In its lead article early Wednesday morning on the first 2016 Democratic presidential debate from the night before, Politico proclaimed that “Hillary Clinton crushe[d] it” as she “delivered some of the evening’s most stinging retorts” and “moved with relative ease from swipes against her Democratic rivals to more direct attacks on Republicans.”
Written by Shane Goldmacher with the help of fellow reporters Annie Karni, Gabriel Debenedetti and Hadas Gold, the Politico team chronicled Clinton’s performance that they dubbed as having “received top billing” in a debate that could also be determined to have been “the Hillary and Bernie Show.”
>> Find all of NewsBusters‘ coverage of the 2016 presidential election here <
Goldmacher wasted no time in spinning for Clinton right from the top:
The first debate was the Hillary and Bernie Show, and Hillary received top billing.
Not only was Hillary Clinton on the receiving end of the night’s biggest gift — her rival, Bernie Sanders, declaring it time for people to shut up about her email scandal — she also delivered some of the evening’s most stinging retorts.
The Democratic front-runner showed renewed energy and comfort on a presidential debate stage where she, but none of the others, had been before. But one of the most dramatic and memorable moments came from Sanders. And it was a plea for the political conversation to move on from the email controversy that has consumed much of the overall Democratic race.
Along with a few quotes summarizing the exchange between Sanders and Clinton where Sanders attacked the media for focusing on Clinton’s “damn e-mails,” Goldmacher and company ruled that Hillary “beamed wide” as Sanders denounced the growing scandal while the Clinton “also did plenty for herself”:
She moved with relative ease from swipes against her Democratic rivals to more direct attacks on Republicans. And she succinctly summarized her candidacy when pressed about some of her shifting positions about whether she is a moderate or a liberal.
“I’m a progressive. But I’m a progressive who likes to get things done,” Clinton declared.
Aside from a brief nod to how not everything was “all smooth for Clinton” on subjects like her flip-flop on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, the Politico crew circled back to Clinton’s playing of the gender card:
Twice, she used the fact that she would be the first woman president to deflect questions — once on the fact that she would be the second Clinton to get the “crown” of the presidency and once about how she would be different from an Obama third term.
“I think being the first woman president would be quite a change,” she said of her differences with Obama, though was vague when pressed further for details.
Before capping it all off, Goldmacher brought up Clinton’s “sharp jabs at her surging rival” in Sanders and being “at the ready” with “a comeback” for former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley:
But Clinton also managed to get in some sharp jabs at her surging rival. The memorable moment of kind sentiment between Sanders and Clinton came after she had ripped into him in the opening minutes of the debate, going straight after Sanders for his position on guns, one of the few issues in which the democratic socialist is out of step with the Democratic base.
(....)
She criticized him for his refusal to embrace capitalism and his holding up of European socialism as a model for America, particularly his embrace of Denmark.
“We are not Denmark. I love Denmark. We are the United States of America,” she declared.
Clinton had a comeback at the ready when O’Malley attacked her at one point, as well. “I was very pleased when Governor O’Malley endorsed me for president in 2008,” she said disarmingly.
