Last night in Las Vegas was the first of six Democratic National Debates, hosted by CNN and Facebook. The five candidates included front runners Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and low-polling candidates Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee.
Who won and who could have skipped the entire thing?
Hillary Clinton came out the strongest during the debate. Clinton defended her new position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal which years ago she called the “gold standard” but now she believes is privy to “currency manipulation”. She seemed unfazed by the criticism she was receiving about her emails or her voting in favor of the Iraq War. She called out her fellow front runner Bernie Sanders on his own policy flip flopping when it comes to gun control pointing out that he voted against the Brady Bill several times. Hillary called out Republican intrusion when it comes to women’s lives defending Planned Parenthood and mandatory paid leave for pregnancy. Clinton’s advantage was her confidence and experience and her line of the night: “I’m a progressive but I’m a progressive who likes to get things done.”
Bernie Sanders did what Bernie Sanders does best: he riled up the crowd. He certainly drew more applause than any other candidate and touted his position as a Democratic socialist. Sanders was strong on the issue of income inequality and calling out Wall Street. Even when asked about supporting the legalization of marijuana, Sanders tied it back to Wall Street saying, “We have a criminal justice system that lets CEOs on Wall Street walk away, and yes we are imprisoning or giving jail sentences to young people who are smoking marijuana.” Sanders gave Clinton a break and the advantage with his line of the debate: “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damned emails.”
Martin O’Malley did not have a great night. His debate performance can be described as a “shrug sigh” or how you feel when you’ve just pulled an all-nighter for a paper and when someone asks if you think you did a good job on it. Response *shrug* *sigh*. O’Malley, like Clinton, pointed out Sanders’ leniency when it comes to gun control. He was one of the candidates that called Clinton out on her Iraq War vote. At one point O’Malley confused Russian President Putin with Syrian President Assad saying “I think Assad’s invasion of Syria will be seen as a blunder.” His strongest line was his closing statement which took aim at the Republican debates: “On this stage you didn’t hear anyone denigrate women, you didn’t hear anyone make racist comments about new immigrants, you didn’t hear anyone speak ill of anyone because of their religious belief. What you heard was an honest debate of what will move us forward, to lead to a clean electric grid by 2050, and employ more of our people, rebuild our cities and towns, educate our children at higher and better levels, and include more people in the economic and social life in our country.”
Jim Webb does not like Anderson Cooper. His debate performance can be summarized as arguing about the number of times he was being called on and then using the time he was called on to talk about the guy he killed. Yes, instead of trying to appeal to voters Jim Webb when asked which enemy he was most proud to have responded with “I would have to say the enemy soldier that threw the grenade that wounded me, but he’s not around right now to talk to.” Webb was referring to his time in Vietnam and how unrelatable he really is.
Lincoln Chafee was indeed at the Democratic Debate, I fact checked that. All he has going for himself at this point is his “high ethical standards”. I will say this I do not think Chafee knows what the Glass-Stegall Act is. His line of the night: “I had just arrived in the Senate.”
One thing to note: not one candidate laid out a detailed plan to combat the crippling flaws in the Criminal Justice system or put an end to systematic racism as pointed out by senior Tatiana Laing. Bernie Sanders alluded to doing so but has yet to say how. We’ll see how these issues develop in future debates.
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