In Democratic Debate, Hillary Clinton Seizes on Policy Shifts.NYT
'Hillary Clinton targeted Bernie Sanders’s electoral appeal with some of her strongest language yet in a debate on Sunday night, seizing on Mr. Sanders’s recent policy shifts on universal health care and gun control to try to undercut his image as an anti-political truth teller.
Mrs. Clinton also repeatedly aligned herself with a former political rival, President Obama, as she sought to portray her current one, Mr. Sanders, as a fringe candidate who did not stand with Mr. Obama on major issues like Wall Street regulation. Mr. Sanders, in turn, gave no quarter as he criticized Mrs. Clinton as dishonest in her attacks.
With Mr. Sanders gaining on her before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, Mrs. Clinton cast herself as the defender of Mr. Obama’s record and Mr. Sanders as playing into Republican hands with proposals like replacing the Affordable Care Act with a single-payer plan, which Mr. Sanders describes as “Medicare for all.”
“We’ve accomplished so much already,” she said. “I don’t want to see the Republicans repeal it.”
“That is nonsense,” Mr. Sanders said. “What a ‘Medicare for all’ program does is finally provide health care for every man, woman and child as a right.” He added that 29 million people still lack health insurance. . .
The third candidate in the Democratic race, former Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, who is far behind in most polls, showed some new life at the debate as he reminded the audience that she had evoked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks previously to explain her Wall Street donations when she was a senator representing New York.
“Now you bring up President Obama here in South Carolina in defense of the fact of your cozy relationship with Wall Street,” Mr. O’Malley said. If Mrs. Clinton was trying to make Mr. Sanders look less than qualified for the presidency, Mr. Sanders repeatedly tried to address doubts about his electability, which a new Clinton television ad has questioned. At one point, he rattled off some of his strong poll numbers, not unlike the leading Republican candidate, Donald J. Trump.
“When this campaign began, she was 50 points ahead of me,” he said. “We were all of three percentage points. Guess what? In Iowa and New Hampshire, the race is very, very close.”
He added, “In polling, we are running ahead of Secretary Clinton against my good friend Donald Trump.”
Mr. Sanders did not break any new ground as he challenged Mrs. Clinton on policy, but instead tried to deepen his ongoing critique of her as an ally of wealthy and powerful interests:'>>>
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/18/us/politics/democratic-debate.html?
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