The 2016 primary race is beginning to shape up as the Clinton campaign had imagined when they began. After a few early bumps in the road, a couple strong debates have helped Hillary establish herself as the ready-for-the-presidency candidate. To this point, her main opposition had been the ghost of the Joe Biden campaign and Bernie Sanders. With Biden’s ghost dispatched, Sen. Sanders is the last point of true opposition — and he’s faltering.
Saturday’s debate in Des Moines demonstrated a key point: Bernie Sanders is weak on policy points outside of the economy. Before the attacks on Paris, being weak on foreign policy wasn’t a pressing issue for the primaries. But the game has changed. When pressed to make strong statements on ISIS at the debate, Bernie Sanders pivoted to the economy and veterans' issues. While the economy and veterans' issues are important, and the latter is a field in which Sanders has experience, the foreign policy questions are not going away.
The Sanders campaign has had success hammering away at Clinton and other candidates on economical issues. But while his socialist agenda has captured the imagination of millennial voters, he has been unable to secure the support of moderate democrats and minorities. Now that terrorism stands to be a center issue for the rest of the primaries, the deficiencies in the Sanders campaign will be magnified.
The problem isn’t simply that Sanders has a weak foreign policy platform, but that Clinton’s platform is much stronger. And now that the Clinton campaign knows Sanders’ weak point, it’s only a matter of time until they strike a deadly blow. While Sanders was able to pin Clinton to her Wall Street connections, Clinton is now able to counter with Sanders’ weak stances on guns and foreign terrorism — which will resonate more with voters. This strategy should allow Clinton to keep distancing herself in the polls, until the nomination is all but wrapped up.
I was a believer in the Bernie Sanders surge. The momentum behind the Senator from Vermont’s summer campaign was overwhelming, and the Clinton campaign was facing issues across the board. But with the threat of Joe Biden dispatched and Clinton seemingly off the hook for her emails, the Sanders campaign has less horsepower. As the primary campaign shifts now beyond the economy into international affairs, it seems as if the Sanders campaign will not be able to keep up.
Was Saturday’s debate Sanders’ last stand? Certainly not. Perhaps the Clinton campaign will falter yet again, or Sanders will be able to muster some foreign policy merit. While there is still plenty of time for Sanders to recoup some momentum, it will require a quick shift in strategy and a clear stance on foreign policy. If Sanders campaign fails to switch gears, the last resistance to a Clinton presidential bid is all but over.