Front-runners Buttigieg, Sanders targeted in Democratic debate

By Arul Louis

New York, Feb 8 (SocialNews.XYZ) Reeling from the upset victories of Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party's selection process in Iowa for the candidate to run against President Donald Trump, their rivals piled up on them in the debate.

The debate on Friday in Manchester in New Hampshire, which will hold a primary to pick the party's president on February 11, brought the party's ideological fissures to the fore in the battle of the six candidates.

Centrist Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who suddenly rose to prominence, was attacked for lack of experience, and Vermont Senator Sanders, 78, for his self-declaration as a socialist.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who was considered the front-runner but ended up in the fourth place in Monday night's Iowa caucuses, led the attacks warning that the socialist label of Sanders would harm the party and could lead to losses in Congress.

Buttigieg was not only inexperienced but lacked support among African Americans and Latinos, who are an important part of the party's base, he said.

Sanders won 26.6 per cent of the votes by Iowa Democrats to Buttigieg's 25 per cent, but in the allocation of delegates, who will make the final selection at the party convention, the former Mayor led with 26.2 per cent to his rival's 26.1 per cent.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren trailed with 18 per cent of the votes and Biden with 15.8 per cent in the chaotic election afflicted by the failure of the app for reporting the results.

Sanders admitted that he had taken a "hit" in Iowa and did not expect to do well in New Hampshire, but was in it for the long haul.

Warren appeared to be taking the setback heart, with a subdued performance.

With charisma and a fresh look, Buttigieg, who is gay and married to a man, is trying to emulate former President Barack Obama, who overcame his position as a social outsider because of, in his case, his race.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is the owner of the news and financial information company that bears his name, has entered the contest for party's presidential nomination and figured in the debate although he was not there.

The billionaire who is spending his own money to campaign did not qualify for the debate because of not meeting the requirement of receiving financial contributions from 225,000 people to show popular support.

Warren said she did not think that any billionaire ought to buy his way into the election, and in an attack on some of the rivals on the stage. "I don't think people who suck up to billionaires in order to fund their campaigns ought to do it."

Only she and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who have a policy of not accepting election contributions from the ultra-rich either directly or indirectly through political action committees, were not receiving the support of billionaires, Warren said.

Sanders hit at Buttigieg's fundraising saying: "I don't have 40 billionaires, Pete, contributing to my campaign."

The strong economy under Trump with rising employment, especially for minorities, is one of the problems the Democrats' campaign will come up against.

Tom Steyer, a billionaire businessman, said that the party should take on Trump over the economy, which is not doing well at its base and is vulnerable.

The others agreed with his assertion that the poorer people and the middle class had not seen their incomes go up.

On foreign policy, the candidates faced a difficult question about the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, killed in the January 3 missile strike ordered by Trump.

The moderator pointed out that he had been responsible for the killing of many people, including Americans.

Sanders said that former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and Russian President Vladimir Putin had also killed many people while China's President Xi Jinping put the minority Uyghurs in detention camps, but going around calling people "bad guys" and assassinating them would lead to "international anarchy".

Buttigieg, a former Navy intelligence officer, hedged his response about Soleimani saying it would depend on the possible scenarios.

Biden said that the Soleimani's killing had brought Iran and the US to the brink of war because Trump had not thought through the consequences and it resulted in injuries to US military personnel in the counterattack on a base in Iraq that Trump dismissed as headaches.

The US stood alone internationally because of Trump's "America First" policies, he said.

On Afghanistan, Warren said that she was for immediately withdrawing troops from there.

But Biden he said that he opposed a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan as it would destabilise the region.

He also said that he had opposed "nation-building" in Afghanistan, a key element in Obama's strategy there.

Criticised by Sanders for his initial support for the Iraq invasion, Biden admitted his mistake and said that he had been lied to by former President George W. Bush.

While speaking about global issues, Sanders listed Pakistan as a major player alongside Russia and China with whom he would work on climate change, and like an after thought added India.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)

Source: IANS