The Grown-up Debate
Regardless of where you fall on the partisan spectrum, you have to acknowledge this debate was a stark contrast against the last Republican debate.
The last time we saw the GOP duke it out it was overflowing with silly rhetoric about “bombing the shit” out of ISIS, despite the current air campaign being so aggressive the U.S. military has a munitions shortage.
Instead of having an intellectually honest debate, most of the GOP were beating the drums to another ground war, inflating the surveillance state against Americans and, in Trump’s case, proposing the U.S. murder the families of suspected terrorists.
Only Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was questioning the foreign policy grandstanding and challenging his competition on “liberal military spending.”
Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley all came equipped Saturday with specific policies and answers to issues both foreign and domestic.
Most debates have clear standouts. This third Democratic debate was different. Every candidate was at their best. It’s unlikely anyone jumped ship from one candidate to another here.
Clinton played centrist politics, Sanders maintained his populist momentum with his progressive agenda and O’Malley stayed center-left and laid out his resume from his governor experience.
Those on the fence were able to clearly see who each of these candidates were and the values of the Democratic Party.
The Democratic Civil War Was Brushed Off in Minutes
Clinton’s campaign on Friday accused the Sanders team of inappropriately accessing its voter data, and the Sanders campaign turned the blame on the vendor for a shoddy firewall. The Democratic National Committee banned the Vermont senator’s team from accessing critical voter data and the campaign sued the DNC to restore its access.
The Sanders staffer that wrongfully accessed Clinton’s private voter data was fired and two more staffers have been terminated since the debate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders kicked off the debate delivering an apology both to Hillary Clinton and his supporters, saying this breach of integrity isn’t the sort of campaign he runs.
Clinton Battles Trump
As a major Democratic candidate in a room full of allies, Clinton has virtually unlimited ammunition against the GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. She put on her general election hat and targeted the real-estate tycoon’s questionable policy of banning Muslim immigrants.
“Mr. Trump has a great capacity to use bluster and bigotry to inflame people and to make them think there are easy answers to very complex questions,” she said.
Sanders and O’Malley also came out in strong opposition to Trump’s immigration policy proposal, a position that most Democratic voters will likely agree with.
However, Clinton took this a step further saying Trump’s rhetoric is actively used as an ISIS recruiting tool.
“He is becoming ISIS’ best recruiter,” Clinton said. “They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.”
Critics of Trump say his anti-Muslim rhetoric could help the terror group in its recruitment, which is very believable. However, it’s unclear whether such a video exists.
Jen Palmieri, communications director of the Clinton campaign, told George Stephanopoulos that the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors the activity of terror organizations, said that terrorists are using Trump in social media as propaganda to help recruit supporters.
However, Palmieri admitted that the former secretary of state “didn’t have a particular video in mind.”
Politicians lying or exaggerating the truth is obligatory. But it’s lazy for a candidate as experienced as Hillary Clinton to attack a candidate as controversial as Donald Trump with lies.
Real Policy
Maybe you don’t like the agenda of these three powerhouse candidates, but they do bring specifics to the table. Sen. Sanders talked about his college tuition reform, calling for public universities to be free and paid for with a tax on Wall Street speculation.
Clinton doesn’t believe college should be free, but instead wants to tackle student debt.
The Vermont senator also brought up the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Workers would be eligible to collect benefits equal to 66 percent of their typical monthly wages for 12 weeks, with a capped monthly maximum amount of $1,000 per week.
He also openly talked about and supported Gillibrand’s increase of payroll taxes for workers and companies by 0.2 percent, or about $1.38 a week for the median wage earner.
Clinton was very adamant about not increasing taxes with rhetoric inspired by George Bush Sr.’s “read my lips” line.
O’Malley and Sanders both attacked Clinton’s foreign policy, saying that she is too quick to support regime change and for her support of the invasion of Iraq.
This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2015.