Democrats face off in first presidential debate

It’s a little bit of a mystery how former Virginia Sen. Rounding out the five-person field is Lincoln Chafee, the Republican-turned independent-turned Democrat from Rhode Island whose most notable campaign moment thus far was his call for the U.S.to adopt the metric system.

Hillary Clinton will have to answer for the original sin of politics: flip-flopping. She’ll likely try to name issues on which she agrees with Obama, such as health care, while carefully noting where the two part ways, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. She also only recently opposed the Keystone XL pipeline, after months of dodging the question. “All the candidates will see which one can out-liberal the other”, the Republican presidential candidate said in a Fox News interview Monday night. Instead, it’s whether she can change the focus from emails she sent and received over a private server as secretary of state to the policies she’s proposed to close the gap between rich Americans and everyone else.

The candidates and their teams focused elsewhere for the Democrats’ first big TV event. But it’s still possible that Clinton’s rivals – perhaps Webb or O’Malley – will gingerly point to the issue on Tuesday as a way of suggesting that she abhors transparency and scrutiny. “That is just unacceptable behavior”, she added.

Clinton’s campaign has seized on comments by GOP House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy that the congressional Benghazi committee was created to hurt her politically, as well as criticisms of the panel by a conservative former staffer. “I am not in favor of making college free for Donald Trump’s kids”. But don’t look for the two to go after each other in dramatic fashion. The wealthy New York real estate developer presents an alluring target, and the more they can tie Trump to the overall Republican Party, the better.

“Some people say Donald Trump is entertaining”, Clinton said.

By now, Bernie Sanders is used to being the star at the center of the stage.

But there’s still plenty to watch on Tuesday night. Debate host CNN has already said it expects significantly lower ratings for Tuesday’s debate than the Republican contest the cable channel hosted in late September, which drew an audience of 23 million. His office said he will be watching from his residence in Washington.

For months, Clinton and Sanders have circled each other cautiously and avoided personal attacks.

If not, then Tuesday’s first Democratic debate in Las Vegas should be a good reminder.

“Hillary Clinton is an excellent debater”, said Pfeiffer.

Webb has been a chief critic of Clinton’s early support of the Iraq war and could push her on her hawkish foreign policy positions.

Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, and Sanders, a US senator from Vermont who is her prime challenger, will take part in the first of six scheduled debates in the race to be the party’s nominee in the November 2016 presidential election. And he’ll need any advantage he can get.