Hampshire, New

Post Martin

Durham, New Hampshire
February 5, 2016

With Martin O’Malley finally giving up the ghost the two remaining Democratic candidates faced off one-on-one last night under the friendly umbrella of an MSNBC debate in New Hampshire. And just as when their Republican’t counterparts faced their own home-team moderators at Fux News, Clinton and Sanders spent a great deal of time whining about the unfair questions and threatening to walk away or invoke the Fifth Amendment. Oh wait. They did nothing of the sort. The two combatants engaged in an energetic debate on the issues of the day. At times they did to after each other in a very personal way. Take this brutal exchange for example:

TODD: Would you unite the party by trying to pick Senator Sanders as your running mate?

CLINTON: Well, I'm certainly going to unite the party, but I'm not -- I'm not getting ahead of myself. I think that would be a little bit presumptuous. If I'm so fortunate as to be the nominee, the first person I will call to talk to about where we go and how we get it done will be Senator Sanders.

TODD: Senator, would you consider the secretary?

SANDERS: I agree with what the secretary said. We shouldn't be getting ahead of ourselves. And as I have said many times, you know, sometimes in these campaigns, things get a little bit out of hand. I happen to respect the secretary very much, I hope it's mutual. And on our worst days, I think it is fair to say we are 100 times better than any Republican candidate.

CLINTON: That's true. That's true.

Ouch. How very un-presidential. Not a single childish remark. No name calling. Not one drop of blood. How does either of these wimps expect to win if they are not willing to decapitate their opponent at every opportunity? This does not bode well for our political discourse going forward. If Sanders emerges victorious from New Hampshire this could get even uglier. What’s next a big hug in South Carolina? Is that even legal if two people are not blood relatives? Can two consenting adults even approach each other without exercising their Second Amendment rights in the Confederate Palmetto State?

Things spiral out of control and get physical between Bernie and Hillary

Clinton did get a bit testy over Sanders continuing to question her ties to Wall Street money and influence. Sanders of course always is, or at least seems, a bit testy. Clinton claimed she is “a progressive that gets things done”. Sanders insisted that he is the true progressive. While it is true that Clinton is a progressive in relation to how far the Democratic Party has positioned itself since George McGovern was crushed by soon-to-avoid-being-impeached-by-resigning criminal Richard Nixon, Sanders has been a true, unabashed progressive - some might even call him a democratic socialist – since Nixon was vice president. Unfortunately they were still very adult about the whole thing and moved on easily after the tussle. When will they learn it’s all about the hate?

In the meantime Sanders, who trailed Clinton nationally by 30 points in December now finds himself down by two points. Two. Points. He is clearly unelectable.

I. Mangrey reporting. Strange you can believe in.