What Went Down At The CNN Democratic Debate

Sanders is right that he does better than Clinton in hypothetical head-to-head general-election polls against the three Republican candidates — but those might not be realistic predictors of what would happen if he were to win the nomination. Clinton’s criticism of him would likely seem very tame compared with the full force of the Republican Party attacking his policy positions and record.

Clinton gets some of the loudest applause of the evening for voicing strong support for abortion rights, saying that she would only nominate to the Supreme Court a justice who believes Roe v. Wade is settled law. Importantly, she said “believes” — Sanders’s contention that he would nominate a justice who supports overturning the Citizens United decision on campaign funding indicated that he wanted his nominee to explicitly state this preference. Supreme Court nominees don’t typically announce plans to overturn Supreme Court decisions.