Clinton seizes on Sanders’ policy shifts
THIRD DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE O’MALLEY FAR BEHIND IN POLLS BUT SHOWS SOME NEW LIFE IN KEY DEBATE
Hillary Clinton targeted Bernie Sanders’ electoral appeal with some of her strongest language yet in a debate on Sunday night, seizing on Sanders’ recent policy shifts on universal health care and gun control to try to undercut his image as an anti-political truth teller.
Clinton also repeatedly aligned herself with a former political rival, President Barack Obama, as she sought to portray her current one, Sanders, as a fringe candidate who did not stand with Obama on major issues like Wall Street regulation.
With Sanders gaining on her before the February 1 Iowa caucuses, Clinton cast herself as the defender of Obama’s record and Sanders as playing into Republican hands with proposals like replacing the Affordable Care Act with a single-payer plan, which 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,” said Sanders, who pushed back sharply throughout the night. “What a ‘Medicare for all’ programme 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.
Clinton was pointed in her critiques of Sanders but relatively restrained in tone and words as she sought to raise doubts about what many liberals see as Sanders’ greatest virtues: his integrity and consistency on policy issues.
She chose not to accuse him of “flip-flopping” on gun control bills as she had earlier on Sunday, but rather said at the debate that she was “pleased” he had “reversed” himself.
For Clinton, it was enough to note Sanders’ changes in policy: By doing so, she raised doubts about his consistency, but stopped short of eviscerating his positions and potentially alienating a restless liberal base that largely favours Sanders.
Her tactics left Sanders appearing frustrated at times, such as when he called her “very disingenuous” on his gun record, or when he sighed audibly and rolled his eyes upward as she implicitly questioned his principles on health care.
When Clinton pushed on his health care plan, which she said would “tear up” the president’s signature achievement, he shot back: “No one is tearing this up. We’re going forward.”
Obama’s mantle
The competition to claim Obama’s political mantle was the dominant theme of the night.
Obama remains widely popular among party members, particularly in the state that Clinton now needs to win more than ever: South Carolina, which votes on February 27.
Should she lose the first two nominating contests, Clinton and her team believe she can regain political momentum in the South Carolina primary, in part because of her strong support among African-Americans there. Clinton repeatedly reiterated her support for Obama’s agenda, while Sanders tried to present himself as the bolder choice to build on Obama’s legacy.
The third candidate in the Democratic race, former Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland, is far behind in most polls, but he showed some new life at the debate.
He suggested that Clinton was offering unpersuasive explanations for her closeness to the financial industry, reminding the audience that she had evoked the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in a previous debate to explain her Wall Street donations.
“Now you bring up President Obama here in South Carolina in defence of the fact of your cosy relationship with Wall Street,” O’Malley said.
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