Obama ducks on Biden, praises Dem

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came off as the most confident and spontaneous, and for a woman of natural reticence and privacy, it took work for her to do that. Even with Sanders dismissal of the email issue, Clinton faces a slow-drip of news on that subject, a result of a court order mandating monthly releases of her correspondence. The prime time event, sponsored by CNN and Facebook, was held at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. Obviously nobody cares about Webb, O’Malley, or Chafee, so let’s zero in on Clinton and Sanders. In that poll, Biden also fared significantly better at 18 percent.

Cooper told New York Times reporter Bill Carter that he wished he had handled the question differently.

“I even turned around to Bernie Sanders at one point and said, ‘Bernie, say my name, will you?”

“She is now firmly outside the mainstream of the American electorate as part of her calculating efforts to satisfy the liberal base of her party”, said Kevin Madden, who advised 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign.

The assembled challengers weren’t prepared or disposed to mount a serious challenge to Clinton’s e-mail problem. Insiders had badly misjudged what actual voters thought of a few recent debates, and there was a case, I thought, that Sanders – who put in a solid performance and who is still relatively little-known nationally – could have picked up a few support. That debate was about as spontaneous as a professional wrestling match. The first debate, on Fox News Channel in August, was seen by 24 million viewers and the second, on CNN last month, had 23.1 million viewers. Sanders paused after the debate to talk to a group from National Nurses United before heading to the media room to do obligatory interviews, according to The Guardian. When her chief rival says there’s nothing to a scandal, that carries a lot more weight than if one of the minor candidates had made the statement.

“I think the American people are sick and exhausted of hearing about your damn emails”, said Sen. Without moderating his unrelenting gloom or changing his ill-fitting, shiny black suit, Sander proved himself a master of fact and a model of good temperament, despite the scowls.

Universally, Hillary Clinton is the favorite to win the Democratic Primary and is now polling the strongest but there has been an increasingly positive surge from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

No other candidate – Democrat or Republican – had stockpiled as much money as Clinton for the race that may ultimately cost more than $2 billion.