LAS VEGAS – Hillary Rodham Clinton is entering Tuesday night’s first Democratic presidential debate eager to move past the controversy over her email practices and persuade voters she’s the best-qualified candidate to lead the party to a third straight term in the White House.
Clinton, the former secretary of state, faces her biggest challenge from Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who has energized liberals with his call for a “political revolution.” But Clinton leads Sanders by double digits in national polls and remains the overwhelming favourite to win the Democratic nomination due to her financial and organizational advantages over her rivals.
Joining them on stage in Las Vegas will be a trio of low-polling candidates looking for a breakthrough moment: former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley; Jim Webb, a former Navy secretary and U.S. senator from Virginia, and former governor and senator Lincoln Chafee, the Republican-turned independent-turned Democrat from Rhode Island.
Not on the scene in Las Vegas but on many minds is Vice-President Joe Biden, who has been flirting for weeks with a late entry into the race. His office said he will be watching the debate from his residence in Washington.
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The Democratic primary has lacked the drama of the Republican contest and the unexpected rise of Donald Trump, the real estate mogul and reality TV star. The Republican race remains wide open with Trump and two other political outsiders, former technology executive Carly Fiorina and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, grouped at the top of a crowded field that also includes former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio.
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For Clinton, a policy-heavy debate would be a welcome reprieve from the months of focus on her use of personal emails and a private server during her four years as secretary of state. The controversy has overshadowed virtually every other aspect of her campaign and contributed to a decline in her favourability rating with voters who increasingly view her as untrustworthy. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Clinton’s server was connected to the Internet in ways that left it somewhat vulnerable to hackers.
Sanders, too, seems eager to keep the debate focused on policy, and he is looking to broaden his appeal to more Democratic voters. Sanders has been drawing massive crowds and has pulled close to Clinton in polls in Iowa and leads in New Hampshire, two key states whose contests will kick off the primary battle next year. The Vermont senator has called for breaking up big Wall Street banks, raising Social Security retirement benefits and providing free tuition to public colleges and universities.
In recent days, Sanders has stepped up his efforts to draw a contrast with Clinton, casting her as a late-comer to the liberal positions he’s held for decades.
After Clinton announced her opposition to a sweeping Pacific Rim trade deal, a pact she had previously called the “gold standard,” Sanders said he was glad she’d come around to “a conclusion I reached on day one.”
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Indeed, Clinton has increasingly moved to the left on domestic policy since announcing her campaign this spring, including voicing opposition to the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast and support for expanded gun control legislation. While she rarely mentions Sanders by name, she’s suggested her proposals are more realistic and well-formed than those espoused by the Vermont senator.
Debate host CNN said it expected significantly lower ratings for Tuesday night’s debate than for the Republican contest the cable channel hosted in late September, which drew an audience of 23 million.
Even with smaller viewership than the Republican debates, Tuesday’s event is sure to be largest audience for Democratic candidates since the primary race began. It’s one of six debates the Democratic National Committee has sanctioned, a point of contention among some candidates seeking more nationally televised events to generate attention.
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