Hillary keeps Democrat rivals at bay

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s polished performance in the first Democratic debate did more than send a message to her primary rivals.

At the Democratic debate on Tuesday night, Sen.

The GOP contenders scrambled Wednesday to blunt the notion that Clinton has positioned herself as a general election force. That e-mail line of the night played well for Clinton, but also for Sanders.

It took more than an hour before CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Clinton about the covert email system she established as secretary of State in defiance of federal regulations, subverting the Freedom of Information Act, thwarting congressional oversight, and jeopardizing US secrets.

“I’m a progressive who likes to get things done”, she said.

That’s when Sanders chimed in with his support, while acknowledging that it “may not be great politics”, to do so. “I think that he’s losing by quite a bit; he shouldn’t have done it”, Trump said of the Sanders-Clinton handshake prompted by Sanders’ saying Americans are exhausted of hearing about the “damn emails” that continues to dog her campaign.

Sanders said he would shut down the National Security Agency surveillance program because “virtually every telephone call in this country ends up in a file at the NSA”, adding: “That is unacceptable to me”. “The fact that he was a gentleman and didn’t take advantage of it says a lot”.

Clinton: She cites her late mother, including “the best” advice she received that it doesn’t matter whether you’re knocked down but whether you get back up.

Yet if Biden possesses a compelling case for why Democrats need him to run, Clinton’s strength in the debate only furthered questions about exactly what that case may be.

Political analyst Larry Sabato said both Clinton and Sanders emerged as winners. Underdogs O’Malley, Webb and Chafee were looking to gain any traction in polls.

Joe Trippi, another Democratic strategist and former campaign manager, agreed that despite Sanders’s concern, he probably didn’t do that much damage.

Early in the debate, Clinton seized on Sanders’s record on gun control, arguing that he had not been strong enough in standing up to the National Rifle Association.

The gun control issue is one of Sanders’s weaknesses and he defended himself, but could have done a better job, according to Trippi. While her strong debate performance may have hardened her standing as the party’s front-runner, she still faces tough competition from Vermont Sen.

The senator’s core of support is mostly coming from white, liberal voters and he needs to broaden his appeal, said Trippi. “Who knows, maybe a star will be born (unlikely)”, Trump wrote shortly before the debate was to begin. “I believe in a society where all people do well, not just Wall Street billionaires”. Commentators have pointed out that the most significant of the provisions of the TPP have not changed. “There may be others who disagree with that assessment but you can go ask them”. Webb: “Bernie, I don’t think the revolution’s going to come” and Congress won’t pay for it. He says he would use executive authority to accomplish more.

The debate was considered a make-or-break opportunity for the low-polling O’Malley, who has struggled to make good on what had appeared to be a promising position as an accomplished and telegenic executive.

Clinton barely seemed to notice that she’s running against O’Malley, Webb and Chafee.

When the candidates were asked what enemy they were most proud of making during their careers, Clinton answered drug companies, the Iranians, and, Republicans. “They insist she was on, that she looked poised and passionate…”

“Well, look, I thinkhe’s been through a tremendous tragedy”. (Even former President Clinton has admitted that taxing the rich at 100 percent won’t compensate for anemic growth.) More importantly, how will your policies that tax “the 1 percent” affect everyone else?