Marilyn W. Thompson is a contributing editor of Politico and currently a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

After Super Tuesday, Sunday night’s Democratic Party debate has become a make-or-break moment for Hillary Clinton’s rival, Bernie Sanders. His web site proclaims that his four-state victory on Super Tuesday marks the start of the “political revolution.” And if Clinton’s advisers are smart, they’ll spend some time studying a grainy hour-long video from October 23, 2006.

It features Bernie Sanders, candidate of the little guy, in a knock out performance against a polished, wealthy Republican Senate rival, nicknamed “Richie Rich” by one snide Vermont commentator.


Richie Rich was Richard Tarrant, a near-billionaire Vermont software entrepreneur and big-time Republican Party donor who was then the state GOP’s nominee for the U.S. Senate. A former college basketball star who made a fortune selling his company, IDX, to General Electric, Tarrant was statuesque, confident and immaculately groomed as he faced Sanders at the event in Burlington. In a movie version, Robert Redford might have been the choice of central casting. Tarrant oozed entrepreneurial wealth, and he had invested about $7 million of his own fortune to defeat an eight-term independent congressman who he thought had little clout in Washington.

Bernie Sanders was rumpled and grumpy as he spouted socialist ideals. He scowled and grew defensive as Tarrant criticized his ineffectiveness on Capitol Hill. As the debate intensified, Bernie sat awkwardly when he should have been standing, then seemed to realize he might project more confidence by rising to his feet. He angrily jabbed his finger in the air to accuse Tarrant of running "the most negative, dishonest campaign in the history of Vermont."

Yet by debate's end, the unpolished Sanders somehow managed to make poor Richie Rich look like an entitled Bush-Cheney apologist, out of touch with the common voter.

Tarrant, now 73 and retired from politics, has spent some time analyzing his rival since he lost the election. Tarrant doesn't believe his personal wealth did him in, although it didn’t help that the local press focused on his taste for luxurious Florida real estate or that Sanders highlighted his excessive campaign spending in a series of match-ups. Like Clinton, Tarrant touted the good works of his family’s charitable foundation, which donates money to Vermont schools and hospitals, only to see it cited in the independent press as another sign of privilege.

But Tarrant thinks Hillary Clinton will make a serious mistake if she underestimates Bernie’s appeal under the glare of television lights.

“He was a brilliant politician,” Tarrant says now. As a Bernie watcher, he was not at all surprised when Sanders came out of nowhere to pose a longshot threat to Clinton, hanging on through Super Tuesday with victories in Vermont, Oklahoma, Colorado and Minnesota.

He’s viewed the prior Clinton-Sanders debates with special interest.

“He kills her,” Tarrant said in a phone chat. “It's really sad.”

Through the prism of personal experience, Tarrant offers these observations about Bernie's debate magic and how Hillary might counteract it:

- Don't underestimate the Bern. His anger works, Tarrant says. He's known Sanders 30 years and "never seen him smile.” But the finger-pointing outrage he projects on a debate stage reflects a passion that resonates with voters, his foe remembers.

- Think on your feet. Hillary's biggest debate flaw, Tarrant believes, is that she relies too heavily on her coaches. She pauses as if trying to remember her lines, while Bernie just reacts. It comes across like he is speaking from the heart, Tarrant says.

- Understand the appeal of Bernie's “political revolution.” Part of Bernie's brilliance, Tarrant says, is that he doesn't just propose expensive social reforms, he makes common voters feel they are actually entitled to them. "He makes people feel like they are screwed by the rigged economy,” Tarrant said. So when Clinton tries—as he once did—to underscore the improbability of Sanders’ proposals, it backfires.

Tarrant moved to Florida in 2010, though his businesses remain in Vermont. In what he calls the Republican “clown circus,” he’s a Kasich man.

But Tarrant learned his Bernie lessons the hard way.

By the end of a Senate campaign that was the most expensive in the state’s history, Tarrant spent $85 per vote of his own money.

Bernie, financed largely by small donations, spent only $34.