Sanders sheds reticence against Clinton

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders turned in his most spirited debate performance yet over the weekend as he entered crunch time for contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Sanders played to a friendly local crowd in the Granite State, where he leads most polls, while fighting to chip away at Hillary Clinton's 25-point national lead.

He directly prodded Clinton over foreign policy and financial regulation, and dove headlong into spats over gun control and campaign finance.

"Now this is getting to be fun," a smiling Sanders declared Saturday night after about an hour and a half on stage, relishing a clash with Clinton over health care, college affordability and taxes.

It all began with an apology.

Sanders apologized that his campaign staffers recently accessed confidential Clinton campaign data during a Democratic data security glitch. The data breach had boiled over in the 48 hours leading up to the debate.

"I want to apologize to my supporters," Sanders added. "This is not the kind of campaign that we run."

The independent Vermont senator and his campaign faulted the Democratic National Committee for temporarily cutting off their access to the party voter database.

Clinton accepted the apology, said the American public didn't care about the controversy, and then with former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, the third candidate on the debate stage, launched into a discussion about identifying would-be terrorists and maintaining national security.

Iraq used as wedge

Sanders, who had promised to more forcefully contrast himself with Clinton on foreign policy, made direct comparisons and mentioned the former secretary of state by name.

At least three separate times, Sanders pointed to his vote against authorizing military force in Iraq — one of the key differences in the candidates' foreign policy records.

The Iraq refrain came too often for Megan Remmel, an assistant professor of political science at Norwich University.

"The fact that he’s still relying on that one vote is a little bit driving me up the wall," Remmel said Sunday, who added that Sanders performed better than in the past on foreign policy.

Overall, "things are pretty status quo," said Remmel. "I don’t think this (debate) changed things much.”

Clinton, who served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, spoke in detail on the nation's foreign policy strategy, while Sanders emphasized his view that troops from Muslim nations need to do more to fight the Islamic State group.

Sanders also returned again and again to the theme of "regime change" when dealing with dictators.

"Our differences are fairly deep on this issue," Sanders said. "We disagreed on the war in Iraq. ... I worry too much that Secretary Clinton is too much into regime change and a little bit too aggressive without knowing what the unintended consequences might be."

"With all due respect, senator, you voted for regime change with respect to Libya," Clinton said.

"I was not the secretary of state," Sanders answered.

The Libya vote was a non-binding Senate resolution, not an authorization for overthrowing the government, the Sanders campaign said in a statement issued during the debate.

The candidates also disagreed about priorities in Syria.

Sanders said the United States should focus on destroying the Islamic State group. Clinton argued that the nation needed to proceed simultaneously against the Islamic State and President Bashar al-Assad.

Taxes, guns and family

A feisty Sanders also jumped on an opportunity, later, to trumpet that he argued about regulating Wall Street with "a guy named named Bill Clinton — maybe you know him, maybe you don't."

Clinton was looking down at her podium with pursed lips.

At another point, after Clinton welcomed love from corporations, Sanders set himself apart.

"CEOs of large multinationals may like Hillary. They ain't going to like me," Sanders said. "And Wall Street is going to like me even less."

The New Hampshire debate took Sanders off his stump speech in new ways. He blamed "fancy dormitories" and college vice president salaries, in part, for the escalating cost of higher education.

Clinton criticized the price tags of Sanders' free college plan and single-payer health care proposal.

“I am the only one on this stage saying no middle class tax raises," Clinton said.

Sanders spoke about his wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders, for the first time in a debate when asked whether she would have a desk in the West Wing if he became president.

"Given the fact that she's a lot smarter than me, yes, she would," Sanders said.

That moment gave Sanders the biggest spike in Google searches of any candidate during the debate, according to Google Trends.

Debate viewers were most interested in Sanders' positions on gun laws, compared to any other policy issue, according to Google's data. The candidates waded into gun policy during the first half of the debate.

Sanders' views on gun policy are complex, in part because he represents the gun-rights state of Vermont, and he has sometimes struggled to articulate his position.

Saturday night Sanders pointed to his political past, rather than his low rating from the National Rifle Association, to vindicate himself on gun policy. He said his views on assault weapons "quite likely" cost him an election for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988.

"Coming from a state where Democratic governors and Republican governors have supported virtually no gun control —" Sanders began.

O'Malley interrupted with a response that named U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., as a Vermont politician who supported gun control.

"Excuse me!" Sanders said. "Do not tell me that I have not shown courage in standing up to the gun people, voting to ban assault weapons, voting for instant background checks, voting to end the gun show loophole, and am now in a position to create a consensus in America on gun safety."

Clinton called on Sanders to sponsor specific gun legislation.

"It's no longer enough just to say, 'The vast majority of Americans want common-sense gun safety measures,'" Clinton said.

Christopher Galdieri, an assistant professor of politics at St. Anselm College, said he thought Clinton had the best night. Galdieri said the data breach controversy may have added to the energy overall, though he was surprised how quickly it was resolved at the start of the debate.

"We were all expecting wrestlemania," Galdieri said, "and instead we got wavy gravy."

Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said the candidate felt more confident on stage Saturday, which led to better exchanges with his fellow candidates. Sanders gained the most followers on Twitter during the debate, which in the absence of polls can serve as one indication of viewer interest.

"This is his third presidential debate, right?" Weaver said. "Secretary Clinton, who's a gifted debater, has had many more of these. And I think he's just become more and more comfortable in this environment."

This article was first published online Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015. Contact April Burbank at 802-660-1863 or aburbank@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AprilBurbank