http://www.nationalreview.com/node/431213/print Clinton’s Listless Dem Debate Performance Unlikely to Halt Sanders’s Momentum
By Brendan Bordelon — February 12, 2016
After her stunning collapse in New Hampshire on Tuesday, many expected Hillary Clinton to roll into the next presidential debate with guns blazing. But on Thursday night in Milwaukee, the once-prohibitive Democratic frontrunner delivered a low-key, almost lethargic performance against her surging opponent, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.
It’s tempting to blame her sleepy showing on the stuffy, awkward performance of the PBS moderators. But her opponent showed up despite that, peppering Clinton with the usual attacks over Wall Street donations and throwing in some new ones on immigration. Sanders was better-versed on national security than in past debates. And he gleefully slaughtered what he considered a sacred cow of the foreign-policy intelligentsia when he questioned Clinton’s reliance on Henry Kissinger — whom he called “one of the most destructive secretaries of state in modern history” — for advice.
Although Clinton desperately needed to blunt the insurgent candidate’s momentum coming out of New Hampshire, it was her opponent who threw — and landed — the most punches. She tried to trip up Sanders with detailed policy answers, repeatedly asking him to “level” with the American people on how he planned to accomplish his utopian vision. But caught in a defensive crouch and struggling to explain her own campaign’s shortcomings, she never really found the opening she needed.
At the start, both the candidates and the moderators were laser-focused on issues important to the African-American and Latino communities. With Nevada and South Carolina voting later this month, the two minority groups factor hugely into both campaigns’ calculations. And both sought to portray themselves as defenders of the African-American community against an unfair criminal-justice system and a lack of economic opportunity.
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