Clinton, Sanders dominate first Democratic presidential debate

Offering a respite from the circus that the Republican presidential race has become, the comparatively thin Democratic field of candidates took the stage for their first debate Tuesday night. Though the speculation that Vice President Joe Biden (polling at 17.4% percent nationally) would be entering the race and joining the other contenders on stage proved to be unfounded, the presence of strong candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders buoyed the debate to relevancy.

Joining Clinton and Sanders (polling, respectively, at 43.3% and 25.1%) on stage were former Virginia senator Jim Webb (polling at 0.9%), former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley (0.4%), and former Rhode Island governor and senator Lincoln Chafee (0.3%).

Though the debate itself began half an hour after the announced start time of 8:30 PM, moderator Anderson Cooper wasted no time getting to the tough questions, aiming his first question at long-time front runner Hillary Clinton. Listing off a multitude of issues on which Clinton has changed her position throughout her years in politics, Cooper finally asked Clinton, “will you do anything to get elected?”

After insisting that she changes her mind “based on new information,’ Clinton went on to say that she is a progressive who “[doesn’t] take a backseat to anyone when it comes to progressive experience and progressive commitment.”

“I’m a progressive who finds ways to get things done,” Clinton finished.

Following Clinton’s impassioned statements, Sanders stated his platform, responding to Cooper’s “how can a socialist get elected president?” question by saying that “we’re [first] going to explain what Democratic socialism is.”

Sanders did just that for the remainder of the night, repeatedly harping on income inequality and putting forward promises for free tuition at public colleges and taxes on billion dollar Wall Street companies.

Though the majority of the debate was focused on Clinton and Sanders, the three other candidates did sometimes manage to speak. At the beginning of the debate, former Republican Chafee described himself as “a block of granite” (perhaps a desperate attempt to woo voters in New Hampshire?) who has remained steady on the issues. O’Malley, in response to his first question about his approaches as Baltimore mayor, declared that his policies have “saved over 1,000 lives in Baltimore in the past fifteen years.”

On Jim Webb’s part, his first major policy position of the debate was his declaration that, when it comes to guns, “we have to respect the tradition in this country of people who want to defend themselves & their family from violence,” an argument that quickly turned in to a discussion almost exclusively between Clinton and Sanders.

Sanders, for his part, tackled what is one of the biggest issues in America today by advocating for “common sense gun laws,” but ultimately proved to differ from Clinton on the topic when he said that people living in rural America should not have their right to own guns infringed upon.

It didn’t take long for the topic of debate to once again turn to one of the many controversies surrounding Hillary Clinton, and Clinton, yet again, found herself defending her role in the Benghazi attacks.

“Unless you believe the United States should not send diplomats to any place that is dangerous… there is always the potential and risk for danger,” Clinton declared, before slamming the Republican party for the Benghazi Committee, which she declared was a “partisan vehicle” with negative consequences on her candidacy for president.

It didn’t take long for at least one of the three candidates polling under 1% to become frustrated with their lack of air time.

“I’ve been waiting for ten minutes,” Jim Webb repeatedly begged Cooper after half an hour of listening to Clinton and Sanders argue back and forth with little interruption.

However, the most memorable complaint of the night came from one of the two big players of the debate when Sanders was asked about Clinton’s email controversy.

“The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails,” Bernie Sanders said to Clinton. “Enough of the emails, let’s talk about the real issues!”

“Thank you Bernie!” Hillary responded, laughing and walking over to shake Sanders’ hand as the crowd cheered wildly.

Shortly after, when asked if she wished to respond to further attacks on her credibility, Clinton made the crowd applaud once again when she responded with a matter-of-fact, “no.”

The next question in the debate focused on another hot-button issue: the “black lives matter” movements. While Clinton declared that “we need a new New Deal for Americans of color,” Jim Webb took another, less popular view (at least within the Democratic party) of the issue, declaring that “every life matters.”

The last hour of the debate focused mainly on issues less important to the American public and sent viewers scrambling to Google to figure out what, exactly, the Glass-Steagall Act is and why Lincoln Chafee regrets voting to repeal it.

Other memorable moments from the comparatively dull last hour includes Clinton’s statement “I never took a position on Keystone [pipeline] until I took a position on Keystone,” debates over whether or not the candidates would have brought Edward Snowden home, arguments over whether or not public college tuition should be free, and discussions of how the respective campaigns raised their money.

In the penultimate question of the night, Cooper asked candidates what enemy they’ve made in their careers that they’re most proud of. In perhaps the most telling quote about the state of politics in America today, Clinton ended her response by proudly declaring, with a smile, “Republicans.”

It was also Clinton who got the last words of the debate, stating that “America’s best days are still ahead.” If the mostly civil (especially when compared to the previous attack-filled Republican debates) discussion tonight is any indication, some of its most interesting days will certainly come in the next year as the presidential race continues to heat up.