Clinton's finest hour: the best moments from the Democrats debate

On Tuesday evening the first pre-election debates of the ruling Democratic Party took place. Candidates on the stage competed in the number of promises of social benefits and only once spoke of Russia in relation to the conflict in Syria. On the situation in Ukraine and the role of Putin in it no one in the debate did not remember.

Show without show

From the Democrats Debate no one expected the show - it, actually, was not. In the Wynn hotel conference hall in Las Vegas, five candidates met on the same stage: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is the leader of the presidential race in the camp of the Democrats, her closest rival is the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, the former governor of Maryland, Martin O'Malley and Virginia's former senators - Jim Webb, and Rhode Island - Lincoln Chafee. Vice President Joe Biden, contrary to expectations, did not enter the presidential race, at least at this stage. Although CNN, which held the debate, even prepared a spare platform for him, if he wants to take part in the discussion.

Some critics considered the debate of the Democrats boring - the discussion clearly lacked drama and scandalousness, which Republican debates, thanks to Donald Trump, it was more than that - and some, on the contrary, amusing.

However, Trump and here did not stand aside. Although he was not on the debate, he mockingly mocked every phrase of the participants in his microblog on Twitter. At some point, he even wrote in his categorical manner, “Today there is not a single star on this stage”.

Women's party

Among the main topics of debate was the issue of increasing social guarantees, the rights of illegal migrants, the conflict in the Middle East. The topic of the military conflict in Ukraine did not rise at all.

Clinton was the most active participant in the discussion. The Washington Post believes that this performance was the best for her entire presidential campaign. She behaved at ease, in the performance felt confidence and good nature. However, by and large, she didn’t have any serious competitors: Bernie Sanders, with a large margin coming second in the ranking after Clinton, did not attack the former secretary of state, but on the contrary, he supported his shoulder.

So, Sanders was able to do in the evening what the Clinton team could not do in a year. He put if not a point, then at least a semicolon in the scandal using Clinton's personal mail while working at the White House.

During the debates, he said: “I don’t want to hear anything more about your damn e-mail,” thus making it clear that this story is not so serious. "I, too, I, too," - agreed Clinton, which caused laughter and applause in the hall, writes “Kommersant”. Even she herself could not have come up with a better script.

However, Meagan Kelly, the host of Fox News’s pro-republican channel, hurried to note at the end of the debate: it’s not Clinton and Sanders who decide what is an important topic for discussion and what isn’t. And since more than half of Americans, according to a survey of their channel, believe that Clinton was not honest in the personal mail scandal, it will not be possible to just hush it up.

Socialist paradise

Democrats during the debates poured promises of social benefits. The minimum salary is $ 15 per hour, free college tuition and medical insurance for illegal migrants, paid family leave for the company. In these matters, the candidates were almost unanimous.

However, Clinton and Sanders still showed a slightly different vision of how America should develop.

Bernie Sanders, who gained the popularity of Americans with his socialist views, expounded beyond business restrictions. "Congress does not regulate Wall Street; Wall Street regulates Congress," he said. The audience burst into applause.

Sanders voiced the idea that taxes for the rich need to be made even higher. They say it is unfair that "a tenth of a percent of the population has wealth equal to the total wealth of 90% of the population."

Sanders called socialist Denmark a role model. Therefore, he called the fight against social inequality in the United States and investment in job creation and education a priority.

Clinton also noted that the main goal of her election program is to strengthen the middle class, which historically is the basis in America, and increase the minimum wage. “America is not Denmark,” she emphasized, and also caused applause in the hall. In its formulation, the attitude towards large capital sounded like this: capitalism must be protected from itself.

Hello Russia

Russia was remembered during the debates once. Moderator Anderson Cooper asked a direct question about how the participants in the debate relate to the actions of Russia in Syria.

The only one who adequately answered this question was Clinton.

“I think it is important that the United States makes it as clear as possible to Putin that it is unacceptable for him to intervene in Syria and only add to the chaos by launching airstrikes to help Assad,” Hillary Clinton said, according to with the BBC.

At the same time, she said: "The Russians and I have achieved significant success - we agreed on nuclear weapons, on sanctions against Iran, on the supply of equipment <...> to Afghanistan."

“As for Syria, I applaud the current administration, since it is now involved in negotiations with the Russians,” Clinton clarified.

Bernie Sanders got off with common phrases, once again showing that he can talk beautifully about social inequality and about climate change, but foreign policy is not his strong point.

Half-truth and falsehood from candidates

During the debate, CNN verified the truth of the facts that were voiced by the candidates.

So, journalists checked the thesis of Hillary Clinton that 90 people die from violence with the use of firearms every day in the USA. Using these numbers, Clinton called for a fight with the National Rifle Association. After analyzing the data for 2013 a year, the journalists calculated: indeed, every day they lost 92 people’s lives, but only a third of them died as a result of violence with weapons, the remaining cases are suicides and unintentional killings. The verdict of journalists: Clinton used correct data, but interpreted them in a favorable light for themselves.

But Bernie Sanders journalists accused of cheating. Answering the question of Anderson Cooper, the leading debate, whether he protected weapons manufacturers from lawsuits, Sanders said no. However, in a CNN interview in July, he stated the exact opposite, insisting that manufacturers should not be held responsible for the use of weapons that were fatal.

Actors of the second plan

Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley could use this debate to get out of the one percent rating. However, he did not. In the first hour of the debate, he was too subtle. It seemed that he did not intend to attack Clinton, although he had previously stated that presidential power was not a crown that two families passed on to each other. O'Malley’s speech turned out to be boring and uninteresting, although he needed to show much more, writes Inosmi.

The performance of another candidate, Lincoln Chafee, is assessed as very weak. Explaining why he voted to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 was one of the worst responses in the debate. A law passed in 1933 divided commercial and investment banks, that is, it actually prohibited the use of public deposits for investment. Its cancellation was one of the reasons for the banking crisis in 2008. “It was right the moment I entered the Senate. Everyone makes mistakes. My father died before that. <…> This was my first vote, "Chafee defended himself for his vote in Congress amid the disapproving noise of the audience.

“You want to say that you didn’t know what you were voting for?” The presenter of the debate of this candidate was genuinely surprised, but Chafee could not add more intelligible arguments to his explanation.

Jim Webb used his limited time to complain about lack of time. Four times he complained to the moderator that he had been waiting for 10 minutes to respond. As a result, presenter Anderson Cooper was tired of constant complaints about the time of his speech and summed up: “You agreed with these rules [the rules of speaking at debates - Ed. "Forum"]. If you’ve finished answering, we’ll move on, ”writes CNN.

Observers after the end of the debate noted that the discussion of the Democrats did not have enough heat and drama, which provided the Republican Trump.

At the same time, the debates demonstrated that so far Clinton has no worthy rivals in the Democratic Party. So, most likely, she will become the party candidate in the presidential election.