Donald Trump tweets on Democratic presidential debate

The first Democratic debate featured Hillary Clinton center stage. With the exception of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, few Americans know the names — let alone the policy positions — of the other viable Democratic candidates.

Hillary Clinton emerged unscathed Tuesday from the Democratic Party’s first presidential debate, giving her renewed momentum as she gears for a showdown with Republicans over the 2012 Benghazi attack. Sanders probably agreed. After all, he had just argued forcefully for radical change: “the only way you can really transform America is to do the thing that the middle class desperately needs… a political revolution”. When asked whether he’d been tough enough on the issue as a senator, she said simply: “No. Not at all”. I never said that. “Over the course of my entire life, I have always fought for the same values and principles, but, like most human beings, including those of us who run for office, I do absorb new information”. “I do look at what is happening in the world”. He still might get it, and he still may even be very likely to get in, but I don’t think the odds went up after tonight.

The issue has hurt Clinton in polls and given fodder to the slate of Republican presidential candidates who would like to be her rival in the November 2016 general election. “It was a much higher-level debate”.

In a performance aimed at solidifying her lock on the Democratic nomination, Clinton sought to pivot from a tough summer in which the controversy over her private email server triggered a slump in popularity ratings. “I am very comfortable saying that I am the only person here qualified to be commander-in-chief”, he said. But the debate hall was more sedate than his massive rallies, and the intrusion of his opponents and the moderators placed a reality check on what Sanders prefers – a stream of conscious lecture. She may also be challenged on her vote in late 2002 to authorize the Iraq war, a conflict that both Sanders and Webb opposed.

What the others accomplished: O’Malley appeared the most poised among the others. Sanders said, drawing a laugh and an “I am, too”, from Clinton. “She was poised, she was passionate and I think she was in command”, said Axelrod, now a CNN political analyst. Jim Webb and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley – were on stage with Clinton and Sanders.

It’s a race that’s seen O’Malley, Chafee and former Virginia Sen. Lincoln Chafee, struggled. On one occasion, for instance, Chafee blamed a Senate vote that now seems a liability on the death of his father.

Bernie Sanders, whose unexpected rise in the polls has chipped away at Clinton’s popularity among Democrats, said the no-fly zone idea in Syria would be risky for US pilots and could potentially draw America into another lengthy, costly war. And it was Sanders who leapt to her defense.

One of their sharpest exchanges came on the question of how much government muscle should be applied to reining in Wall Street. Sanders said he worked on reforms aimed at adding more doctors and appointments to VA services, but dodged questions about signs that lawmakers missed leading up to the department’s care scandals.

“No, not at all”, Clinton said.

“We are not Denmark”, Clinton said, referring to Sanders saying he wanted the U.S.to emulate the tiny European country.

For the viewers who were hoping for mudslinging and finger-pointing, what they got Tuesday night was more like a session of Model United Nations. But she did pointedly attack Sanders on guns.

“Congress does not regulate Wall Street”, Sanders charged. And to top it off, she used the question to play up her foreign policy chops. But number two is, “can he overcome her?” Amid remnant cheers from the audience, Sanders said, once more, “the Secretary is exactly right”.

Vice President Joe Biden was not there, even though debate host CNN saved a podium just in case.

“After the election (in 2008) he asked me to become secretary of state”. “I have not changed on the issues”.

Clinton entered the presidential race in April the same way she did eight years ago: with a mantle of inevitability. He was not mentioned during the two-hour debate.

“All are very scripted and rehearsed, two (at least) should not be on the stage”, Trump tweeted at one point.

Clinton will continue to have her own record to defend. “I think it’s pretty clear what their obvious goal is”.

She also took aim at the perception that electing her would perpetuate the kind of dynastic politics that many Americans dislike. He also did, as he said, vote for this immunity provision.