The three Democrats running for the presidency clashed in a debate Saturday night in New Hampshire, home of the first primary. While the fight for the Republican nomination has been receiving the most attention, in recent days the Democratic contest has been front and center after news broke that Bernie Sanders’ campaign tapped into unauthorized voter files housed by the DNC. That was expected to be a major bone of contention but the issue fizzled after the first minutes.
Even as Hillary Clinton dominates the national polls, Sanders is running strong in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire. Sanders and Martin O’Malley looked to slow Clinton down in the last debate of the year. With only three candidates on the stage, the Democratic hopefuls had a chance to shine even as the moderators tried to keep O’Malley on the sidelines.
Still, no real surprises considering the debate was held the Saturday night before Christmas. Little news was made with the big story being how the data breach was generally ignored in the debate.
Here’s a look at the winners and losers on Saturday night.
Winners
Hillary Clinton. A good night for the favorite for the Democratic nomination. Sanders started the debate with an apology, which she accepted. Besides a jab at Sanders over his position on gun control and insisting O’Malley misrepresented her take on that and on her ties to Wall Street, Clinton generally ignored her primary rivals. Instead, she kept her fire focused on the Republicans. She looked and acted like the favorite on Saturday night and didn’t get into a fight with Sanders, which would only hurt her in the months to come because she’ll want to reach out to his supporters down the road. Clinton also benefited from O’Malley’s aggressive performance, though he is not enough of a factor, as of now, to divide anti-Clinton Democrats. There were some missteps to be sure -- namely, her optimistic take on America's battle against ISIS -- but a generally calm debate was to her benefit. If the biggest story out of the debate was her getting on stage to start the second half a few seconds late, Clinton dodged a bullet. Best of all for Clinton there were no questions about her ethics and using a private server for her email when she was at the State Department. Even when the focus turned to Libya, there was no mention of Benghazi outside of O’Malley’s quick mention of Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Bottom line: Nothing changed on Saturday night and that benefits the frontrunner.
Martin O’Malley. The former Maryland governor has been an afterthought in the presidential race so far, polling in the low single digits. Despite that, he came out swinging Saturday night as he looked to make an impression. By characterizing Republican hopeful Donald Trump’s rhetoric as “fascist" in his opening, O’Malley scored points with Democratic primary voters. O’Malley also jumped in after Sanders apologized to Clinton for the data breach, insisting the American people had far greater concerns and dismissing the media’s interest in the incident. When the moderators tried to move on after asking his rivals about gun control, O’Malley would not be ignored, attacking Clinton’s and Sanders’ record on the issue and showcasing his work on it in Annapolis. O’Malley was smacked down a few times by the moderators when he tried to jump in, but he was aggressive enough to ensure it was not always a two-candidate show Saturday night -- though he did far better in the first half than the second. Not a bad strategy for the biggest underdog on the stage, who could easily have been ignored even as O’Malley clearly has plenty of work to do to actually become a factor in the race. At the very least, his aggressive performance should at least put to bed that he’s really auditioning for the vice presidency.
Donald Trump. Not only is he setting the tone in the Republican presidential race, Trump is shaping the Democratic race. The moderators on Saturday night -- just like their counterparts on Tuesday night’s Republican debate--All of the Democratic candidates hammered away at Trump which might fire up their voters but also ensures his supporters remain behind him. Some of Trump’s Republican rivals have questioned his commitment to the GOP or if he’s a conservative. Trump will try to rally conservative support in the days to come by noting how the Democrats went all in to attack him. None of the other Republican candidates got anywhere near as much attention from the Democratic candidates, giving Trump more ammo as he claims to be the GOP frontrunner.
Losers
ABC News’ Pregame Show. Sanders and O’Malley supporters can be excused if they thought the fix was in for Hillary Clinton. The pregame coverage on ABC News was full of pundits with Clinton ties. Host George Stephanopoulos burst on the national political scene in 1992 by helping Bill Clinton win the White House. Cokie Roberts’ mother Liddy Boggs served as ambassador to the Vatican during the Clinton presidency. Donna Brazile, currently a vice chairwoman with the DNC, was an advisor on Bill Clinton’s two presidential campaigns and led Al Gore’s presidential effort in 2000. Clinton fingerprints were all over the talking heads before the debate started and that’s simply not acceptable.
Barack Obama. The president is in good shape with Democrats even as he’s upside down with independents and Republicans. But none of the Democratic candidates went out of their way to praise him Saturday night. Sanders said America was better off now than it was under Bush but did not call out Obama by name. None of the candidates mentioned Obama’s call for a higher minimum wage even as they supported raising it. The same held true as they talked about health-care. Even Clinton, who served as his secretary of state, seemed to hit Obama’s leadership on Syria. The Democratic presidential candidates ignoring Obama does not bode well for his role in the 2016 election, something which might help tarnish his legacy in the long run.
Bernie Sanders. The senator from Vermont did nothing major to hurt his campaign on Saturday night. But he did not help himself either since Clinton escaped generally unscathed and O’Malley made more of a splash on Saturday night. Sanders got outflanked on gun control by both his rivals and he didn’t respond to O’Malley calling him out for voting against the Brady Bill, still the best-known piece of gun control legislation. Nor, despite some expectations, did Sanders fire up his troops by taking on the DNC and the Democratic establishment, though he turned up his game in the second half of the debate by calling out big business and Wall Street, which is music to his supporters’ ears. On the whole, though, Sanders did not do anything to move the needle, not a good thing for any underdog.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The Florida congresswoman should have given up as DNC chair after Barack Obama won a second term in 2012. Besides presiding over a disastrous electoral cycle for Democrats last year, Wasserman Schultz’s leadership was called into question on Saturday night. The debate started with Sanders being asked about the DNC data breach and the candidates called for an independent investigation of what happened. Wasserman Schultz went to bat for Hillary Clinton repeatedly during the 2008 primary contest against Obama. Clinton did not return the favor Saturday night, agreeing with Sanders’ call for an investigation. Sure, the data breach was quickly put on the backburner Saturday night, but Wasserman Schultz can’t be happy that nobody, namely her old ally Hillary Clinton, defended her during the debate.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
