More on The Townhall.

++Do yourself a favor and watch the candidates in their respective segments posted on the democraticunderground. 

++Recognize that the GOP world boils down to conflict and rivalries with almost every country fin the world. Hillary Clinton tonight in her examples of what she did as Secretary of State shows what diplomacy can do and what effective policies such as sanctions against Iran can produce. It is hard to imagine any of the GOP candidates having such a nuanced view of the world. Hillary also pointed out how she spent a year trying to repair our relations with our allies. They no longer wanted to listen to the United States and let us lead because of George W. Bush. 

++I tend to think more internationally. The Bush administration was catastrophic on so many levels and NATO allies,particularly the U.K. felt they had been burned. Now Hillary Clinton with all her baggage is ,as President Obama, "wicked smart" on all policy issues. She took the foreign policy questions and just smashed them out of the park. 

++Her answer on Benghazi was to the point. These events happened under Reagan,Clinton and George W. but never got the investigations this one episode did. 

++And her invoking our past political history puts her at an advantage over those that do not. Some criticized her for talking about her resume but she needed to--to establish how long she personally has fought for some of these issues. 

++I find it curious that "millennials" favor Sanders at her expense. They felt that Obama didn't bring change. For my part,I think Obama brought a sea change on both foreign and domestic policy. The millennials argue that incremental change is not what they want but fundamental change is needed. I have my own doubts about incremental change because the reactionary element in our society is now so vocal and well-financed. They could roll beck the progress of the Obama administration in a heartbeat.

++But I don't get the focus on single payer healthcare at this time in our political history. Can you expand Obamacare? Sure. We have gone from 50% uninsured to 10% uninsured. Philosophically,I want 100% coverage but in so short of time we've made enormous  progress.

++I hear the noise from "progressives" but remember that "The Left" had only given conditional support to President Obama when he was nominated in 2008.  Somehow the discontent with Obama now matures in the campaign of Bernie Sanders.

++The justifiable discontent with President Obama lies in his drone campaign, his acquiescence to the requests of the Deep State and in his surveillance programs. I'm discontented with that too but see no one able to root out the influence of the Deep State on our foreign policy and our economy.

++Progressives continue to say the banks are too big too fail and that Dodd-Franks wasn't good enough. But I wonder in our political environment whether better would be possible. I don't see it.

++What has changed since 2008 is the massive influx of "dark money" into the politics system. In some ways that is the argument for the Trump candidacy. He's not beholding to anyone. 

++I applaud Bernie Sanders for getting over 2.5 million contributors. That's more than President Obama did either time he ran,when he himself broke the records. But let's say you double that amount until November. Can you beat the billion campaign against you.

++The Iowa Caucus will test the strength of the Sanders' campaign. The Clinton structure has been there longer and she is not underestimating as she did in 2008 the challenges the Caucus presents. If she wins Iowa,we can assess the social media's impact on her and Bernie's race. It wasn't as developed and as all-pervasive in 2008. So we don't know its true effects on the election.
From examples abroad,it has been great to mobilize but it comes up short at the day of the elections.

++Observers fails to mention that the Obama brain trust also manages the Clinton election effort. It isn't the same machine as in 2008 and the press' stories about its so-called failings don't take that into account. You begin to believe the stories until she appears in the media and it is all bullshit.  That woman has taken more shit over the years but as she has said she's still standing. That also has created a machinery of self-protection that has hurt her. One example is the e-mail story and her desire to have maximum privacy.