CNN Poll: Bernie Sanders Gains on Hillary Clinton After First Debate

In a Monmouth University poll released Monday, 27 percent said Clinton did better than expected in the debate and 25 percent chose Sanders.

Vice President Joe Biden, who said he was watching the Democratic debate from Washington, D.C., according to The Hill, is maintaining a lead against the three other candidates who debated Clinton and Sanders in Las Vegas – former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Virginia Sen.

Among those who saw at least part of the debate, 34 percent say Bernie Sanders surprised them with a better than expected performance and 29 percent say the same about Hillary Clinton.

But polls have also discovered significant challenges for Biden: namely, that he’d be most directly competing with Clinton for votes.

Americans have already elected their first African-American president, said Bai, and they’re poised to vote in a woman commander in chief if not this cycle than soon. It implicitly drew a clear contrast between himself and Sanders, who has skyrocketed in polls amid his constant populist critique of the financial industry. “That when you look around the world, you see every other major country providing health care to all people as a right, except the United States”. Without Biden in the race, Clinton’s lead nationally over Sanders increases from 56 percent to 33 percent.

The following several seconds of playful giggling and Sanders’ handshake with Clinton characterized the Democratic debate.

Sanders, whose summer surge in popularity has him leading Hillary Clinton in the early voting state, later told reporters that “a lot of people who when they hear the word ‘socialist, ‘ get very, very nervous”. Partly it’s a “sh*t or get off the pot” thing after so many teases over the past two months, but reportedly Team Biden thinks he can’t afford to pass on the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner this coming Saturday.

Unless Vice President Joe Biden joins the race, the Democratic Party’s Clinton coronation is back on schedule. The number of Democrats having no opinion of Sanders went down from 45% in September to 28% nowadays. Lincoln Chafee’s rating also declined to 9% favorable and 24% unfavorable from 7% – 14%. Biden’s favorable rating is similar among white Democrats (74%) and among black and Hispanic Democrats (72%).

Sanders bemoaned last week’s Social Security Administration announcement that it would freeze retirement benefits next year, barring action by Congress. When asked who did the worst, respondents clearly indicated that Chafee, Webb and O’Malley came out as the clear losers – only 5 percent said Clinton did the worst job, and only 2 percent said so of Sanders.