The Democratic debate: What did you miss?

Hillary Clinton has accused her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders of an “artful smear” by suggesting she could be bought by political donations as the two had a heated exchange during their first one-on-one presidential debate. “I am very proud to be the only candidate up here who does not have a super PAC, who’s not raising huge sums of money from Wall Street and special interests”.

The poll, conducted February 2-4, shows Sanders leading former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 61 percent to 31 percent, with 8 percent undecided.

Here’s what she at last night’s New Hampshire debate when asked if she would release the transcripts of what we are calling her “Goldman Sessions”.

“If we’re going to get into labels, I don’t think it was particularly progressive to vote against the Brady bill five times“, she said.

Clinton, unwilling to cede the issue to Sanders, insisted her regulatory policies would be tougher on Wall Street than his.

“I’m fighting for people that can not make those changes and I’m not making promises that I can not keep”, she said, reiterating the point that Mr. Sanders was making unrealistic promises and would never be able to build the political support for their implementation.

“Enough is enough”, said Clinton after listing her record on racial injustice, children’s rights and fight to widen American access to health care.

Sanders said Clinton represent the establishment. Bernie hasn’t presented as nuanced a vision of the financial system as Hillary Clinton has. Asked why he thinks he can deliver his sweeping reforms, he quipped: “I haven’t quite run for president before”, to cheers, alluding to Mrs Clinton’s previous bid for the White House. The Republicans are up next.

Hillary Clinton is looking at the past as a possible prologue to next Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.

Of course, the results could be a fluke as polls are notoriously inaccurate, but it does appear to show an increasingly contentious Democratic primary battle that could easily last for quite a long time. “If either one of you is nominated as the Democratic Party’s nominee, you will likely face a Republican opponent in the general election who wants to privatize or even abolish big parts of the VA. It’s a newly popular idea in conservative politics”, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said. Sanders has narrowed that lead considerably over the past several weeks.

Clinton has tried to play down expectations for her performance in New Hampshire, where she came from behind for an upset victory in the 2008 campaign just days after losing badly to Obama in Iowa.

Unusually for Sanders, who has been reticent about his Jewish upbringing, he closed Thursday’s debate by relating a memory of his father. Jeb Bush, his campaign lagging, brought in his mom, former first lady Barbara Bush, who praised him as “decent and honest and everything we need in a president”.

“I’ve got their number on all that”, she said of “the Wall Street guys”.