Democrat Debate Review: The Hillary Loves Bernie Show
I’m afraid the Democratic debate on CNN Tuesday night came down to a series of exchanges between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, with occasional interruptions by three nice men who found themselves behind podiums. Despite the best efforts of Anderson “Bulldog” Cooper, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee found themselves steamrolled over by Clinton and Sanders’ forceful performances and the one photo-worthy moment of the debate: Sanders and Clinton shaking hands and grinning after Sanders bellowed that the American people are “sick and tired of hearing about [Clinton’s] damn emails!”
The CNN question-format proved highly awkward. Cooper was supposed to share the inquisition with Dana Bash and Juan Carlos Lopez, but the latter pair might as well have stayed home drinking Diet Cokes for all the air-time they got. No, it was Cooper who came on super-aggressive, asking Clinton questions such as “Will you say anything to get elected?” and “You and your husband are part of the one-percent; how can you credibly represent the 99 percent?”
That latter question was both sexist (no other candidate was paired with his wife in a question) and dumb (look at it this way: Anderson, you are part of the 1 percent too — how can you report fairly on the 99 percent of your audience?). On Fox News before the debate, Bill O’Reilly said “given CNN’s liberal profile,” he doubted “the moderators [would] really challenge the candidates.” He, and the rest of the viewing audience, hadn’t counted on Cooper’s largely hectoring style.
While Cooper’s manner frequently kept the proceedings moving briskly, the phrasing of his questions betrayed just how much he and CNN wanted to spark some drama, and big ratings. He was particularly shameless in asking Vietnam War veteran Webb whether he thought Sanders could be a credible Commander in Chief since Sanders had registered years ago as a conscientious objector.
Oh, I almost forgot: CNN’s Don Lemon was consigned to a kind of game-show host role, introducing Facebook video questions from citizens in the same way Alex Trebek sets up a Video Daily Double on Jeopardy!.
This debate avoided nearly all of the personal attacks the Republican debates invited, particularly from Donald Trump. So it was mildly ironic that the strongest insult this night was hurled not at a Democrat, but at Trump, whom O’Malley gratuitously called out as “that carnival barker.” On Twitter, @realDonaldTrump was live-tweeting the debate in a lackadaisical manner, mostly retweeting supporters’ fawning compliments but occasionally tossing in a choice remark such as “Sorry, there is no STAR on the stage tonight!”
No, he’s right, there was no “star” — the closest a Democrat came to that kind of showiness was Clinton’s remark when asked how her Presidency would differ from “an Obama third term”: “Well, I think being the first woman President would be quite a change,” said a smiling Clinton, to cheers.
For TV watchers, it sounded as though Sanders and Clinton elicited the most applause from the debate hall audience. Clinton never looked more calm and assured than when watching and listening to other candidates talk about foreign policy — as she said, she’d “spent a lot of time in the Situation Room,” the implication being, all you other guys are talking about this academically; I was in the trenches, boys!
Well, you’ll decide who won, who lost, and whether the Democrats were more substantive than the Republicans or not. All I know for sure is, CNN just keeps rolling. Their most notable ads during the debate breaks were the ones touting, “The Trump interview everyone’s been waiting for: Ivanka Trump!” Wednesday, on CNN!
