Democrats Debate: The Campaign Awakens

Hillary Clinton in Hampton, NH (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The last Democratic debate of 2015 in New Hampshire ended Saturday night with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telling her audience "May the force be with you", in acknowledgement of a certain movie that premiered this weekend.  That's appropriate, since Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley might soon be doing battle against the dark forces of the Republican Party.

The evening began with Sanders apologizing to Clinton for a campaign worker who allegedly stole voter data from her camp, which caused the Democratic National Committee to bar Sanders' campaign from using any data. Sanders filed suit, claiming the DNC was doing all it can to make it easier for Clinton to win the party's nomination.  With that out of the way, the debate could begin.

Clinton, Sanders and O'Malley then spent the rest of the evening talking (sometimes over each other) issues such as national security, gun control, the economy, health care, student debt, taxes, race and police relations, heroin abuse and Hillary Clinton herself.  In other words, it's nothing you haven't heard before if you've been following their campaigns.

We didn't hear much about what to do about immigration or climate change.  Nor did we hear any mention of the GOP candidates besides Donald Trump, who might as well be Darth Vader to the Democrats.

This was a civil and substantial debate compared to the Republicans' display of fear and loathing in Las Vegas (apologies to Hunter S. Thompson) earlier in the week.  That one was mostly about national security, the candidates having not met since the terrorist attacks on Paris and San Bernardino, California.  It prompted conservative moderator Hugh Hewitt to ask the candidates what happened to the sunny optimism GOP icon Ronald Reagan had used during his presidency.  They didn't really answer that question.  But you could say that Reagan never had to deal with 9/11 and its consequences, among other things.

We mentioned before that Sanders has a beef with the DNC about their alleged favoritism toward Clinton, which includes the limited number of debates compared to the GOP's, then get scheduled when people are least likely to see them.  This Democratic debate was put on ABC on a Saturday night in December, opposite a New York Jets-Dallas Cowboys football game on NFL Network.  Not to let the DNC off the hook, but it could also be argued that ABC didn't want to pre-empt "Dancing With The Stars", "Modern Family", or any of the Shondaland dramas to broadcast a low-rated debate.  So they stick it on the least-watched night of the week, hoping that those who really cared took the time to program their recording devices.

A few weeks before primary and caucus season begins, Hillary Clinton still holds a commanding lead in the polls over her rivals.  If form holds true, she might be the one who has the task of keeping America from going over to the dark side.  Light sabers not required.