I find myself somewhat ambivalent about this increasingly popular ‘no-contact’ townhall format. The Q&A is pretty substantive. And yet, I do think putting the candidates under pressure – head to head – can be revealing in a positive way. In any case, I thought both candidates did fairly well for themselves. There were no big surprises. I thought Sanders presentation was more coherent and, for lack of a better word, elegant.

But that is also in the nature of his message. No compromises, pushing not for half-measures and protecting what we have but articulating a broad vision of what America should be like. Clinton meanwhile was best as a fighter. I thought TPM Reader JB was right when he said that Sanders is in primary mode and Clinton is already off to the general.

But here’s the one thing that stood out to me. Again, I won’t say it’s new in the campaign. But in this townhall, it was articulated on both sides in a sharper relief.

Sanders is saying that the kind of society most Democrats won’t can’t be achieved by operating within the current system – you need a fundamental shift in the role of money in public life, the values that drive our political system, etc. He is saying quite clearly and crisply that we’re never going to get there through incrementalism. Phrased that way, I think there’s a very good argument that he’s right.

Clinton is coming at things from an altogether different vantage point: Think what we could lose. Think about all the tangible, if incremental, things we’ve achieved and realize that we could lose them. The Affordable Care Act, voting rights, advances for women and the LGBT community. Even if you have a Republican Congress forever, a Democrat in the White House is the great protector of all of that. It is implicit in what she says and sometimes said openly that without a dramatically different Congress none of what Sanders is proposing will even get a hearing in Congress let alone get passed. But the deeper argument – realism and protecting gains – is the essence of the message she’s pushing.

It has the benefit of being a pretty stark and clear cut choice.