Hillary Clinton's campaign, which had grown increasingly confident at the end of 2015, was jolted by Bernie Sanders’ stunning gains in New Hampshire and Iowa. | AP Photo OFF MESSAGE 5 takeaways from the Democratic debate Clinton ditches the easy demeanor, Sanders goes full indignant, and the crowd loves Obama.

Hillary Clinton, facing an unexpectedly stout challenge from Bernie Sanders, threw diplomatic dignity to the wind in the fourth Democratic debate, attacking the senator even if it reinforced his characterization of her as an establishment politician so desperate she’d say anything to win.

Sanders’ stunning gains in New Hampshire and Iowa have put a jolt into a Clinton campaign that had grown increasingly confident at the end of 2015 and forced her to take risks she might have avoided with a firmer grip on her party’s loyalty. In the three previous debates, Clinton adopted an attitude of pre-presidential diffidence, but on Sunday night she was brawling like a Republican, slamming Sanders on guns, health care reform and taxes.


The increasingly chippy tone of the intra-Democratic squabbling is to be expected with just over two weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, but Clinton, the most polarizing politician in the country this side of Donald Trump, risks alienating a progressive party base that likes her fine, but really loves Sanders.

With that in mind, here are five takeaways:

1. Hillary turns it up to 11. If there were any doubt that Clinton is facing an existential threat from Sanders, you simply had to turn up the volume on the flatscreen to hear her rattle the speakers. In previous debates, Clinton spoke in a honeyed monotone, calmly defending her positions and professing comity with her opponents, but, hoarse from a week of tough campaigning, she spent the better part of Sunday night near-shouting, attacking Sanders just as she did Barack Obama during the bad old days of early 2008.

Within the first 15 minutes, Clinton accused Sanders of voting to support the Democrat-detested NRA in its drive to shield manufacturers from lawsuits filed by victims of gun violence. “[He] voted against the Brady Bill five times,” she said in an agitated tone typically reserved for shouting a late-night order into a balky drive-thru speaker. “He voted for what we call the Charleston Loophole. He voted for immunity for gunmakers and sellers, which the NRA said was the most important piece of gun legislation in 20 years. ... He voted to let guns go onto Amtrak, go into national parks. He voted against doing research to figure out how we can save lives.”

Clinton, who has struggled to stoke the passion of her supporters, had a surfeit of oomph in the Charleston debate hall, but her jacked-up performance also reinforced the impression that she’s motivated more by personal survival than by a fervor to reverse economic injustices. In a dial-test focus group held near the venue by Democratic consultant Chris Kofinis, 29 of 30 undecided voters declared the less-strident Sanders the winner of the debate’s first hour. The Clinton campaign dismissed that as an aberration, claiming recent polls showed a hefty majority of undecideds breaking for Clinton.

2. Clinton made Sanders shvitz. Maybe it’s the unruly white mane, the laundry-sack off-the-rack suits or the Brighton Beach butcher’s accent — but the greatest misimpression about Bernie Sanders is that he’s an all-natural, unaffected anti-politician who simply says what comes from his heart. He is, to the contrary, one of the most icily disciplined politicians around (far more on-message than Clinton, in fact) and it’s hard to knock him out of his crusty-but-loveable grandfatherly high-road mode. But Clinton — through sheer force of will — put Sanders on the defensive, and (for a while, anyway) he seemed like just another lifelong politician covering his inconsistent record.

Taken as a whole, his debate performance was more polished — but that, in itself, implies artifice that undercuts his brand as a principled outsider. And in the days leading up to the debate, he engaged in some political clean-up-on-aisle-five — reversing his opposition to lawsuits against gunmakers and releasing, in the hours before the debate, a single-payer health care plan in response to the Clinton campaign’s relentless goading. His toughest moments came when NBC’s moderators grilled him on the plan’s new taxes — which seemed to violate a no-middle-class-tax-hike pledge he made earlier in the campaign. “No, it is not breaking my word,” he said, a sheen of perspiration on his forehead, adding: “Yes, some middle-class families would be paying slightly more in taxes,” which could easily become a line in Clinton’s anti-Sanders playbook in a week or so.

3. Bernie’s Goldman Sachs attack is money. Clinton’s two biggest weaknesses, in the eyes of the Sanders camp are her connections to Wall Street and the fact that she has personally profited from the financial industry plutocrats who she claims would be in her cross hairs as president. Sanders razor-stropped that attack in the debate, focusing — angrily, directly and personally — on Clinton’s lucrative six-figure speechmaking career after she left the State Department.

“Secretary Clinton — and you’re not the only one, so I don’t mean to just point the finger at you — you’ve received over $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in one year,” he said, turning to face the grim-looking front-runner. “I find it very strange that a major financial institution that pays $5 billion in fines for breaking the law, not one of their executives is prosecuted, while kids who smoke marijuana get a jail sentence.”

The audience erupted — and Clinton’s debate hall momentum was arrested for a while.

4. Clinton hugged Obama so hard he needs new ribs. Iowa was a world of hurt for Clinton in 2008, but South Carolina was the killing ground for her presidential aspirations. The Democratic primary there is dominated by African-American voters (who now support Clinton by a 2-to-1 margin) and President Barack Obama, for all of his mediocre polling nationally is still a near-unanimous favorite of black voters. He is almost equally popular among hyperprogressive Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa, so Clinton has been effusive in her defense of the White House during campaign appearances in both states.

She took that support to a new level on Sunday night, accusing Sanders of undermining Obama’s legacy by challenging parts of the Affordable Care Act, which she says would “tear up” Obamacare. “I certainly respect Sen. Sanders’ intentions, but when you're talking about health care, the details really matter,” she said.

“We finally have a path to universal health care. We have accomplished so much already. I do not to want see the Republicans repeal it, and I don’t to want see us start over again.”

5. Bernie and Trump, they love polls. The socialist and the billionaire fond of touting how “very rich” he is, don’t have a ton in common, but they do both share one characteristic — a love for boasting about their polling numbers. When he was grilled about his struggles to gain traction with black and Hispanic voters, Sanders cited a raft of recent polls showing how well he polled in head-to-head matchups against “my good friend” Trump.

“In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is very, very close,” he said. "Maybe we’re ahead in New Hampshire. ... We are on the path to victory,” he added, as Clinton peered sourly down at her lectern.