The Second Democratic Debate Winner Was Bernie Sanders

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Well, there's this

The Second Democratic Debate Winner Was Bernie Sanders
http://www.bustle.com/articles/123712-the-second-democratic-debate-winner-was-bernie-sanders

And that's really why what happened tonight was so impressive. Despite facing long odds, and a news cycle that'd been dominated by terrorism heading into the debate — an issue not very in-line with his core economic justice platform, and surely a spot of greater experience for Clinton — Bernie Sanders walked away the winner of the second Democratic presidential debate, scoring some raw hits against Clinton's Wall Street coziness, and speaking authoritatively and expansively about ISIS, the Middle East,

The very nature of the debate ended up changing late in the game — CBS ultimately decided to front-load questions about terrorism, in light of the attacks in Paris, France the night before, which left 129 people dead, including at least one American. This was easily foreseeable as a big advantage for Clinton — given her years as Secretary of State, and given Sanders' heavy reliance on his domestic policy agenda, it theoretically gave her a chance to come out swinging early on an area of deep career experience.

But she might not have expected Sanders to perform quite as formidably as he did. Despite initially pivoting away from ISIS back to economics during his opening statement, Sanders capably attacked Clinton for her past vote to authorize the war in Iraq, which he characterized as the necessary precursor to ISIS' rise in the Middle East. He also set her on her heels on the topic of her huge amount of Wall Street contributions, as Business Insider detailed, suggesting that her explanations about her large amount of Wall Street campaign contributions are "not good enough," and arguing that it's no coincidence why the financial industry prefers her over him.



All in all, it was a red-letter night for Sanders. The only true test is whether it helps him out with early-primary states, and that'll be borne out by polls in the coming days and weeks. But on the strength of his overall performance, and the authoritativeness he showed even outside of his core area of economic justice, he definitely ought to get a little bump.