After two Republican debates—or four, counting their JV debates—we get to a Democratic debate.
Onstage in Las Vegas Tuesday night:
Hillary Clinton
Bernie Sanders
Martin O'Malley
Jim Webb
Lincoln Chafee
As the leader, Clinton is at center stage, flanked by Sanders to her right and O'Malley to her left, with Webb and Chafee taking the outside. The media really wanted us speculating about whether Vice President Joe Biden would make a dramatic entry to the race with a last-minute appearance (parachuting in, perhaps?), but ... no.
Here's to a healthy exchange of ideas and not too many stupid questions from moderators and questioners Anderson Cooper, Dana Bash, Juan Carlos Lopez, and, reading questions from social media, Don Lemon. (At least they have Lemon just offering other people's questions.) If their questions aren't bad enough for you, Donald Trump has promised to live-tweet.
The debate is airing on CNN and streaming on CNNGo and CNN.com.Tue Oct 13, 2015 at 7:46 PM PT (Hunter):
Tue Oct 13, 2015 at 7:48 PM PT: Dana Bash really wants to make paid family leave sound more difficult than it is, and Hillary Clinton citing California's successful paid leave program that hasn't had dire effects doesn't put a dent in that determination. Clinton's pushback gets forceful: "we shouldn't be paralyzed" by Republican scare tactics, and we can make it happen by making the wealthy pay for it.
Sanders follows up that it is an international embarrassment that the U.S. is the only major country that doesn't have paid maternity leave.
Tue Oct 13, 2015 at 7:50 PM PT (Meteor Blades): Sanders: Would probably vote yes on legalizing recreational marijuana. War on Drugs has done an enormous amount of damage. Clinton: Not ready to decide on legalizing recreational marijuana. Supports medical marijuana. Got to stop imprisoning people for using marijuana.
Tue Oct 13, 2015 at 7:54 PM PT (Kerry Eleveld): Question: What can you do about a problem like Republicans?
Sanders: the GOP has played a terrible role of being totally obstructionist. "They have said, no, no, no." The only way we can take them is by having millions of people coming together. If we want to raise the minimum wage, workers are going to have to come together and if you vote against us, you are going to be out of job.
Tue Oct 13, 2015 at 7:56 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): Which enemy are you most proud of: Chafee says coal industry, O'Malley says the NRA, Clinton says the NRA, Republicans, health companies, and Iranians, and Sanders says Wall Street, pharmaceutical companies. Webb cites some guy he killed.
Tue Oct 13, 2015 at 8:02 PM PT: Closing statements: Chafee has a goofy grin as he touts his vote against the Iraq war and then pitches his website.
Webb says if you look at his record, he's always been willing to take on complicated and sometimes unpopular issues. For some reason he sort of tries to sound like a Democrat for pretty much the first time all night.
O'Malley is grateful to have been on this stage and points out that this debate has been different than the Republican debates. No one denigrated women or made racist comments about immigrants or spoke ill of people because of their religious beliefs. Instead the debate has been about issues and attacking injustice, employing more people, and including more people in the economic and political life of our country. He's going for visionary optimism but not quite getting there in his delivery.
Sanders says this is a great country but we have many serious problems. Childhood poverty, wealth and income inequality, we don't guarantee health care, we don't provide family and parental leave. Nobody up here, certainly no Republican, can address the major crises facing our country unless millions of people stand up to the billionaire class that has so much power. He too pitches his website while touting his large base of small donors.
Clinton also highlights the difference between the Democratic and Republican debates. Who amongst us has the vision for actually making the changes that are going to improve the lives of the American people? Who has the tenacity and the ability and the proven track record of getting that done? Clinton's mother always told her it wasn't if you got knocked down, it was if you got back up. After the recession, we're standing but not running the way America needs to. Clinton would fight for the middle class, she says.
Tue Oct 13, 2015 at 8:24 PM PT (Barbara Morrill): Last debate thread of the night here ... with a poll!