How the Democratic candidates responded to prompt what's "the biggest misconception about you."

There are different ways to interpret this invitation, so let's analyze and judge the candidates by the choices they made.

These are not in the order they appear in the transcript. I've grouped them in the way that fits my analysis.

First up: Biden and Bloomberg:

BIDEN: I have more hair than I think I do.

BLOOMBERG: Misconception, that I'm six feet tall.

Both of these men used the opportunity to point to a physical flaw that they've probably been sensitive about all their adult life. It's a well-known flaw. But it's not a misconception to believe that Biden has struggled with hair loss and Bloomberg is short. So they had to restate the flaw to make the answer fit.

One approach would have been to exaggerate the flaw so that it's wrong. That is, Biden could have said: The misconception is that I'm completely bald! And Bloomberg could have said: Some people say I'm only 4 foot 9! Now, nobody has that misconception, but I'd find it very funny.

Bloomberg exaggerates in the other direction, and nobody has that misconception, but he's imagining himself as a tall man, and in doing so, conceding that he is not. There's a kind of self-deprecation in that, even though it seems to be sneaking in a boast. But it's not a boast, because we absolutely know he's not 6 feet tall.
Biden restates the flaw in a very confusing way. To have the purported misconception, we need to first know how much hair he thinks he has. To say "I have more hair than I think I do" is a misconception is to say, I have only as much hair as I think I do (or even less hair than I think). That is, I'm not delusional about the amount of hair that I have. But if he were delusional about his amount of hair, then he'd be wrong to tell us that we're the ones with the misconception. It's so confusing! It's almost a Zen koan. How can you assert "I have more hair than I think I do"? If you're saying you have X amount of hair, then that's the amount of hair you think you have! How can you have more?! You can't, so, okay, that's why it's a misconception. [NOTE: I rewrote that last sentence, because I finally get it.]

Let's move on to the other men. Steyer, Sanders, and Buttigieg. They did not take the path of self-deprecating humor. They answered like the classic interviewee who says his greatest flaw is he works too hard. It was another opportunity to tout himself:

STEYER: The biggest misconception about me is that somehow I'm defined by business success and money.

SANDERS: Misconception? Misconception -- and you're hearing it here tonight, is that the ideas I'm talking about are radical. They're not....

BUTTIGIEG: Well, I think the biggest conception -- misconception is that I'm not passionate. I get that I'm kind of level, some say unflappable. I don't think you want a president who is flappable. But it's precisely because I'm so passionate about the things that are going on in this country. That I consider it important to approach all of that with discipline.

Okay, enough of that. I'm not unflappable. I'm going to flap very quickly over to the last set — the female candidates. We've seen that Biden and Bloomberg selected personal flaws and whipped them into self-deprecating humor. The 2 women also go for personal flaws:

WARREN: Well, I suppose one misconception is that I don't eat very much. In fact, I eat all the time. Because I get teased about this.

KLOBUCHAR: The biggest misconception is that I'm boring, because I'm not.

Warren, like Biden and Bloomberg, is talking about something physical about her. She looks quite thin. If she'd used the Bloomberg approach to turning that true fact into a "misconception," she could have said, "People think I'm obese!" I thought Bloomberg should have said, "Some people say I'm only 4 foot 9!" So, to use that format, she could have said, "Some people think I weigh less than 80 pounds."

But she left the topic of how thin she is alone and moved over to the adjacent topic of how much she eats. That suggests a misconception that she's anorexic or bulimic. I haven't heard that. But if she eats all the time and is that thin, that sounds bulimic. In any case, when a thin person insists she eats heartily, it's a boast. Not only am I thin, I eat all the time! That's not self-deprecation, and it's not humor. It's yes, I know, look at me, I'm thin, unlike you, and I don't even have to try to be thin. In fact, it would be hard for me to bulk up. Okay.

And now, to the most important one, Amy. The biggest misconception is that you're boring? But you are boring! Why couldn't she have owned it?! The question about the biggest misconception was paired with an invitation to state your motto, and her answer about the motto was so boring that the moderator forgot what it was and made her restate it.*

Oh, how I wish Klobuchar had said: The biggest misconception about me is that it's bad that I'm boring, and my motto is Government should be boring. And then shut up. But she couldn't. Because she is boring.

If she'd said her motto is "Government should be boring," everyone would be talking about that. What did she mean? Could it be true? It is true!

I love interestingness, but when it comes to government, I'd like it to quietly handle the business of government with competence and expertise. I'd like to go about my life and have you go about yours, without all the hysteria and the sense that we're supposed to monitor these wild characters constantly. Government is a terrible source of entertainment.

Now, Trump is massively entertaining, and I'm capable of enjoying his show, but I understand why he causes a lot of anxiety, and I don't think government should be such an anxiety production. That's why I have a tag "I'm for Boring."

I have thought many times, I'm just going to be for Amy Klobuchar, because she is boring, and maybe I could let her off the hook for not owning her boringness, because she's so boring, she doesn't even think of making such an interesting rhetorical move.

And maybe to a boring person, what she is is not boring, so she's not lying when she says she's not boring. She's just boring.
_______________________

* She said:

KLOBUCHAR: Then, I would say that my motto is the words of one of my political mentors, Paul Wellstone, who sadly is no longer with us. And he said that "politics is about improving people's lives." And that's been my life, from when my grandpa was an iron ore miner in the unions. Politics made those mines safer. And when my dad needed treatment, it was there for him, and, in his words, he was "pursued by grace." And when my mom got divorced and she didn't have a job and she went back to teaching and that gift of public service got her through. And then when our daughter was born and she couldn't swallow...

KING: Senator Klobuchar, what was your motto? I'm sorry. Senator Klobuchar, what was your motto?

KLOBUCHAR: Oh, I thought we had a minute to answer the question.

KING: No, what was your motto? I'm sorry.

KLOBUCHAR: My motto was that politics is about improving people's lives.

KING: Got it. Got it.