Journalists and pundits say Hillary Clinton clearly won Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate, but voter polls and focus groups conducted immediately after the event showed a different answer.
Clinton managed to deflect questions about her email controversy and policy positions she has recently flipped on, but it was Sanders who got the biggest applause line of the night. “The American people are tired of hearing about your damn emails,” Sanders said in defense of Clinton, before denouncing the news media for covering the controversy rather than economic and foreign policy issues he said were more important to the middle class.
The press said that comment signalled that Democrats wouldn’t be attacking Clinton for the email scandal, which would clear the decks for her to win the Democratic nomination. But a focus group of a “cross-section” of Florida voters on Fox News, conducted by Republican pollster Frank Luntz, showed that Bernie Sanders was the night’s victor. Several of the voters described Sanders as “strong,” “straightforward” and “for the people.”
Another focus group conducted by the left-leaning, millennial-focused Fusion network also showed that Sanders “was the most popular candidate among a group of young registered Democrats.”
CNN’s own post-debate focus group of voters in Nevada found the same result with a majority of participants saying Sanders won the debate.
A separate Facebook user poll conducted by CNN asked users after the event, “Who won the debate?” An overwhelming majority, 75 percent, said Sanders.
An unscientific poll at the conservative Drudge Report website asked, “Who won the first Dem debate?” and got more than 4 million votes by Wednesday morning. More than half, 55 percent, said Sanders.
But political reporters and commentators came away from the debate with a different impression.
“By the end of Tuesday night’s debate, Mrs. Clinton had seized every opening to try to accomplish her chief goal: re-establishing trust with Democrats who have come to doubt her honesty and political competence after months of difficulties and shifting policy positions,” read a post-debate analysis by the New York Times.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd wrote on Twitter after the debate that Clinton “was easily the most polished and prepped candidate on stage” and said “it wasn’t even close” in terms of who won.
On the next morning’s edition of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” each panelist and host declared Clinton the winner.
A headline at the liberal Slate website said Clinton “Won the CNN Debate With a Surprisingly Spectacular Performance.”
Conservative radio host and writer Erick Erickson tweeted, “I’m still amazed the other four candidates made Hillary Clinton come off as the likable, reasonable, responsible Democrat.”
Ron Fournier, a columnist for the National Journal, was less generous in his analysis but he still saw Clinton as the winner.
“She won,” Fournier wrote. “She survived and won with a performance that was as dishonest as it was impressive, that benefited from a friendly crowd and weak field.”
