Giant Bernie Sanders costume draws onlookers at debate site

Along with CBS News, Twitter will sponsor tonight’s debate – giving voters a chance to express their opinions and pose questions to the candidates. NJ Advance Media will be offering live coverage of the event, bringing you real-time updates during the big event.

Sanders may have inadvertently facilitated a few of her progress in the first debate, when he seemed to dismiss the controversy over her use of a private email account and server by saying Americans are exhausted of hearing about her “damn emails”.

Moderators: John Dickerson (Face the Nation), Nancy Cordes (CBS News Congressional Correspondent), Kevin Cooney (KCCI anchor), Kathie Obradovich ( Des Moines Register political columnist). Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley will face off in their second debate Saturday night from 9-11 p.m. ET at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

“The question will be, Can Sanders look stronger (rather) than being soft and dovish?” asked Goldford.

Clinton supporters say their candidate will remain focused on laying out her vision for the future rather than striking back at Sanders.

The debate is likely to wade heavily into global affairs, in the wake of overnight attacks in Paris that killed more than 120 people. The debate will have a heavy dose of foreign policy questions from CBS News as a result of the aftermath of Friday’s terror attacks in Paris. According to the focus group, voters are hugely concerned that “Clinton will be controlled by her donors”, and are many still longing for a candidate who will electrify the party with fresh ideas – not simply be a retread of the last eight years.

Now, going into the second Democratic debate, Clinton’s lead has grown – a CBS News/New York Times poll released Wednesday shows that 52 percent of Democratic primary voters across the US support her, compared with 33 percent for Bernie Sanders and 5 percent for Martin O’Malley.

“Let’s not be naive about it”, said Sanders, noting that Clinton collected millions in campaign donations from Wall Street bankers. Clinton said at a New Hampshire town hall last week that she did not now support seeking a declaration of war against the Islamic State, citing the diffuse nature of the threat.

A spate of good news for Clinton since the party’s first debate a month ago has helped her rebuild a lead in the early voting states, an uptick that comes amid other signs the party is coalescing behind her.

He added: “I think we are going to carry on the debate we planned to carry on”. With only three Democratic candidates left, the race has become more focused on catching up to Clinton by pointing out her mistakes than turning the attention to what each candidate has to offer. But Sanders and O’Malley appear more inclined to highlight their differences with Clinton, including the Keystone XL pipeline (they opposed it, she avoided the issue and then opposed), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (they oppose it, she eventually got there) and the federal minimum wage (they want $15 an hour, she’s for $12 an hour).

Clinton acknowledged that most of the recent immigration flows are not from Mexicans but from Central American and Latin America.