MSNBC Democratic Debate: Live Coverage

Sanders is no longer in his comfort zone now that the debate has shifted to how to fight the Islamic State and terrorism. In a December Washington Post-ABC poll, 64 percent of Democrats said Clinton would be better at handling the threat of terrorism; just 26 percent thought Sanders would.

I’m trying to track attacks in this debate, but I’m logging almost nothing from Clinton. Neither candidate is attacking the other by name very often, but Sanders has aggressively attacked “Wall Street,” the “1 percent” and “super PACs” at least 15 times so far. Clinton has offered tempered critiques of parts of Wall Street, but never quite strongly enough for me to be sure whether to tally them.

Quick commercial break programming note: Tune in tomorrow for our coverage of the monthly jobs numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Two things to watch for: How is the economic slowdown overseas affecting hiring in the U.S.? And are we seeing faster wage growth to go along with falling unemployment? Both questions have big implications not just for the primary races but also for November’s general election.