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By Carl Davidson
"Where Bernie showed his strength was
in keeping everyone focused on the fight
against Bankster-imposed austerity at home
and being dragged into new wars abroad."
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INSTANT
ANALYSIS: MY TWO CENTS. Overall, Bernie Sanders won, but not without a
few wobbles, and the GOP was the big loser. Hillary retained her
front-runner position with a combative stance, and with a surprise
assist from Sanders. Chaffey, Webb and O’Malley remained also-rans.
In the context of today’s ‘debates as spectacle,’ this round was
relatively substantive and civil compared to the GOP, which is not a
very high bar. O’Malley and Clinton ganged up on Sanders early on,
trying to paint the Vermont Senator as weak or compromised on gun
control, which required a bit of hyperbole and demagogy. Sanders stand
on guns is quite common sense, and while it earned him a D- NRA rating,
it is also likely the most widely shared view among the
electorate—background checks, no automatic weapons, gun show loopholes
closed, mental health and other similar restrictions—of any candidate
of any party.
Sanders was rattled by the intensity of the criticism, but did his best to recover.
Where Bernie showed his strength was in keeping everyone focused on the
fight against Bankster-imposed austerity at home and being dragged into
new wars abroad. When Anderson Cooper was dumping on Clinton about
Benghazi and Emails, Sanders interrupted and denounced the whole topic,
saying his was ‘sick of talking about her damned emails’ when much
larger matters were on the table. It effectively ended the topic for
the night.
The CNN moderators did their best to provoke. They asked Sanders about
Clinton’s quip that his ‘free tuition at public universities and
colleges’ was tantamount to ‘free college for Donald Trump’s kids.’ But
Bernie didn’t take the bait, responding that a college degree in
today’s work world is similar to a high school degree 50 years ago, and
public schools thrived because they were open to all, including the
wealthy. Then he added that his plan was funded by a transaction tax on
Wall Street.
They also tied to squeeze Sanders for being a 1960s person—smoking pot,
conscientious objection to the Vietnam war, and being a socialist. But
he parried these well, and turned them to his advantage.
Foreign policy was stressed at the end, and, in contrast to the hawkish
GOP, the five candidate show themselves more divided, with Clinton and
Webb, the Blue Dog, being more ready for ‘boots on the ground.' When
asked what the biggest threat to US security was, only Sanders had the
proper answer: the threats posed by unrestricted energy policies
fueling climate change.
One name never came up. Joe Biden. We’ll have to wait a few more weeks, but since Hillary held her own, he may fade away.
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BlackCommentator.com
Carl Davidson is the National Co-chair at Committees of Correspondence
for Democracy and Socialism, Web Correspondent at Progressive Democrats
of America, Board Member at Soldarity Economy Network and a member of
United Steelworkers of
America Local 3657. Contact Mr. Davidson via Facebook.
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 is published every Thursday |
Executive Editor:
David A. Love, JD |
Managing Editor:
Nancy Littlefield, MBA |
Publisher:
Peter Gamble |
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