Democratic debate: Hillary Clinton campaign back on song after her strong showing in first televised clash

Former Secretary of State deftly dispelled questions about her political skills that have festered over the summer

David Usborne
Las Vegas
Wednesday 14 October 2015 19:37 BST
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Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton laugh during Tuesday night's debate
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton laugh during Tuesday night's debate

Hillary Clinton awoke on Wednesday to find her presidential campaign re-booted after a debate performance that has helped to re-establish her as the prohibitive favourite for the Democratic nomination.

During more than two hours on stage on Tuesday night at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas, she deftly dispelled questions about her political skills that have festered over the summer.

She parried critiques of her record, including where she may have shifted positions, from her four rivals, clashing most notably with Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-declared Democratic Socialist who has risen unexpectedly to become her only real threat.

Each one of them had “changed a position or two” during their careers, she said, barely faltering when quizzed on why an Asia-Pacific trade deal she once called the “gold standard” of free trade arrangements had suddenly drawn her opposition. Pushed to say whether she was in fact a moderate or a progressive, she replied: “I’m a progressive, but I’m a progressive who likes to get things done.”

Mrs Clinton also appealed to moderates by stressing her willingness to use military force and suggesting she would take a tougher line against Vladimir Putin. But she also took care to allow little light between herself and President Obama. That, combined with her strong debate reviews, may shut off any path for Joe Biden to make a late leap into the race.

Mrs Clinton highlighted her role alongside the President over the mission to find Osama bin Laden and in securing a climate deal with China. And she evoked her relationship with him as she defended her vote for the Iraq war. “I recall very well being on a debate stage, I think, about 25 times with then Senator Obama, debating this very issue. After the election, he asked me to become secretary of state.”

If it was a good night for Mrs Clinton, it surely was for the party. While there was plenty of scrapping, particularly between her and Mr Sanders, it remained good-humoured and the differences were more of degree, as contrasted with the noxiousness of the two prior Republican debates.

Mr Sanders drew applause when he unexpectedly came to Mrs Clinton’s rescue as she tried to play down the controversy over her use of a private email server while Secretary of State. “Let me say something that may not be great politics, but I think the secretary is right,” he said. “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”

That gesture of political generosity will greatly help Mrs Clinton finally to shut down the email saga. The Sanders campaign, meanwhile, revealed it had raised $1.3m in four hours during and after the debate, in response to a message it sent to supporters featuring the “damn emails” moment.

But Mr Sanders also pivoted to the issues that he says voters actually care about: the uneven economic playing field in America, the corruption of the political system by billionaire donors and the dangers of big banks on Wall Street running amok with impunity. “The greed and reckless behaviour of Wall Street, where fraud is a business model, helped to destroy this economy and the lives of millions of people,” Mr Sanders bellowed.

The three underdog candidates – Jim Webb a former Virginia Senator, Martin O’Malley the former Governor of Maryland and Lincoln Chafee, former Governor of Rhode Island – barely registered, though Mr O’Malley alone sought to portray Mrs Clinton as representing more of the same old, saying: “Our country needs new leadership to move forward.”

She was ready for that too. “I would not ask anyone to vote for me based on my last name. I would ask them look at what I have accomplished… I think I have the right combination of what this country needs at this point.”

Mr Sanders showed robustness of his own, amplifying his message of a sickly middle class.

But if the debate was an audition for appearing presidential, he fell far short beside Mrs Clinton, who frequently put him on the defensive – on foreign policy, when he sometimes floundered, and on his patchy record on gun control, particularly a vote he cast against holding gun makers accountable for gun violence.

The bill in question, he said, had been “complicated”, to which she said: “I was in the Senate at the same time. It wasn’t that complicated to me. It was pretty straightforward.”

She showed she was well attuned to the sensitivity of the issue to many voters at a time of repeated mass shootings. “We have to look at the fats that we lose 90 people a day to gun violence. This has gone on too long, and its time the entire country stood up against the NRA,” meaning the powerful National Rifle Association.

Democratic debate: Highs and lows

Low

When candidates were asked for the enemy they were most proud to have, Jim Webb, a Vietnam veteran, seemed off-key, nominating a man he had killed. “I would have to say the enemy soldier that threw the grenade that wounded me but he’s not around right now to talk to,” he said.

High

Hillary Clinton is a human. After barely making it back to her podium in time after using an advertising break to relieve herself, she admitted: “You know, it does take me a little longer.”

Low

Pushed by a moderator to explain his vote to rescind the Glass-Steagall Act that kept a firewall between high street and investment banking, Lincoln Chafee wailed: “I think you’re being a little rough… I’d just arrived at the United States Senate. I’d been mayor of my city. My dad had died. I’d been appointed by the Governor. It was my first vote.”

High

Moments after Bernie Sanders declared “enough with the emails”, Mr Chafee persisted in arguing that the controversy would damage the credibility of Ms Clinton if she became president. The moderator asked her if she’d like to respond. “No,” she replied dustily, to instant audience applause.

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