Though I have been very critical of her campaign in past columns, I must admit Hillary Clinton won Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential primary debate.
She put a huge dent in concerns about her handling of the scandal surrounding her possible mishandling of classified information, and she made a case that she is the perfect mix of liberal and moderate to succeed in governing.
“I’m a progressive,” Clinton said. “But I’m a progressive who likes to get things done.”
Bernie Sanders, while he got lots of applause and social media buzz from his supporters, fell flat in trying to broaden his appeal in the Democratic Party. His most-talked-about moment of the night was when he supported Clinton’s position on her scandal, saying to her “the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails!”Sanders was unwilling to attack Clinton on her most vulnerable issue and only time will tell if this was a solid strategy.
Sanders pounded away on income inequality, his signature issue. He took aim at his favorite target, the financial sector, saying, “Congress does not regulate Wall Street. Wall Street regulates Congress.”But he treated the debate as if it were a campaign rally, mostly shouting his platform instead of engaging Clinton, and seemed to be too focused on the economy and not enough on other issues.
Clinton, meanwhile, sharply attacked Sanders and her Republican critics. She correctly noted that many of the current investigations of her time as Secretary of State are politically motivated.
The biggest exchange of the night between the front-runners centered on gun control. Sanders was forced to explain his votes in the Senate against key gun control legislation. He defended his record, saying he was representing Vermont, a rural state, and explaining away one of his votes as being on a “complicated bill.”Clinton noted she voted for the bill in question and said, “I was in the Senate at the same time. It wasn’t that complicated to me.”
Overall, the debate was much more substantive than the previous two Republican debates, and much of that had to do with the fantastic moderation by CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Cooper aggressively questioned the candidates on their records rather than trying to get candidates to constantly attack each other as Jake Tapper did in the last debate. It should be noted the Fox News moderators had the same strategy as Cooper in the first Republican outing, but didn’t execute it as well.
Sanders showed that he will have a tough time explaining the nuances of his support for socialism, a dirty word in American politics. He passed up a chance to defend capitalism and business, and praised smaller countries like Denmark for their socialist policies. “We are not Denmark,” Clinton said to applause, slighting the notion that America can scale ideas from a nation 60 times smaller in population.
The other three candidates on stage struggled to make an impression, just as they have on the campaign trail.
Martin O’Malley, former governor of Maryland, had a hard time explaining why his policies as mayor of Baltimore didn’t contribute to the unrest seen there earlier this summer. He did well by weaving in several personal anecdotes with his policy arguments, but largely used watered-down language like we’re “all in this together.”
Also, O’Malley touted his record of passing liberal gun control legislation, but was pushed on just how easy that is in a liberal state by Bernie Sanders. O’Malley responded by implying that Maryland has a large gun culture — yeah right.
Still, O’Malley did much better than former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, whose awful performances are yet another reason they should not be in the race at all.
Webb touted his foreign policy acumen and military service in Vietnam, but got the most passionate when arguing with Cooper over speaking time. Otherwise, he lacked charisma, especially when his joke about killing a man in combat fell flat.
Chafee struggled mightily while grinning awkwardly through the entire night. He took the most direct shot at Clinton of all the candidates, saying “I think we need someone that has the best in ethical standards as our next president.” It backfired when Clinton was asked if she wanted to respond and replied with a smile, “no.”Cue lots of applause.
Overall, the debate showed that Clinton is the clear front-runner for the nomination, and she did well to shore up her liberal credentials in the face of Sanders’ surge. However, many hurdles remain for her between now and the actual casting of primary ballots. First up, she’s scheduled to testify before the Benghazi committee next week.Then there’s Joe Biden,who wasn’t on stage as he still considers a presidential run. And she'll have trouble defending some of the positions she took in the debate come general election time.
But on Tuesday night, Clinton showed why Democrats are overwhelmingly supporting her for president.