Sanders and Clinton sparred, sometimes intensely, over plans for universal health care, guns, battling Islamic State extremists and reining in Wall Street. But he’s criticized Obama for taking donations from Wall Street. She highlighted his success in seizing Syria’s chemical weapons. President Obama has led our country out of the great recession. It’s called democracy. But I’m not into personal attacks.
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“Your profusion of comments about your feelings towards President Obama are a little unusual given what you said about him in 2011”, Clinton quipped at one point. The socialist senator pointed out that he and Obama had even campaigned for each other, and he praised the president’s reluctance to deploy ground troops to the Middle East.
There was considerable irony in all of this.
Mrs Clinton aligned herself with Mr Obama and his financial regulatory scheme. Some of the clashes centered on Sanders’s new so-called “single-payer” health care proposal, which the Vermont senator released hours before the forum kicked off on Sunday in SC, and which Clinton lambasted as impractical. But last year’s scandal about her use of private email while secretary of state has battered her favorability ratings, which are below Sanders’s.
Sanders was more forceful in this debate, raising his arms animatedly and his voice to a near-shout at times. But he also turned his fire on Clinton.
“I don’t mean to just point the finger at you”, he said, pointing his finger at Clinton, “you’ve received over $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in one year”.
Clinton did not respond well to Connor Franta’s (with 5 million YouTube subscribers) and NBC moderator Lester Holt’s question about why she’s running behind Sanders by a 2-1 margin with younger voters.
On more than one occasion, the former Maryland governor, who made it into the debate by the skin of his teeth, pleaded for seconds of speaking time. Focus was on the contest between the two leaders in the polls, Clinton and Sanders, who offer Democrats a clear choice: evolution or revolution. Clinton proposes building on the foundation of Obamacare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicaid and Medicare to further expand coverage. Clinton has attacked Sanders’ healthcare vision in the past, attempting to convince voters that Sanders’ plan is unrealistic and poorly constructed. Hillary will be 69 years and one month old on Election Day. “I’m prepared and ready to take it on”, she said.
In other words, let’s have evolutionary change.
Clinton also defended the ACA, saying, “We’ve seen 19 million Americans get insurance”.
A number of countries around the world have adopted different types of single-payer systems, including Australia, Canada, and the UK. “That’s what this debate should be about”.
On issue after issue, Clinton proposes incremental solutions that take into account our political system as it is: sharply divided along ideological lines and warped by gerrymandering and virtually unfettered campaign contributions.
Clinton said her policies were superior and the American people would know how her plan would be implemented and paid for.
In that sense, Democrats are being asked to make a classic heads-vs.-hearts decision. By successfully limiting the debates to weekends and times when few are watching, Clinton has limited her opponents’ exposure and chances to land a big blow.
A day after the candidates squared off in a fiery debate, they came to Columbia, South Carolina, and largely agreed that while King’s impact can still be felt today, work still needs to be done to guarantee racial equality.
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If that was not enough Sanders was the most discussed candidate on the micro blogging site Twitter.
