Keller @ Large: Clinton On The Spot In Democratic Debate
BOSTON (CBS) -- "I don't think the US has the bulk of the responsibility" to fight ISIS, said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the start of the second Democratic presidential debate aired on WBZ.
And with war talk heating up in the wake of the Paris atrocities, Sen. Bernie Sanders saw an opening there to bring up an issue that bedeviled Clinton's 2008 run for president - her vote in favor of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
"I think she said the bulk of the responsibility is not ours," said Sanders. "In fact, I would argue the disastrous invasion of Iraq - something I strongly opposed - has unraveled the region completely and led to the rise of Al-Qaeda and ISIS."
Clinton's response: "I have said the invasion of Iraq was a mistake," but if the complex problems of the Middle East and jihadism are to be addressed "we have to understand what happened and that it has antecedents to what happened in Iraq."
But Sanders cast her as too enamored of the idea that removing despotic leaders was a valid foreign policy. "I would say on this issue I'm a little more conservative than the secretary in that I am not a great fan of regime change."
And that led to an exchange between Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley over another sore spot on her record -- the implosion of Libya after the deposing of Muammar Gaddafi.
"We fail" American soldiers "when we fail to take into account what happens after a dictator falls," said O'Malley.
"Just because we're involved and we have a strategy doesn't mean we're going to be able to dictate the outcome," replied Clinton.
"It's not just about getting rid of a single dictator," countered O'Malley. "It's about understanding the secondary consequences that fall next."
There were other sharp elbows thrown. Clinton chastised Sanders for "impugning my integrity" after he claimed Clinton's rebuttal to doubts about her closeness with Wall Street was "not good enough." And there was some lively back-and-forth between the two over federal regulation of banks.
But if there was a moment of brilliance or incompetence that changed the arc of this race, I didn't see if. And that benefits a Clinton campaign that has been steadily widening its lead over Sanders.