The Battle In Brooklyn

++My connection just terminated after an hour and a half of the debate. I thought Bernie Sanders' attempts at gotchas failed miserably. What might seem evasive by Hillary Clinton turned out to be a superb technique of redirecting the question to the heart of the issue. On the other hand,Clinton clobbered Sanders on the gun issue and broadened it to go after more items in Sanders' history. I think she did this successfully. 

++Some of Sanders' points only resonate with those who seek purity. Hillary Clinton gave a detailed and persuasive defense of her actions on climate change and the reason the United States encouraged tracking abroad. Her defense that natural gas was seen as the natural bridge from coal to alternatives when compared to country's depending on coal may be unsatisfactory but true. She also gave a ringing endorsement of President obama';s efforts and raised the Paris Accords, as a remarkable achievement, which Sanders pooh-poohs as merely paper.

++I find Bernie Sanders shrill--to put a derogative tone to his rhetoric--while observers remarked that Hillary was defensive about Libya. I didn't think she was defensive. She reminded people we acted in support of our European allies who wanted Qaddafhi gone. That little detail doesn't seep into the discussion enough. 

++Clinton reiterated her hawkish Syrian policy but I don't think this was a detriment to the broader politics audience. 

++Wolf Blitzer had to get in Israel. Here Clinton got in her role as brokering the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas using the Egyptian president and reminded the audience that if Arafat had lived up to the agreements signed with her husband there would have been a Palestinian state for over 15 years. 

++CNN was quick to say that Sanders criticized Israel. This was misreporting. He objected to the disproportional response of the Israelis to the rocket attacks from Gaza. He was quick to say that Israel had every right to defend itself.

++I think Clinton turned lemons into lemonade when talking about the Crime Bill under Bill Clinton. She pointed out that it contained the Violence Against Women Act which went a long way to curbing the physical abuse of women and actually had educational components that mitigated its awful effect. Here she then launched into reminding voters that a year ago she outlined a policy to deal with the repercussions of this bill and also said that her husband has apologized to the African-American community for its effect.

++Bernie Sanders went into his institutional racism rift but sounded lame.

++I thought Hillary Clinton artfully avoided the "disclose your speeches" demand and turned it against Sanders by talking about his failure to release his taxes.

++If you listened to the debate without thinking of a contest, you would have to walk away being impressed by the breadth of Hillary Clinton's policy chops. Bernie Sanders even fumbled on questions about the Daily News interview about breaking up the banks. Hillary's rebuttal that it was not just the banks who failed but insurance companies,mortgage companies and other institutions scored some points.

++Clinton is beginning to score in this campaign by pointing out squirrelly items in Sanders' voting record. I guess this was stimulated by his constant remanding the audience she voted for the Iraq War. But he pulled some boners too like granting gun-manufacturers immunity from law suits. 

++Clinton, in my book, is better prepared for the general election. She's better at wrapping current fights into her presentations--such as why Merrick Garland needs to be approved by the Senate to support President Obama's Power policy. She also reminds Sanders that the GOP is opposed to everything they are talking about. 

++I thought the biggest mistake was Sanders attack on Clinton over the minimum wage. Sanders said that Clinton was against the $15 minimum wage--what she said was that let's move to $12 at a federal level and where local governments can go higher then let them do it.  This sounds cagey but she explained that was the Democratic Senate position because of the obstruction of the Republicans. I thought she neutered Sanders on this issue because she had the facts down.

++And remember the GOP argument is that this would be a job killer. And Hillary is in a better condition to refute this.

++I thought Sanders sounded tired,repeating his campaign slogans. They sounded old and very retro. Clinton was more on her toes and has added a few new physical moves to her presentation. She can silence negative reactions from the audience with a few hand gestures and just politely say "Well, these are the facts." And they are.