Bernie Thrills Base, But Hillary Outclasses Rivals in Debate

And so it came to pass. Mrs. Clinton presented herself as the experienced, hyper-informed, trailblazing adult in the room throughout the evening, directing almost all of her verbal punches at Republicans. Only once did she directly attack one of her rivals: Bernie Sanders, (predictably) on gun control, perhaps the only issue on which she can credibly outflank him to the left. In spite of her hedging on in-state tuition for illegal immigrants and marijuana legalization, extremely weak answers on Libya and trade, and unresponsive dismissiveness on her burgeoning email scandal (her denunciation of Edward Snowden for his handling of sensitive information was quite rich), Clinton won the debate.