Bombs away: the Kissinger Democratic Debate Recap and Takeaways.

Another week, another Democratic debate, this one in Wisconsin just in time for the primary in…April? Well, any excuse to have it in Wisconsin, I guess.

It was a very strategic debate for Hillary Clinton and she came across well.

Her primary attack was to emphasize that she and Sanders have the same goals, but she has specific, achievable proposals instead of “promises you can’t keep.” She showed a lot of knowledge of economic and foreign policy details and tried to position herself as a more seasoned, realistic candidate rather than a “one issue” one.

At the same time, she moved farther to the left, using the phrase “rigged economy” in her opening statement and expounding on the role of racism, sexism and discrimination.

She also wrapped herself in the legacy of Barack Obama, saying an attack on her for taking money from Wall Street is an attack on him. It exposes a bit of cognitive dissonance on the far left: they feel like Hillary is a Republican and the establishment is corrupt, yet many are proud of Obama — and for that matter Bill Clinton — who are also centrist democrats.

Both associating herself more tightly with Obama and social justice causes makes her a bigger target in the general election. Remember, this is a country where 82% of people don’t support feminism and Obama’s approval rating is under 50%.

Throughout the debate, she did her best to steal Sanders thunder when he got big responses by agreeing with him or saying “Well, of course…” like a boxer moving into a clutch. Then at the end, she launched a broadside of attacks against him — calling his attacks on Barack Obama unbecoming — forcing him to use part of his closing statement to respond. In her closing statement, she played to the crowd by supporting unions, who Sanders had apparently forgotten to mention all show, to a big response from the Wisconsin crowd, where Governor Scott Walker (who she bashed a few times as an example of Republican opposition that could hamstring Sanders’s plans). It was the performance she needed to have, showing that she could also generate enthusiasm and present a strong counterpoint of realism to Sanders’s idealism.

All that said, the most memorable part of the debate was a Sanders attack that led people to crack open their history books (or Wikipedia, let’s be real). He attacked Clinton for taking the foreign policy advice of Henry Kissinger, alleging his bombing of Cambodia caused it to fall to the Khmer Rouge — who ended up killing millions of civilians. This is still debated — the bombing of Cambodia was conducted with the tacit permission of the Cambodian government after North Vietnam set up bases to launch attacks on Americans in Vietnam and support the Khmer Rouge, but there is also an argument it was counterproductive and ended up strengthening the movement. Whew!

Clinton fired back that we still don’t know who Sanders’s foreign policy adviser is, and he responded “It ain’t Henry Kissinger.” Shots fired, even if they weren’t in Cambodia. Clinton defended Kissinger, saying that his work in China was admirable — and for what it’s worth, he’s considered the most effective secretary of state and many presidents since have sought his guidance — but this is the core pitch of Sanders vs. Clinton: someone who works within a flawed system, or someone who in many ways rejects it.

Sanders didn’t lose the debate — he made his pitches concisely and passionately like always —so much as Clinton won it overall. Sanders made a stronger impression on foreign policy than in previous debates, and his pitch that every time we try and topple a government it ends up worse certainly resonates, in an election where keeping the country safe is a big issue and a terror attacks spike that sentiment, a pacifist approach seems like a weakness (just ask Rand Paul). He also repeated the effective attack that Wall Street was not stupid and would only be giving money if they were getting something out of it — though perhaps they would give money to any candidate who wasn’t running expressly on tearing it apart.

On his liability side, he did cough continuously throughout the debate. It’s an afterthought for this one, but if it happens again you may see his health emerge as an issue. Remember the “heartbeat away from the presidency” attacks on Palin from John McCain, now glumly still alive 8 years later? If the worry is that Sanders won’t fulfill his promises, it’s an even bleaker prospect there’s a possibility he won’t be around to — or if he beats the odds to win the nomination, but runs against a younger and healthier-looking candidate.