In the fourth and final Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses, it was a verbal slugfest between the putative champion and national frontrunner, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and her worthy adversary Sen. Bernie Sanders. As is the wont of judges at ringside or the political wonks, the decision went to Clinton, since to dethrone her a knockout was necessary, and she defensively warded off most of Sanders’ best punches.
From the opening bell, to extend the boxing metaphor, the three candidates—oh, yeah, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was there but hardly more than a shadow at the event, running behind even the ghost of Obama— tore into each other in Charleston, S.C., Sunday evening before a large audience comprised mainly of African-Americans and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, the debate’s co-host.
Clinton quickly played to this audience, though it was O’Malley who first mentioned the tragedy at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church, where nine Blacks were killed by a white man during a prayer service. She began by recalling when as a teenager, her youth minister took her to hear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“And his moral clarity,” Clinton continued, “the message that he conveyed that evening really stayed with me and helped to set me on a path to service. I also remember that he spent the last day of his life in Memphis, fighting for dignity and higher pay for working people.”
Sanders countered with his remarks on King, stating, “It’s important not only that we remember what he stood for, but that we pledge to continue his vision to transform our country.” Much of the transformation envisioned by Sanders appeared to be centered on Wall Street, which he must have repeated 20 times, perhaps most sharply when he said, “Who is satisfied that 51 percent of African-American young people are either unemployed or underemployed? Who is satisfied that millions of people have police records for possessing marijuana when the CEOs of Wall Street companies who destroyed our economy have no police records?”
If Wall Street and its “rip-off” denizens was Sanders’ mantra, President Barack Obama was Clinton’s, though again it was O’Malley who first mentioned his name. Clinton slammed Sanders for criticizing Obama for taking donations from Wall Street, “and President Obama has led our country out of the Great Recession.” Moreover, she was prepared to defend the president on his effort to push through the Dodd-Frank bill to curb the irregularities on Wall Street.
But soon she was back to placating Black Americans, noting, “There needs to be a concerted effort to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system. And that requires a very clear agenda for retraining police officers, looking at ways to end racial profiling, finding more ways to really bring the disparities that stalk our country into high relief.”
This statement brought one of the loudest ovations of the evening from a crowd that appeared to favor Clinton. And she knew she had to work hard on this given the debacle her husband made of things in 2008 in his attempt to play down Obama’s win of South Carolina, saying that the Rev. Jesse Jackson had won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988 but did not win the nomination.
The most dramatic exchange between Clinton and Sanders occurred over their differences on gun control. When NBC moderator Lester Holt, who was joined by Andrea Mitchell, asked Sanders if he had changed his position on immunity for gun manufacturers, the senator from Vermont said the gun manufacturers’ liability bill “has some good provisions among other things, we’ve prohibited ammunition that would’ve killed cops who had protection on. We have child safety protection work on guns in that legislation.”
Clinton slipped the senator’s jab and shot back with this charge against her opponent. “He voted against the Brady Bill five times,” she snapped. “He voted for what we call the Charleston Loophole. He voted for immunity from gun-makers and sellers, which the NRA said ‘was the most important piece of gun legislation in 20 years’ … he voted to let guns go onto the Amtrak, guns go into National Parks. He voted against doing research to figure out how we can save lives. Let’s not forget what this is about, 90 people a day die from gun violence in our country. That’s 33,000 people a year.”
Sanders said, insofar as his standing with the NRA, “They gave me a D-.”
O’Malley probably unloaded the best comment on the gun control measure when he told a story about a young child who had been shot and was recuperating in Johns Hopkins Hospital when O’Malley visited him. It was a heartrending story that exemplified his stance on gun control legislation. “I’ve never met a self-respecting deer hunter that needed an AR-15 to down a deer,” he concluded.
The main contenders hammered away at each other on the Affordable Care Act, which Clinton at one time called “Obamacare,” a term that has infuriated Republicans who have tried numerous times to repeal it. Sanders, as ever, was pushing for a single-payer plan, which he chose to call on this occasion “Medicare for all.”
During the third debate, the Republicans were Clinton’s target, but this time, perhaps “feeling the Bern,” she pulled no punches as she tried to corner her opponent and deliver blows to nullify his momentum.
It was a very exciting bout, and Clinton, once again as in previous challenges, held her own, but the final decision on the first primary or caucuses is only two weeks away, and then we will get a better notion of who the real winner was.
Meanwhile, what we know, in a Shakespearean sense, is that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.
