another squawkie in milwaukee
Referee's Report Card for the 6th Democratic Debate
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February 12, 2016 - Last night, the 6th Democratic Debate was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
As the primary is becoming national, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were setting their eyes on the upcoming Nevada and South Carolina contests. As always, we were watching and calling penalties according to our 3 rules; answer the question you are asked, don't stray off topic in your response, and don't compare any of your opponents to Nazis. Below is a summary of how many times the candidates were penalized.
*All the quotations in this article are from the helpful debate transcript available here.
As the primary is becoming national, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were setting their eyes on the upcoming Nevada and South Carolina contests. As always, we were watching and calling penalties according to our 3 rules; answer the question you are asked, don't stray off topic in your response, and don't compare any of your opponents to Nazis. Below is a summary of how many times the candidates were penalized.
*All the quotations in this article are from the helpful debate transcript available here.
The Candidates
(Listed below based on number of penalties received)
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Hillary Clinton - 431 delegates (2,382 to win nomination)
4 penalties Failure to answer: Clinton was asked about her husband’s promise that “the era of big government is over.” Specifically, she was asked about Americans' fear that government was growing too large. Instead of answering, she used her answer to attack Sanders’ plans as being too expensive and unworkable. Failure to answer: The question revolved around former Secretary of State Madeline Albright’s comment that there was a “special place in Hell for women who don’t support other women” (the implicit meaning being that women who preferred Sanders to Clinton are not good feminists). Clinton was asked if she agreed with that statement. She briefly defended Albright but didn’t take a position for or against the statement. Failure to answer: Clinton was asked about her position that donations from Wall Street to her campaign do not involve a quid pro quo and that she can still be trusted to regulate that industry fairly. Did that mean that donations to Republicans from the Koch Brothers are equally benign and do not buy influence with Republican candidates? She sidestepped the question by saying “I can’t speak for the Koch Brothers,” and then praised both Sanders and herself for receiving hundreds of thousands of small donations. Failure to stay on topic: In the final question of the night, both candidates were asked for two leaders that inspired them. Sanders quickly praised the leadership of FDR and Winston Churchill. For her part, Clinton praised FDR and Nelson Mandela before launching one final attack on Sanders for criticizing President Obama’s leadership. |
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Bernie Sanders - 52 delegates
2 penalties Failure to answer: Both candidates were asked how much larger the federal government would be if they became president. Sanders listed a number of ways to raise revenue and said he would spend the money on tuition-free college and a single-payer healthcare system, but he did not say how much his plan would cost. The foul was called because Clinton’s answer was more specific--she said that her programs would cost $100 billion, which would come from increasing taxes for the wealthy and closing corporate loopholes. Failure to answer: Both candidates were asked if they thought that the US was ready for the next terrorist attack. Sanders' answer started with his 2002 vote against the Iraq War; he then traveled back in time to criticize the interventionist policies of Henry Kissinger in the 1960s and 70s, and he objected to the British and American overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran in 1953. Those might be contributing factors to terrorist activities today, but they are hardly strategies to prevent future attacks. |