Words matter and so do numbers.
At nine o’clock on a Sunday night in the middle of a holiday weekend, you had many choices besides watching the Democratic debate, and my guess is you took them. At this point in the campaign, the Democrats’ hard-not-to-miss debates are hurting their party and their candidates.
Whoever watched saw Bernie Sanders win. He aggressively walked the line between passion and anger and dominated the debate. Even you don’t agree with him, don’t you believe he believes what he says? That’s the definition of integrity.
It’s hard for Hillary Clinton to lose a debate. She’s always well-prepared and smooth, with answers stacked with statistics. But debates are about emotions too and that’s where Clinton fell short and lost this debate. Donald Trump would say she had low energy and he’d be right.
President Obama wasn’t on the stage but he was certainly in the air. Now, he may want an air freshener. Because the president lost this debate too. Clinton defended him but Sanders did not, criticizing both Obama and Obamacare. What was revealed was the division in the Democratic party the president has created.
Hillary Clinton is a world-class debater but in this debate, she couldn’t match Bernie Sanders’ sincerity. Sanders is fighting for a cause, economic equality, while too often, Clinton’s cause appears to be herself.
I’m Andy Hiller and that’s my instinct.
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