Dem Debate #6 — Analysis
This debate in my opinion was the best Democrat Primary debate, because it had some notable moments and the banter between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was pretty funny.
Piggyback
Hillary Clinton at the beginning of the debate, seemed to agree with almost everything Bernie Sanders said. It seemed like she was shifting herself towards the left and was only differing on issues that she thought would be more strategic for her to differ on, like Healthcare or Foreign Policy. This can be a potentially good move, because she could attract some of the younger voters, however if viewers noticed this shift, they may view her as a flip-flopper and that could lose her some people who already support her. However, we’ll have to see who gets nominated to really know how it reverberated with the nation.
Historical moment(s)
One of the biggest things about this debate has nothing to do with the content of the debate (until Hillary Clinton pointed it out), but it definitely a historical moment. She points out the fact that there is majority of women on the stage and that is pretty cool, because it shows that there is some progress in gender equality in United States.
Hillary Clinton definitely capitalized on this moment in order to reintroduce the fact that she was woman to subtly remind voters that it would be a huge historical moment if she were elected, because she’d be the first female president. This is a pretty shifty and I think overall beneficial move for her, but I think Bernie countered pretty well with pointing out it would be historical for a Democratic Socialist to be elected as president as well, especially if we remember the Mccarthyism.
Although, this to me is not as powerful of a statement as being the first woman president, it does try to refocus the debate on political views and is a pretty clever come back. So I think this moment will help both candidates rather than hinder them. Also it was amusing.
Drawbacks
There were only a few drawbacks for me in these two candidates in this debate, because I thought most of the debate was pretty even and was very debated very well by both sides.
I think Hillary’s appeal to poor-white people, when she was asked if white people should feel some resentment, was problematic. On one hand it helps her with some poor whites, but the state she seemed to appeal to was West Virginia which is only 5 electoral votes and is considered a “safe Republican” vote, so this did not help her much.
Also, Hillary didn’t appeal very well with the allegations that Bernie emphasized when pointed out by, which Hillary is using a Super PAC to finance her campaign. She responded with the example of Barack Obama passing bills that wouldn’t be in the interests of Super PACs that supported him as an example as how she wouldn’t be influenced by the Super PACs that follow her. And Bernie’s rebuttal to her was on fire.
Bernie had two things that irked me. First, he talked about Republican views too much, which I don’t think helps him because it doesn’t show the difference between him and Hillary, but it doesn’t hurt him either. Second, and probably more problematic in most people’s eyes is the moment when he didn’t give an effective implementation for Healthcare. This might be the worst moment for Bernie, however I think he pulled himself back into the debate later on.
