The media circus the New York primary has become began to resemble a zoo last Thursday night, as the Democratic candidates used their ninth debate to tear one another apart.
“If you’re both screaming at each other, the viewers can’t hear either of you,” moderator Wolf Blitzer was forced to interject at one point. It seems the two have momentarily lost sight of the White House, and instead are only seeing flashes of red.
“I do question her judgement,” said Bernie Sanders, who failed to completely back away from his remark that Hillary Clinton is unfit to add “president” to her long and storied resume. Instead he appeared to double down, highlighting her initial support for the war in Iraq, numerous trade agreements and taking money from Wall Street (just a few subway stops away).
The contempt was palpable in Hillary too, as her usually steady eyes did everything but roll. “Make no mistake about it but this is an attack on President Obama,” Hillary said (to boos, nonetheless) as she pushed back on charges from Sanders that she’s been bought by the millionaires supporting her Super Pac. “This is a phony attack that is designed to raise questions.”
When asked about his wobbly interview with the New York Daily News on his plan to break up the nation’s biggest banks, Sanders tripped over words and found himself with a Rubio-esque case of cottonmouth, relying on a bottle of water to save him from further embarrassment under the bright lights of the New York City stage.
At that moment, coolly and with a knowing smile, Hillary interjected: “I love being in Brooklyn — this is great.” Great for who? Possibly their Republican opponents.
It wasn’t great for Hillary when she was pressed on the 1994 crime bill that her husband ushered through when the family last occupied the White House. “I’m sorry for the consequences [of the bill],” Hillary said of the law, which has attracted renewed criticism recently from the Black Lives Matter movement.
Sanders pounced when the door opened a crack. “It was a racist term and everyone knew it was a racist term,” he said when asked about Bill Clinton defending Hillary’s former use of the term “super predator” while discussing gang members in the 1990s.
It all makes one wonder who they thought their audience was during the painfully feisty debate. Sanders, despite his recent string of victories, needs almost 60 per cent of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination — a potentially unattainable number. Only superdelegates will get him over the finish line.
But while Sanders happily lambasted the 1 per cent, he forgot about the 0.000000001 per cent, that truly matter: The Democratic establishment, aka superdelegates. Not so Hillary.
“I have a considerable lead in pledged delegates,” she boasted as the debate wound down. Then she caught herself: “I’m not taking anything for granted, or any voter, or any place.”
Hillary was caught doing math on national television. She would do well to study Donald Trump: Don’t do math. It can come across as calculating and undemocratic. Those calculations may have been lost on most viewers. What wasn’t was the raw pettiness that’s come to define this Democratic primary.
“You didn’t answer the question,” Sanders charged late in the debate.
“I did,” Hillary interjected.
“No you didn’t.”
“I did.”
Who cares. I don’t. I lost track of what they were bickering about. The exchange resembled a schoolyard tiff.
Trump’s kids have taught us all that changing your party registration is a tedious process in New York, but Democratic voters were left few other options if their preferred candidate loses the party’s primary.
If what we witnessed in Brooklyn is indicative of what’s in their hearts, maybe Ted Cruz has a point about New York values. The good news for Sanders was that he was travelling to Rome during the weekend and was near the Pope. Maybe he could use that time to reflect on the sins of a vicious Democratic debate.
— Guardian News & Media Ltd
Matt Laslo is a reporter and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University’s MA in Government and Public Policy programme.
