Jonathan Bernstein: “Not only was the stage opened to 20 candidates, but the qualifying standards were set extremely low: Candidates had to reach either a very low polling threshold or get 65,000 unique donors, metrics that are both objective and largely out of the hands of party actors. Usually, winnowing happens early on when candidates try and fail to win encouragement from party actors. This time, however, candidates can simply focus on reaching a qualifying goal rather than assessing the reaction they got from party officials or key politicians.”

“In fact, the new rules actually encouraged on-the-fence candidates to stick around for a while. After all, the DNC basically gave them a list-building challenge. Marginal candidates might well have decided that that alone was worth a formal run. Anyone who met or exceeded the donor threshold and then dropped out would’ve earned themselves a valuable resource in the meantime, not to mention increased national exposure, CNN Town Halls and a shot at a debate appearance. That’s a lot of rewards for what may turn out to be very little effort by some of the candidates.”

Washington Post: “So many Democrats are running for president that the chair of the National Governors Association, the mayor of America’s largest city and the senior senator from Colorado may not even qualify for the first debate — even though it allows for 20 candidates.”

“Joe Biden is trying to snuff out his Democratic competitors before the race really gets going,” Axios reports.

“He’s running like it’s a general election, cresting the aura of inevitability and readiness to stare down Trump.  He’s effectively dancing around topics like the Green New Deal, which could be a killer in the general election, and instead telling voters about the climate proposal he’ll unveil as early as the end of this month.”

Perhaps most important: “He’s promised to never attack a fellow Democrat. As the frontrunner, he’s the one who benefits from a primary with minimal infighting.”