Did I Miss Another Debate?

Both candidates promised large-scale criminal justice reform and comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living and working in the United States.

In a fiery exchange over immigration, Clinton accused Sanders of voting against the 2007 immigration reform bill that included a pathway to citizenship. Sanders defended his vote, arguing that civil rights and immigrant groups were also opposed. “‘I don’t apologize for that vote,” he declared. Then he turned on Clinton for her contention that children fleeing violence and poverty in Central America should be “sent back”.

Clinton also disavowed a controversial remark by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, who told voters at a rally in New Hampshire that there was a “special place in hell for women who don’t help each other”.

“I have spent my entire adult life making sure that women are empowered to make their own choices, even if that choice is not to vote for me,” Clinton said, acknowledging that young women have so far favored Sanders.

  Guardian

Thanks Madeleine.

For much of the night it felt like there were three Democrats on the stage in Milwaukee as the candidates spent so much time debating the record of Barack Obama. Clinton seemed determined to claim the mantle of protector of the Obama legacy, an unambiguous signal to the voters of South Carolina and Super Tuesday states like Alabama and Georgia

A good gamble unless they've all wised up to Obama.

Clinton said Obama did not get the credit he deserved and said Sanders had not stood with the president, calling him “weak” and “disappointing”. She accused her opponent of making personal attacks of a kind she would have expected to hear from Republicans.

“Madam Secretary, that is a low blow,” Sanders said. “I have worked with President Obama for the past seven years ... President Obama and I are friends ... it is really unfair to suggest I have not been supportive of the president.”

In a final slap-down, Sanders said: “One of us ran against Barack Obama. I was not that candidate.”

Oopsie. Will she have to stay away from that angle now?

The foreign policy section of the debate went down a strange historic cul-de-sac as Sanders denounced Henry Kissinger, the grand old man of Republican diplomacy, sharply criticising Clinton for acknowledging that she had turned to her 92-year-old predecessor for advice while she was secretary of state.

Sanders called Kissinger “one the most destructive secretaries of state in the modern history of this country ... Henry Kissinger is not my friend.”

Clinton responded with a jibe, demanding of Sanders: “Who do you listen to on foreign policy? We have yet to know who that is.”

Diplomacy? I think there should be another more accurate name for what Kissinger did.

And Hillary will make up for courting Kissinger by courting blacks in the news.

Clinton has announced plans to campaign with the mothers of Trayvon Martin, a black teen killed by a neighborhood watchman, Eric Garner, a black man who died after being placed in a police chokehold, and Sandra Bland, a black woman who was found hanged in a Texas jail after being pulled over for a broken tail light.

Why not the daughter of Eric Garner? Because Bernie Sanders got there first.*

Sanders largely stuck to his script, even when given the opportunity to move off message.

“This campaign is not only about electing someone who has the most progressive agenda, it’s about bringing tens of millions of people together to demand that we have a government that represents all of us and not just the 1% who today have so much economic and political power,” Sanders said in his closing speech.

Yeah, it probably wouldn't be such a good idea to move off message "even when given the opportunity" if your message is what is getting you votes.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

*Here's Erica Garner:

Last week we made a commercial to express to the world exactly why I am endorsing Bernie Sanders for President. The Sanders team allowed me and my team full creative control of this video so this message is 100% my message and my views! They had a totally different idea of what should be done, but true to form with Senator Sanders, he listened to me, didn’t tell me he knew better and I was not practical and this is what we produced.

The Senator didn’t reach out to me all of a sudden because he needs help with Black people. He didn’t put out a press conference announcing that we would be working together. He didn’t force me to frame my support of him around a subject matter that special interest groups that support him can get behind. They said we are glad to have your support, how do you want to plug in. You will see a lot of Black leaders handing out endorsements, think to yourself, have they historically been a rubber stamp for the establishment? I hope this expresses why I think Bernie is our guy!

  Official Erica Garner