She got booed by Sanders on that one too, by the way.
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“I represent, I hope, ordinary Americans, who are not all that enamored with the establishment”, he said. As secretary she had given speeches around the world in support of the deal under negotiation, saying in Australia in 2012 that it “sets the gold standard in trade agreements”, a cheerleading sentiment she echoed elsewhere.
The NBC moderators of the debate in Durham, New Hampshire on Thursday night pressed Sanders on what they said were gaps in his foreign policy; Sanders has not named a foreign policy team of advisers and generally focuses on the economy in his campaigning.
Sanders said he would not dismantle Obamacare but would expand it, pointing to the many other countries that provide universal healthcare.
Sanders didn’t hold back either, continuing to rail against the political establishment and campaign finance system. “Enough is enough”, she said.
Sanders repeated his earlier pledge not to attack Clinton on the controversy over her use of a private email account and a private server for government business when she was secretary of state.
In going right at Sanders, Clinton took a big risk.
At one point, Clinton accused Sanders of waging an “artful smear” against her by wielding the issue of high fees she received from speeches for Goldman Sachs and implying that she was under the thumb of Wall Street. “I’m going to be for them”, she added. “And enough is enough”, Clinton said. And he kept up his intense attacks on the same Wall Street banks from which Clinton accepted speaking fees, casting her decision to take the money as an example of what he sees as the inappropriate blending of politics and big business.
While the contest between Clinton and Sanders has grown more heated in recent weeks, Thursday’s debate took the rancor to a new level.
“A progressive is someone who makes progress”, she said.
Hillary likes to blame all of her problems on Republicans but – and I’m just wildly speculating here – there’s a good chance the Times correspondents aren’t registered GOP types.
Clinton dodged whether she would consider running with Sanders on the national ticket with a compliment.
“The Muslim nations in the region – Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, all of these nations – they’re going to just have to get their hands dirty, their boots on the ground”, he said in the November debate.
On the whole, the philosophical divide this year between Clinton and Sanders is not as deep as their stylistic and rhetorical differences.
He also cited the enthusiasm that he is generating: “Democrats win when there is a large voter turnout, when people are excited, when working-class people, middle-class people, young people are engaged in the political process”.
“Look we did differ”, Clinton responded.
Furthermore, Bernie Sanders is now being touted as a major force in the presidential race, with the new poll showing that the Vermont senator will defeat the Republicans, barring Marco Rubio, by a landslide in direct match-ups.
Clinton seemed energized by her underdog status in New Hampshire, delivering her most aggressive debate performance of the campaign. The crisis in the economically depressed, heavily African American city has become a cause celebre among liberals, and Clinton has been in the forefront of criticism of the state’s Republican leadership for falling down on the job. But the former first lady was all praise for her son on Friday morning as she joined him on a round of television interviews.
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Although she will campaign in New Hampshire for part of the day, her departure will be read as an attempt to change the subject from her tenuous position here.
