The 3rd Democratic debate last Saturday featured a mix bag of anticipation and stands on key political issues. But overall, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton stood her ground and defended her actions on the past as Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Gov. Martin O'Mally presented their case to the people.
There was some air of anticipation because prior to the debate. In a report by CNN, "the DNC (Democratic National Committee) cut off Sanders from the database and said the Vermont senator's presidential campaign exploited a software error to improperly access confidential voter information collected by Hillary Clinton's team." Sanders sued the DNC in the federal court but later settled out of court.
The issue about unauthorized data access was immediately squashed by both candidates. Sanders apologized for the inadvertent situation and Clinton indicated that it's time to "move on" from the issue.
The debate also became a heated exchange between the leading candidates with regards to their actions in Middle East and their policies. In a report by Wall Street Journal on the debate, Sanders and Clinton disagreed on the actions on Syria. Sen. Sanders was not in favor on the objective in getting rid of Assad as soon as possible. This was compared to Libya as it created a form of vacuum that lead to chaos and in some part, the rise of ISIS. Clinton countered that it is important to deal with Assad while handling terrorism at the same time.
There was also a noted difference in opinion regarding taxes. Clinton would not raise taxes for the middle class while Sanders pushes for "marginal increase" but highlighted the positive effect to the country especially for education and healthcare according to The Guardian.
The debate ended in a much lighter note. O'Mally, Clinton and Sanders again presented their case to the people but Clinton ended with a reference to the movie "Star Wars" by saying "Thank you, good night and may the force be with you."
