The Democratic Party wants as few people as possible to watch the Democratic debates, obviously. The point is to protect the party’s presumptive nominee from facing any serious challenges before her elevation to the historic position of first ever female candidate for President of the United States. Based on her performance last night, however, protecting Hillary Clinton might have been a mistake. In a word, Clinton’s debate is best described as unpolished. And Bernie Sanders has been declared the winner.
Last night’s affair took place the Sunday evening of a holiday weekend (the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is observed today). The debates held prior to this one were the Saturday before Christmas and during a major football game the night after the biggest movie of the year, Star Wars, hit theaters. This was by design.
Most political observers believe the reason was to keep candidates out of the limelight, to make sure as few Americans were engaged with the choice between Democratic contenders as possible. The only way for Americans to have a prayer of seeing and agreeing with the two candidates with less name recognition, Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders, was to see them perform well during debates, which, they have. Sanders to greater effect than O’Malley given the polls. Unfortunately for these gentlemen, there are many fewer Democratic debates than the Republicans have held, and have garnered one fourth the viewership. This was clearly the goal all along for the Democratic Party, which views Hillary as the presumptive nominee with the best chance at victory in November.
It’s not just the Democratic Party limiting the process, but the mainstream networks airing and moderating the debates as well. For the second time in as many debates, a moderator asked Senator Bernie Sanders if he would like to apologize to Hillary Clinton. Andrea Mitchell, while asking a question of Sanders on l’affaires Bill Clinton, framed the actions of the former President, which include serial sexual harassment at the very least and possible sexual assault at worst, as “misdeeds.”
Softball questions after softball question have been thrown at Hillary Clinton, which is designed to catapult her to the nomination. Unfortunately, as she tried to do in 2008, she’s slow-walking it in instead. Clinton’s first several debate performances were fairly solid. Last night showed just how rusty the 68-year old has become on the debate stage. Clinton spent the first hour stumbling over her words, at times unable to form coherent sentences. It wasn’t just political doublespeak that Americans are accustomed to during debates — it was actual nonsense.
While phoning it in might fly in a Democratic field with the cards stacked against her opponents, it’s not going to pan out in a general election. Liberals in her own party and in the mainstream media think that allowing Clinton to coast into the Democratic slot will ensure their best chance at victory, but if Clinton is going to bother trying to win in November, her supporters would best be served letting her get in a few warm-up rounds first.
