Hillary Rodham Clinton smiles during the CNN Democratic presidential debate Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Interesting night last night in Las Vegas.. as the Democratic field for president took to the stage for their first debate.
There weren’t nearly the fireworks of the GOP debates, but it had some moments. Most analysts believe Hillary Clinton handily won. Even Republican pundits gave the victory to Clinton hands down.
The Washington Post writing, “Front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton dominated the debate stage Tuesday night.”
Neil Stanage in “The Hill” writing, “Hillary Clinton had the best night of her presidential campaign in Las Vegas on Tuesday, scoring a clear-cut victory over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and her other rivals at the first Democratic debate.”
Alex Isenstadt in Politico writing, “Clinton, in the first debate of the Democratic primary season, came across as confident, crisp, in command of the issues — and anything but the wounded foe of Republican dreams.”
Time magazine writes, “Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walked onto the first Democratic debate stage a weakened frontrunner. She departed confident and once again dominant.”
Hillary admitted she’d made a mistake with having a private email server while Secretary of State. She said she takes responsibility for it, but that the Benghazi Committee was operating as an arm of the Republican party.
Clinton got in several zingers against Bernie Sanders.
And despite Clinton’s digs, Sanders gave a staunch defense of Hillary Clinton over the private email server controversy which as dogged her campaign for months. Sanders said, “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails. Enough of the emails.”
Sanders seemed somewhat unprepared at times. He had trouble defining what a Democratic Socialist is, and faced tough questions on gun control where his record is not progressive, and in fact, nearly conservative.
But Sanders had many fans in the audience, and was a clear front runner in the social media race.
Jim Webb and Lincoln Chaffee didn’t come across very well according to most analysts.
Martin O’Malley had a better showing, but probably not enough to change his trajectory.
The big question today is what does the debate mean for Vice President Joe Biden? Many analysts appear to be growing frustrated with his fence sitting, and some say Hillary’s dominating performance last night may give Biden pause. We should know soon!
What was up with the weird movie preview like open and the singing of the national anthem by Sheryl Crow?
Donald Trump took to Twitter last night.. calling the debate a little sad, and called the candidates too scripted and rehearsed.
We’ve got new Fox News polling to report on today. Ben Carson continues to rise.. now statistically tied with Donald Trump. Trump gets 24%, Carson gets 23%.
Ted Cruz is third with 10 percent. Those are the only three who receive double-digit backing from Republican primary voters.
Marco Rubio gets 9%, Jeb Bush 8%, Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee get 5% each.
We’re monitoring several live campaign events leading up to and during our show today from Cruz and Rubio.
Jeb Bush, Santorum and Trump have events today.. as do Hillary Clinton and Sanders.
In other news, Israel is cracking down on security in the wake of several deadly terror attacks by Palestinians. There are growing concerns this could be the beginning of a new Infitada.
For more news, follow me on Twitter:@ClintPHenderson
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