Dems up the decibels in NH debate; Wall Street a common foe

I thought Hillary Clinton clobbered Bernie Sanders in their close encounter in New Hampshire on MSNBC last night.

The poll, which came just hours after the two squared-off for a final debate before the New Hampshire primary, noted that Clinton has gained 16 points on Sanders since it began tracking results on Monday. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders battled over their records on a host of issues.

Clinton hit back, accusing Sanders of a “very artful smear”.

Sanders once again bore in on Clinton’s campaign donations and speaking fees from Wall Street and other elements of big business. In a discussion that started with the question of whether Clinton was progressive enough to meet the Democratic Party’s needs, she called Sanders “the self-proclaimed gatekeeper for progressivism” and characterized his definition of “progressive” as so tough to meet that “it’s really caused [her] to wonder who’s left in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party”.

HILLARY CLINTON: “If I’m fortunate to be the nominee, the first person I call to talk to about where we go and how we get it done will be senator Sanders”. A tracking poll by CNN-WMUR – the kind of daily gauge whose results are more volatile – showed an even wider margin, with Sanders beating Clinton by better than two to one, 61 percent to 30 percent.

The former secretary of state is much more reliant on large checks to fund her campaign, and many of those come from the financial industry. Clinton seemed perfectly comfortable positioning herself as the pragmatic progressive to Sanders’ political revolutionary, but when the debate homed in on Wall Street connections, it got a bit more complicated.

Whatever she decides, Clinton is still not likely to lose the nomination to Sanders.

“Except when she announces that she is a proud moderate, and then I guess she is not a progressive”, Sanders said. “I would like to see us move forward”, Sanders said. “I respect Senator Sanders a lot, but he hasn’t been there in the middle of those fights like Hillary Clinton has been”. The Republicans are up next. Much like Corbyn, Sanders’ rise is largely down to a grassroots movement that has unsettled his party’s establishment.

Clinton’s team has been warning supporters of a Sanders donation surge and noting that he is already outspending her in television advertising in the early-voting states. Shortly before Thursday’s debate, the campaign released a new ad that features her saying, “We’ve been fighting the progressive fight for years”.

BERNIE SANDERS: “The Republicans did win by three points”.

You know, we didn’t get to talk about the continuing struggles that Americans face with racism, with sexism, with discrimination against the LGBT community, with new Americans, with people with disabilities.

Clinton fired back, saying Sanders was “cherry picking” quotes and accusing him of setting a liberal standard that Obama, Vice President Joe Biden or the late Minnesota Sen. Hillary Clinton continues to enjoy a slight edge among female Democrats and a huge advantage among minority voters.

“Before it was emails, it was Benghazi”, she said, referring to the deadly September 2012 attack on USA facilities in the eastern Libyan city. If you look at the average of recent polls, Clinton’s lead hasn’t collapsed in the way Quinnipiac suggests. He continued to be more at ease when discussing economic issues and was still searching for a foreign policy argument that holds up next to Clinton.

As for Sanders, although he has been advocating change and progress on his campaign, many still feel that he has yet to directly set his sights to the Latino crowd and is still playing catch-up to Hillary’s campaign when it comes to getting their support.

Having almost been edged by the 74-year-old underdog in Iowa, and anticipating a setback in the Granite State, Clinton used Thursday’s debate to also communicate with voters in states such as Nevada and SC, which are next on the primary calendar.