So for Clinton, this debate serves more as a national plea than a primary push: after her slim win in Iowa this week, she really has to convince voters in states that hold primaries after New Hampshire to stay in her tent if she loses to Sanders here.
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Her 74-year-old challenger told the town hall that he respected Clinton for her “long and distinguished career” but insisted: “I think there are issues where she just is not progressive”.
“I think we are gaining more and more support in those communities”, said Sanders when asked how he could better engage a broader electorate.
Turning to Clinton, Maddow began by noting that “Senator Sanders is campaigning against you now, at this point in the campaign basically arguing that you are not Progressive enough to be the Democratic nominee”. “What we need to do is to stand up to the big money interest and the campaign contributors”, he said, in what the New York Times live blog considers a “tacit shot at Clinton and her donors”.
This isn’t just about semantics: it’s about who has the ability not only to build on President Obama’s legacy, but to take it much further and, by doing so, inspire voters frustrated by the slow pace of change. The senator has been leading Clinton in New Hampshire polls for months, thanks in part to the state’s proximity to his home in Vermont, but Clinton has not given up on the Granite State. “Somebody says something nice about you, you say it”, Sanders told reporters at a Wednesday news conference. Because when Trump says, seemingly with bloodthirst, that he would love to face Sanders in the general election, the prospect of a Trump-Sanders-and-maybe-even-Bloomberg election tends to scare the shit out of some voters.
According to Devine, who appeared to be growing increasingly agitated, Sanders “doesn’t feel that word applies to him”, adding that the senator is “not running away from the progressive philosophy”.
“You can’t be a moderate and a progressive, they are different”, he said. Mrs Clinton, who had hoped for a strong finish against Mr Sanders in Iowa to vanquish his insurgent candidacy, hopes to overcome his polling lead in New Hampshire.
“I do not accept the belief that the United States of America can’t do that”, Sanders said of his plan for universal health care and of his efforts to take on “the rip-offs of the pharmaceutical industry”.
Five days before New Hampshire voters render a judgment in the second of the state-by-state presidential nominating contests, Clinton and Sanders will square off on MSNBC at 9 p.m. EST (0200 Friday GMT) in Durham, New Hampshire. Instead, when the questioners came to him, Mr. Sanders ignored the issue of her speeches and returned to his criticism of Wall Street.
Clinton said if Sanders wants “to get into labels”, Sanders’ record is less than sterling, and criticized the senator for his vote to give gun makers and sellers immunity, voting against Sen.
In response, Sanders fired back that corporate money in elections does indeed work towards “undermining American democracy”.
Clinton and Sanders are both eager to have this fight.
The exchanges intensified ahead of the debate, which will be the first since former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley dropped out on Monday night.
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The results from New Hampshire could shift momentum in the Democratic race.
