Focus: Democratic Presidential Debate - Dec 20, 2015

I urge Sen. Sanders to be friendly and accommodating with Hillary Clinton during the presidential debate regarding the data breach. He should admit that a serious mistake was done by his campaign staff and say that he will do everything to remedy the damage done to the Clinton campaign including an investigation and disclosure of the incident. This way he will avoid arguing with Clinton and spending debate time on this issue. Clearly the wrong is on the Sanders camp who should have not search and retrieve the Clinton campaign data. At stake is not only Sanders reputation as honest and trustworthy but also as a leader who can manage a crisis situation in a balanced and objective manner.

During the debate, Hillary Clinton hawkish foreign policy should be denounced as posing a great danger for US and the world as demonstrated on Iraq, Libya, Syria, Russia and Ukraine. On the other hand her domestic policy of limited reforms is weak and inadequate. Sen. Sanders should emphatically call for adding more Democratic debates and on TV prime time to give the voters essential information on the candidates’ reactions to the fast breaking pace of evolving US and world events. Today's debate, running against Christmas shopping, an NFL game and the opening weekend of the new "Star Wars” movie, will limit the number of potential viewers. The Hill reports that with current averages the 12 Republican debates will reach about 200 million viewers  compared to about 75 million for the 6 Democratic events. The current DNC debate schedule clearly favors frontrunner Hillary Clinton shielding her from more challenging questions and answers. In general limiting debates is a detriment to the national discussion and hampers Democrats’ ability to build excitement for their issues. 

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