Analysis: Democratic candidates did what they came to do at third debate
GOFFSTOWN, N.H. — At the first Democratic presidential debate, challenger Bernie Sanders gave rival Hillary Clinton an unexpected gift. Relinquishing a potential point of attack, he told her that Americans "were sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails."
Clinton returned the favor at the final Democratic debate of the year, accepting an apology from Sanders when he was pressed on the disclosure the day before that his campaign had improperly accessed proprietary Clinton campaign voter data from a central Democratic database. When prompted by the debate moderator, he apologized to her.
"Obviously, we were distressed when we learned of it," Clinton replied mildly, but "we should move on, because I don't think the American people are all that interested in this. I think they're more interested in what we have to say about all the big issues facing us."
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And so they did in a spirited debate that ranged from the battle against ISIS to the debate over health care and the Black Lives Matter movement. At the end of the evening, each of the three candidates may have achieved what they had hoped to do when they arrived.
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Clinton seemed confident and sure-footed, displaying her familiarity with issues, particularly on foreign policy. In her opening and closing statements, she sounded as though she was already the general-election candidate, making her case against the GOP in general and Republican front-runner Donald Trump in particular.
Sanders was assertive as well, appealing to progressives with a defense of a single-payer health system. He accused Clinton of being too friendly with Wall Street and "too much into regime change" in foreign lands, repeatedly mentioning her vote in the Senate to authorize the invasion of Iraq.
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And O'Malley, touting his record as a former mayor of Baltimore and governor, also fired at Clinton. At one point, he accused her of "shamefully" trying to use the 9/11 attacks as a shield for her ties to Wall Street in an answer at the last debate.
But just six weeks before the opening Iowa caucuses, nothing seemed to unnerve Clinton or to draw the sort of blood likely to shake her. She now leads Sanders by about 2-1 in this month's USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll and other national surveys.
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For the first time, she pledged not to raise taxes on the middle class as president — a promise that she might one day rue, if she makes it to the White House. And she said she would turn to her husband, former president Bill Clinton, for special missions and advice on the economy.
Still, she was pressed on the turmoil in Libya, where as secretary of State she had urged the ouster of strongman Moammar Gaddafi. And after noting she had wanted to arm rebels in Syria — President Obama didn't agree — she said "we are getting where we need to be" in the fight against ISIS. Republicans at their debate earlier this week strongly disputed that idea, describing the situation as dire and tying her to the policy missteps they see.
Moderator David Muir of ABC News started the two-hour debate with a question about the data breach, but Sanders and Clinton dispatched with the topic with less heat and acrimony than their aides had signaled beforehand, when Sanders strategist Tad Devine and Clinton aide Jennifer Palmieri used escalating rhetoric to denounce the misdeeds of the other camp.
The candidates' demurrals seemed to be a surprise to O'Malley, mired in single digits. He went ahead and delivered what was an apparently a prepared statement that no longer quite fit, denouncing the "bickering back and forth" between his two opponents who, in fact, pointedly hadn't bickered.
Rarely mentioned during a debate that stretched more than two hours: President Obama.
Often mentioned: Donald Trump. The Democratic candidates competed to denounce the Republican front-runner. Clinton said Trump's attacks on Muslims, including his proposal to temporarily bar all Muslims from entering the United States, had made him "ISIS' best recruiter" around the world by seeming to depict the United States at war with Islam. Sanders depicted Trump as a demagogue in his attacks on Muslims and Mexicans, calling it "a very dangerous moment in American history." O'Malley blasted "the fascist pleas of billionaires with big mouths."
There was no doubt which billionaire he had in mind.
Clinton had a prepared line of her own. In the final closing statement, she referred to the big cultural news of the day. "Thank you; good night," she said, "and may the Force be with you."