself any favors. Ryan, Delaney, DeBlasio, and Inslee should pack their bags as well. Castro did the best job of answering the "why are you here?" question. I'd give the overall "win" to Warren, with Booker coming in second.
I'm hoping round two will be better. Looking forward to Mayor Pete, who seems to be better at the "ignore the question, here's my stump speech" thing.
For most of these, I feel like Randy Jackson on the aforementioned singing show: "Yo, that's gonna be a no from me, dawg."