Clinton Gets Rough, Sanders Stands Tall in Last Dem Debate Before Iowa Caucus
Hillary Clinton’s ultimate goal going into this fourth democratic presidential primary debate, the last before the Iowa caucuses, was to take out Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders’ popularity has been the only real threat to her nomination for a long time and she needed him gone. Anyone who has been paying attention knew this day was a long time coming and Clinton’s campaign all but telegraphed the attack plan last week when she began going negative in her stump around Iowa and in the ads on daytime television following the Brown and Black Presidential Forum.
At this debate, we saw that Hillary Clinton was locked, loaded and fired many shots at Sanders’ controversial and changing position on gun control. She threw direct body blows against his recently released healthcare proposal. The former secretary of state even had a few daggers up her sleeve for the Vermont senator’s political and ideological differences with President Obama. At times, the ferocity of their back and forth made the stage atmosphere so tense that it almost came off like a Republican debate just in terms of the conveyance of sheer intensity of conviction and the contentiousness of the topics brought forth by either side.
Despite all those prepared strikes Secretary Clinton launched, it would seem Senator Sanders weathered it all fairly well, but also countered with similar strength. Two big moments of the night: 1) when Martin O’Malley rebuked both of his rivals and the GOP (whilst quoting abolitionist Frederick Douglass) in one fell swoop for their affinity toward using divisive language (middle class vs. billionaires, Christians vs. Muslims, etc.) and 2) when Sanders called out Clinton for taking checks from Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street institutions.
Although there are those would say the most potent attack Secretary Clinton unleashed were her points on Sen. Sanders’ gun control policy position, since it left him having to bumble through and explain his controversial votes for the Brady Bill and others in a very politicky way, I felt that he did rebut it well in the end. Her least effective attack was her pivot to cast Sanders as an Obama hater whilst simultaneously wrapping herself in an Barack invisibility cloak. Simply because this debate was primarily dominated by topics, in which Sanders was called out, and that he managed it much better than his opponent probably anticipated, and because Clinton was caught off guard on several instances (such as the campaign contributions by Wall Street and saying her plan was stronger than O’Malley’s and being rebuked for that), and because O’Malley once again was not able to shine, I think the victory for this last democratic debate goes to Bernie Sanders. Sen. Sanders exhibited great pride and confidence in his campaign’s progress, his long record, and his policy proposals. I believe this glared through well for those watching the debate, South Carolinian audience members aside.
Topics that were missed that I wished they had discussed: 1) immigration policy and 2) LaQuan McDonald and Clinton’s expression of support for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel in the face of his administration’s mismanagement of the case.
I would’ve expected Lester Holt or at least the other two make candidates to call out Clinton on her sudden and apparent overt concern for black lives that is nowhere else seen before this run. She does not seem authentic on these issues. I also have similar concerns with Sanders when it comes to black policy issues. He seems less interested in making a national show of his support (other than talking to Killer Mike and visiting barbershops) than Hillary. Nate Silver poignantly expresses a part of the concern here.
Still, he seemed to be pretty confident earlier in the debate saying that as the African American community learned more about him, more would come to his side. Of course, some disagree. I guess we will see about that.
