Who won the 5th Democratic debate?

Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) responded to Hillary Clinton boasting about Vermont Democratic officeholders and ex-officeholders endorsing her by saying it was “a fact” that Clinton had “the entire establishment or nearly the entire establishment behind her”, while he had a million people giving “27 bucks apiece”. He spoke of Wall Street executives who destroyed the economy and walked away with no criminal record. At one point, she accused Bernie of deploying “an artful smear” against her for which drew her jeers from a mostly sympathetic crowd.

From the get-go, she laid into Sanders’ single-payer health care proposal and his promise of free college, calling them “just not achievable”.

“What being part of the establishment is, last quarter, having a super-PAC that raised $15 million from Wall Street, that throughout one’s life raised a whole lot of money from the drug companies and other special interests”, Sanders said. “I happen to respect the secretary very much”, he said.

Polls in New Hampshire suggest the primary will not be as close as the tight Democratic caucuses in Iowa. Jeanne Shaheen, who backs Obama’s trade pact, would all fail to make the cut.

“Let’s talk about issues”, he said.

When asked about the death penalty, Clinton said she still supported capital punishment.

“There’s nothing wrong with being a moderate”, he said, but added that a candidate can’t be progressive and moderate at the same time. Hillary Clinton says of course those are problems, then adds that racism and sexism are also problems.

That feud, which escalated on Twitter and carried over into a televised town hall Wednesday, set the tone for the entire night, with Clinton fighting tooth and nail to define herself as a “progressive who gets things done” and Sanders trying to cast her as a centrist politician beholden to corporate interests.

“By moving forward, rallying the American people, I do believe we should have healthcare for all”, he said.

Later in the debate, when asked by moderators if she would make the transcripts of her paid speeches public, Clinton appeared evasive. Either the status quo would continue or a Sanders-backed bill would replace it. How is that “starting over”?

She not so subtly suggested that Sanders wasn’t ready to be commander in chief.

She also really doesn’t have an answer to her Wall Street speaking fees.

She went on, “I think it’s time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out”.

“Time and time and again, by innuendo, by insinuation, there is this attack that he is putting forth that really anybody that ever took donations or speaking fees has to be bought”, Clinton said, her voice turning sharper.

Clinton and Sanders described starkly different philosophies on national security and how to wage war against terrorism, a rift magnified by Americans’ growing fears.

Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton listens as Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. But it would be hard, and damaging in the general election, for her to try to get to the left of Sanders, even as she inches toward him.

Where he floundered: Mr. Sanders continues to struggle on foreign policy. “Every expert that I have talked to says, look, how will you ever control the costs…”

The debate, hosted by MSNBC, centered in part on a dispute that has been brewing on the campaign trail: Sanders’ charge that Clinton wasn’t a real progressive. “We have to look at the threats that we face right now”.

The race for the Democratic nomination, once seen as a sure thing for Clinton, intensified this week after Sanders held the former secretary of state to a whisper-thin margin of victory in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses.

Sanders conceded Clinton’s experience and said: “But experience is not the only point”.