2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThe Moment at the Democratic Debate That Proved What This Campaign Is Really About
By Charles P Pierce
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINALet's begin at the very end, during the closing statements of Sunday night's Democratic presidential debate, because something happened that's really important to the substantive bedrock of the campaign. There are the shiny objects and there are the horse-race turning points and there are the big noisy issues that everyone gloms onto because said glomming will get you on the news the next day, or onto one of The Sunday Showz the following weekend.
On Sunday night, the latter were represented by a couple of smackdowns between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders on the issues of gun safety, healthcare reform, and cleaning up regulation of the financial sector. In truth, there wasn't much daylight between them on either of the last two, which is why HRC framed her attack on Sandersover both the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank reform billas a defense of a president to whom, she said, Sanders had been less than loyal. She mentioned that Sanders had mused about finding a primary opponent in 2011. (Left unsaid, of course, is the fact that there was only one person on the stage who'd actually tried to keep Barack Obama from being president and, back in 2007-08, she wasn't exactly shy about why. Welcome to the Elision Fields.)
Meanwhile, Sanders kept trying to hang The Great Vampire Squid of Goldman Sachs around Clinton's neck. This latter prompted the best moment of the night from poor Martin O'Malley, who otherwise has been reduced virtually to panhandling the moderators to get any run at all. He said that both of the other two were in the satchel, one way or the other. This was the kind of thing that is going to get some people writing today about the "contrast" between the Democratic candidates on Sunday night and the Republican candidates this past Thursday, which is roughly the difference between a public policy seminar at the Kennedy School and the Apostle John, mad from thirst, raving about seven-headed beasts from his cave on Patmos.
But the really interesting part of the debate came right at the end, during HRC's closing statement, in which she said:
SANDERS: Well, Secretary Clinton was right and what I did which I think is also right, is demanded the resignation of governor. A man who acts that irresponsibly should not stay in power.
Make no mistake. The appalling scandal regarding the poisoning by lead of the citizens of Flint, Michigan, and the lack of response from the deregulated government brought to Michigan by Governor Rick Snyder, is a percolating issue everywhere in America, especially in the African-American communities. We prayed for the citizens of Flint at Mother Emanuel on Sunday morning, and many of the politicians who gathered to spin for the various candidates barely could contain their outrage. It is an issue among the people who rarely get their issues heard. And they are extremely pissed.
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http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a41280/democratic-debate-charleston-recap/