Cooper Allen

USA TODAY

What a difference eight years makes.

Around this time in 2008, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were engaged in an epic and fierce primary battle with debates that were often marked by acrimonious exchanges. Now, there's no greater defender on a Democratic debate stage of Obama than Clinton.

Taking on Wall Street is one of Bernie Sanders' trademark issues, and in Sunday night's Democratic debate he promised again to break up big banks. And in a not-too-subtle jab at Clinton, he also said: “I don’t get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs.”

Clinton said she could take the attacks, but, seeing an opportunity, she said she wasn't about to let the Vermont senator sully Obama's name, who, she said, led the country out of the Great Recession.

“He’s criticized President Obama for taking donations from Wall Street," Clinton said, while also accusing Sanders of seeking out a primary opponent to Obama in 2011.

“I’m going to defend Dodd-Frank, and I’m going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street, taking on the financial industry and getting results," she said of the president and the financial overhaul law signed into law by Obama in 2010.

Sanders tried to minimize his differences with Obama.

“He and I are friends," Sanders said, adding that they at times had "differences of opinion."

Clinton wasn't buying it.

“Your profusion of comments about your feelings toward President Obama are a little strange given what you said about him in 2011," she said.

Clinton wasn't done, though, in embracing the Obama mantle. Later, in a discussion of Obama's policy toward Syria.

She was asked by NBC's Andrea Mitchell whether the president should've enforced his "red line" with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad when it came to Assad's use of chemical weapons.

"I think that the president's decision to go after the chemical weapons once there was a potential opportunity to build on when the Russians opened that door resulted in a very positive outcome," she said.

It should be noted that the site of Sunday's debate was Charleston, S.C., the state where Obama beat Clinton by nearly 30 points in the 2008 primaries.

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