The Democratic clown show pulled into South Carolina last night for another performance of their traveling show. It was the tenth debate in the election cycle, and as the key South Carolina Primaries approach, the bloodbath commenced with renewed intensity.

The Dems picked up right where they left off after the debate in Las Vegas. They came ready with their rhetorical guns loaded, prepared for a fight to the death. As has been the case lately, the debate was more personal than substantive. Personally, I would prefer debates be focused on strictly policy issues, but we live in an entertainment age, so I have resigned myself to the fact that those kinds of debates aren’t going to happen.

And if they aren’t going to be substantive, then the bloodier the better. Might as well get some entertainment out of it.

Senator Bernie Sanders finally took a heavy dose of rhetorical artillery fire. Every candidate on the stage took a shot at him, and it was glorious. Bernie is the most dangerous major party candidate in American history. He would do irreparable harm to the republic, and he can’t be allowed to win. If you put a gun to my head and made me vote for one of the Dems, I would literally vote for any of the other candidates before Bernie. It’s nice to see that his fellow Democrats are starting to wake up to that fact too.

The conventional wisdom is that Bernie winning the nomination would guarantee reelection for President Trump. I tend to agree, but it’s a chance I don’t want to take. Even if Bernie is defeated by Trump in a general election, his policies will become mainstream going forward, and there will likely be other Bernie-like figures to pick up the socialist mantle.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired the opening salvo at Sanders, claiming that Russia wanted Bernie to win because he had the best chance to be defeated by Trump.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar pressed Sanders on how he was going to pay for his socialist utopian agenda. Former Vice President Joe Biden derided Sanders for not supporting gun control legislation in the past, claiming that those policies would have prevented a mass murder at a church in Charleston—which was located across the street from the debate venue. Senator Elizabeth Warren tried to thread a metaphorical needle between tacitly supporting a socialist agenda and staking the claim that she would be a more effective president than Senator Sanders. Billionaire Tom Steyer admitted that Bernie’s diagnoses of the issues were correct, but that his prescriptions for fixing them were flawed.

Through all that, one thing was clear: Bernie can’t handle criticism. The more his opponents attacked him, the louder he got—as if volume would make up for his halfhearted defense. The New York Times put it this way: “Bernie Sanders was pointing—to the left, to the right, at himself—in one moment coming under such ubiquitous duress that he extended both hands outward as if pushing to the front of a crowd, to swat back stage-wide accusations of fuzzy math.” That describes Bernie’s performance perfectly. Finally some accurate reporting from the NYT.

Former frontrunner Joe Biden has dropped like a rock in the polls and has staked his entire candidacy on winning South Carolina. He has bled support among African American voters in the Palmetto State, a constituency he badly needs to show up and vote for him. The Saturday, the South Carolina primary is shaping up to be a two-man battle between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. Biden appears to be the last candidate who has a shot to stifle Sanders’ momentum.

Although the debate was entertaining, it likely won’t change the dynamics of the race. None of the candidates had a breakout performance like they have in the past. Bernie is frustrating because he owns his radical agenda and is impervious to attacks on his extreme policies. He is proud of his radicalism, and it shows. Attacks against him only seem to get him more attention.

After the South Carolina primaries, the next stop is the all-important Super Tuesday. After Super Tuesday, we will likely know whether Bernie Sanders is destined to be the Democrat nominee or if he still has work to do.

Check back with FreedomWire for continuing coverage of the Democratic Clown Show.