Not Really Feeling the Bern

I’ll say it: I’ve only watched two of the democratic debates. I know, I know, I don’t deserve the political junkie title my Twitter bio proclaims. As someone who knows who I’m voting for I haven’t really felt the need. However, with the race tightening ahead of the Iowa Caucuses, Sunday’s debate was a must see.

While the punches did come out in the first debate of the year, it was also much of the same: Hillary was unflappable, Bernie went off on tangents and O’Malley was all but forgotten. As an Iowa voter, I was expecting Bernie to really wow me with this his performance in this debate but I came away disappointed. He had some great moments like when he forced Hillary to play defense concerning her relationships with the Big Banks and when he all but refused to answer the question about his opinion on Bill Clinton’s behavior. The last debate that I watched was the one in November. In that debate I felt that Bernie had a very hard time staying on-topic. He seemed like a little kid that had so much to say he just couldn’t keep it in and was spouting off random topics whenever he got the chance. While there was less of that in this debate, he still spent a lot of time turning the conversation towards income inequality and breaking up the big banks. It left me wondering if he has plans to do anything else if elected.

I’ll admit it, I’m voting for Hillary. She has the fortitude, qualifications and, in my opinion, wants the job more than any candidate out there. She needed to put up a good fight in this last debate before the Iowa Cuscuses and she did just that. Hillary came right out of the gates attacking Sanders’ past actions on guns and solidified herself as the strongest proponent of gun control on the stage. She did a great job aligning herself closely with Obama and painting Sanders as the anti-Obama liberal option. In perfect Hillary fashion, she was able to bring some humor into the evening as well when she said that she and Putin have an “interesting” relationship. The moment that brought her victory home to me though was when she mentioned the water crisis in Flint Michigan during her closing statement. She was the only candidate to discuss this huge violation of human rights that nobody really seems to be concerned with. Additionally, she is the only candidate in (either party) who has reached out to the Mayor of Flint and asked how she can help. While both Bernie and Hillary threw some great punches (Sorry O’Malley) I think once again, Hillary was better able to demonstrate her plans as President and should be considered the winner here. With no more debates before the Iowa Caucuses on February 1st, we’ll have to see if the Sanders campaign can turn up the Bern.

!O$