Democratic Debate

Tuesday was the final Democratic primary debate before the Iowa caucuses. Read the full transcript here. (Des Moines Register)

The left doesn’t believe the debate will have a large impact on the polls and focuses on foreign policy.

“In 2008, Barack Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination arguably based on a single policy position that distinguished him from his chief rival: his opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq from its outset. Twelve years later, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont could conceivably capture the party’s nomination because of that same stance on that same war. At tonight’s Democratic debate, in Iowa, Sanders had his best chance yet to remind progressive primary voters that on the most consequential foreign-policy decision of the 21st century, he stood alone among the six candidates onstage in clearly opposing the Iraq War…

“In 2016, Trump took (dubious) credit for having opposed the Iraq War, using it as a cudgel against both his Republican-primary opponents and Hillary Clinton in the general election. The U.S. has now elected two presidents in a row who were, or claimed to be, against the war. Sanders is hoping voters decide to pick a third.” (Russell Berman, The Atlantic)

The right is critical of the candidates’ foreign policy views and accuses CNN of pro-Warren bias.

“In Tuesday night's Democratic debate, Joe Biden claimed a vast array of foreign policy accomplishments in an attempt to make the case that his foreign policy experience made him the best prepared candidate to be commander in chief. But all he did was remind viewers that he has an extensive history of getting it wrong…

“This is the man who once tried to dissuade Obama from his operation against terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden; who supported the Iraq War and said in 2003, ‘I voted to go into Iraq, and I’d vote to do it again;’ and who vocally opposed President Ronald Reagan's military buildup and the Strategic Defense Initiative, which helped bring down the Soviet Union. In Tuesday night's debate, Biden claimed he had atoned for his Iraq War vote by spearheading President Obama's 2011-2012 withdrawal from Iraq. But that withdrawal was a disaster and it led to the rise of ISIS.” (Editorial Board, Washington Examiner)