The Democratic presidential candidates will have their second debate Saturday night, a fact that some party members aren’t happy about.
Some Democrats complain that a debate scheduled for the weekend is at the same time as the Iowa Hawkeyes game. The first Democratic debate, which had five candidates on stage, was held on a Tuesday evening during prime viewer time, but of the remaining debates, one will be the Saturday before Christmas and another the Sunday of Martin Luther King Day weekend.
Critics say that Democratic National Committee has pushed this schedule to benefit front-runner Hillary Clinton.
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“All of the candidates have talked about it except for one and its not difficult to see why,” former Democratic primary candidate Lawrence Lessig told the Washington Examiner. “I guess I’m the last naive guy in the room. I never would have believed that the game would be played this way, the goal post moving.”
Clinton’s challengers Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley have called for more debates, but the DNC has refused. Even some Clinton supporters worry that by having fewer debates than the Republicans and holding them at inconvenient times, Democrats won’t be able to get out their message as well as the GOP.
A lot has changed since the Democratic debate schedule was made.
“I think the Clinton campaign saw Bernie Sanders and much more of a threat than they do now. Also at the time the calendar was laid out it was much more likely that Joe Biden would enter the race, but that’s changed,” a democratic fundraiser told the Examiner. “So I think its less critical now, she could have afforded to have the debates on weekdays rather than weekends. But there’s no excuses for this.”
For those who will actually watch, the debate will be two hours long, giving each candidate a hypothetical 40 minutes of speaking time, far more than any candidate received during any of the GOP debates.
Sanders and O’Malley will need to make their voices heard at this debate, Democrats say.
“[Sanders’] biggest challenge is that inside the party there’s a sense that he would be not as electable as Clinton so he has to address that,” Democratic strategist Doug Thornell said. “The label of socialist still hangs over him and he hasn’t been able to fully explain that to voters.”
With nearly 100 percent name recognition and a 24-point lead in Iowa, Clinton has an easier task Saturday night. An experienced debater, all she needs to do is come out as well as she did in the first debate.
“What’s hurts a front-runner the most is complacency and sitting on your laurels. I think if [Clinton] took the same sort of game plan that she did in Las Vegas and executed it here shell be fine,” Thornell added.
After Saturday night’s debate the Democrats will only have four more opportunities to face off on stage.
“Clinton’s clearly the choice of the Democratic establishment there’s no doubt about that,” said the Democratic fundraiser. “Whether the scheduling has the desired affect the answer probably is yes, because there are a lot of folks who have a lot of things to do. You have a pretty sad social life if [watching the debate] is the best thing you have to do on a Saturday night.”
