Quite a show Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders put on last night.
With 400 tickets given to each of the candidates, which of course were used to stack the audience with their supporters, it was every bit as loud, partisan, sarcastic and snarky off stage as on stage.
In short, every bit as much a circus sideshow as those Republican debates media were happy to tell us about. The only major difference was that these two candidates were in a desperate attempt to out-left each other.
(If you want to go through a transcript of the entire debate, click here).
But for the meanwhile, let me show you a few of my favorite parts…which were hard to single out, given all the material available from this battle royal.
First, we have the “judgment” issue:
SANDERS: “Does Secretary Clinton have the experience and intelligence to be president? Of course she does. But I do question her judgment…”
CLINTON: “Senator Sanders did call me unqualified. I’ve been called a lot of things in my life. That was a first…”
This is far from the first time Hillary Clinton has used that line over the past week or two. And it is an obvious lie every time she says it. I have lost count of the number of people, including anti-Hillary Democrats, who call her unqualified.
Next, we have the pitiful interlude where it is Bernie Sanders’ time to speak, but Clinton decides she’s going to answer something he is saying by screaming (yes, screaming) over him – even as both Sanders and moderator Wolf Blitzer try, unsuccessfully, to get her to play by the rules:
SANDERS: I am sure a lot of people are very surprised to learn that you supported raising the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: You know, wait a minute…
SANDERS: (INAUDIBLE).
CLINTON: — wait a minute. SANDERS: (INAUDIBLE).
CLINTON: — wait, wait…
SANDERS: That’s just not accurate. Well…
CLINTON: Come on, I have stood on the debate stage…
SANDERS: — well and I…
CLINTON: — with Senator Sanders eight…
(CROSSTALK)
CLINTON: — times.
SANDERS: Excuse me.
CLINTON: I have said the…
SANDERS: Well…
CLINTON: Exact same thing.
BLITZER: Secretary, Senator, please.
CLINTON: If we can…
(CROSSTALK)
CLINTON: — raise it to $15 in New York…
(CROSSTALK)
CLINTON: — or Los Angeles or Seattle…
BLITZER: Secretary, the viewers…
CLINTON: — let’s do it.
Then we have Wolf Blitzers’s, and CNN’s clear pro-Clinton partisanship in play – as demonstrated by how CNN’s article about the debate describes the end of the exchange:
“If you’re both screaming at each other, the viewers won’t be able to hear either of you,” Blitzer said after Clinton and Sanders spent several seconds talking over each other.
That is a complete distortion of what happened. It was Sanders’ time to speak. He was not doing a thing wrong. Hillary Clinton, breaking in and screaming over him, was 100% of the problem.
Here’s one other exchange I would like to show you (again, with the understanding that there were many to choose from): Clinton’s clumsy, pathetic dodge when asked to provide transcripts of her speeches to the exact same financial institutions she claims she will go after as President:
DANA BASH: Secretary Clinton, if I may, Senator Sanders keeping bringing up the speeches that you gave to Goldman Sachs. So I’d like to ask you, so you’ve said that you don’t want to release the transcripts, until everybody does it, but if there’s nothing in those speeches that you think would change voters’ minds, why not just release the transcripts and put this whole issue to bed?
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: You know, first of all — first of all, there isn’t an issue. When I was in public service serving as the senator from New York, I did stand up to the banks. I did make it clear that their behavior would not be excused.
I’m the only one on this stage who did not vote to deregulate swaps and derivatives, as Senator Sanders did, which led to a lot of the problems that we had with Lehman Brothers.
Now, if you’re going to look at the problems that actually caused the Great Recession, you’ve got to look at the whole picture. It was a giant insurance company, AIG. It was an investment bank, Lehman Brothers. It was mortgage companies like Countrywide.
I’m not saying that Senator Sanders did something untoward when he voted to deregulate swaps and derivatives…
BASH: Madam Secretary…
CLINTON: … but the fact is he did.
CLINTON: And that contributed to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and started the cascade…
(APPLAUSE)
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: Senator Sanders, one second, please. Secretary Clinton, the question was about the transcripts of the speeches to Goldman Sachs.
(APPLAUSE)
Why not release them?
CLINTON: I have said, look, there are certain — there are certain expectations when you run for president. This is a new one. And I’ve said, if everybody agrees to do it — because there are speeches for money on the other side. I know that.
But I will tell you this, there is — there is a long-standing expectation that everybody running release their tax returns, and you can go — you can go to my website and see eight years of tax returns. And I’ve released 30 years of tax returns. And I think every candidate, including Senator Sanders and Donald Trump, should do the same.
(APPLAUSE)
BASH: Secretary Clinton, we’re going to get to the tax returns later, but just to put a button on this, you’re running now for the Democratic nomination.
CLINTON: Right.
BASH: And it is your Democratic opponent and many Democratic voters who want to see those transcripts. It’s not about the Republicans…
(CROSSTALK)
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: You know, let’s set the same standard for everybody. When everybody does it, OK, I will do it, but let’s set and expect the same standard on tax returns. Everybody does it, and then we move forward.
BLITZER: Thank you.
SANDERS: Well, let me respond. Secretary Clinton, you just heard her, everybody else does it, she’ll do it. I will do it.
(APPLAUSE)
I am going to release all of the transcripts of the speeches that I gave on Wall Street behind closed doors, not for $225,000, not for $2,000, not for two cents. There were no speeches.
(APPLAUSE)
A lame dodge and a change of subject. This would tell just about anyone with the slightest bit of logic that there is damning material in those transcripts…..but, I suppose, if you love Hillary enough, you will hold your ears, go LALALALALALALALA, and try to ignore it.
The bottom line?
I’m guessing that this debate did not significantly affect the outcome of next week’s primary very much…since both combatants got in major licks at each other, and both were just as reliably left of center.
But I’m also guessing that whatever movement there is will belong to Sanders, because virtually every time he and Ms. Clinton debate those quickie post-debate polls show him to be the big winner.
I’m also guessing that, in the next few days, Sanders will close much or all of the gap current polls show between him and Clinton, which “pundits” will ascribe primarily to what happened last night…while ignoring the fact that Sanders has closed fast in almost every recent primary so it is more a trend of his than anything else.
We’ll see….
