5 takeaways

5 takeaways from the Democratic forum

In an event that was more stump speech than debate, Hillary Clinton showed she still doesn't have an answer to the inevitable question about her emails.

By Gabriel Debenedetti

The opportunity presented itself, but no one was willing to plunge in the knife in the final candidate forum before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses.

The two-hour Democratic forum here at Drake University gave the few remaining undecided Iowans a look at some of the enduring weaknesses of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders — from her emails to his positions on gun control.

But on a snowy Iowa night, in a back-to-back interview format that didn’t allow for head-to-head confrontation, neither showed the ambition for a breakout moment or a memorable takedown. Nor did Martin O’Malley, leaving the Democratic field where it started when the evening began.

Here are POLITICO’s five takeaways:

1. Clinton still lacks a coherent answer to the email questions.

So far, the only effective answer to the email questions that have dogged Clinton was delivered by her rival Bernie Sanders, when he told Clinton in the first Democratic debate he was sick and tired of hearing about her “damn emails.”

Clinton demonstrated Monday that she still doesn’t have a polished answer for questions on the topic, which may be off limits for Sanders but is certain to become a topic in the general election should she beat Sanders.

“I had no intention of doing anything other than having a convenient way of communicating and it turned out to not be so convenient,” said Clinton. “Maybe being faster, trying to scramble around to find out what all of this means, I should have done that quicker."

Sorry still seems to be the hardest word for the former secretary of state, who refused to call her email arrangement an error in judgment -- leaving her open to criticism from Republicans who have focused their fire on her while Sanders has risen in the polls.

“No, I’m not willing to say it was an error in judgment because nothing that I did was wrong,” she told moderator Chris Cuomo. “It was not in any way prohibited."

2. Clinton all-but-claimed an Obama endorsement.

Having gone to great lengths to staple herself to a Barack Obama during the Democratic primary (while suggesting that Sanders is out of step with the White House), Clinton was eager to remind the audience of the president’s praise for her in an interview with POLITICO that appeared Monday morning.

Alluding to his remarks about her readiness for office and her translation of values into governance — not to mention his description of her as “really idealistic and progressive" — Clinton sought to highlight their relationship, as well as her ability to build on his legacy.

She went so far as to convey a sense of warmth and understanding between them.

“I was really touched and gratified when I saw” the remarks, she said on stage, referring to Obama’s glowing statements about her that included a line about he felt she faced “unfair scrutiny” as a candidate.

Clinton’s comments mirrored what she told a local Iowa television station earlier in the day. “I think he was saying … that I am best prepared,” she said, showing her continued eagerness to be draped in Obama’s mantle as she stares up at his 91 percent approval rating among Iowa Democrats.

3. This wasn’t even a quasi-debate. It was three stump speeches.

Monday’s forum had few of the sparks and none of the confrontations voters have grown accustomed to with the debates. Instead, the format led to a sleepier affair, where all three candidates were given ample opportunities to recite long passages from their stump speeches and never truly pressed on any issue that unsettles or vexes them in a sustained way.

By handing question-asking privileges to ostensibly undecided audience members — who did not have the ability to follow up — the event organizers effectively allowed the candidates to turn any question into one that suited them. The result was predictable: no new policy ground was broken.

And in a move that appeared designed to highlight the candidates’ strengths rather than of test them, each was asked questions right in their wheelhouse: Sanders had the chance to opine about the surprising excitement of his campaign; O’Malley had free rein to outline the next generation’s problems; and Clinton was encouraged to focus on her command of foreign policy.

4. Sanders doesn’t think his advanced age or health is a big deal.

The 74-year-old Vermont senator — who would be the oldest president ever to take the office — was noticeably cavalier when confronted about his health, forcefully and playfully needling Cuomo for introducing the question by saying he was 75-years-old. The message was clear: Sanders doesn’t think either matter is an issue, and he has no interest in discussing it.

“I’m going on 75! So are you,” he said.

Sanders said he had his health records at home, ready for release, and again pledged to distribute them before the caucuses.

From his demeanor, you wouldn’t have known the issue became a point of contention in the primary last week after POLITICO reported that top Clinton ally David Brock would demand Sanders’ medical records before being asked to stand down by the campaign’s chairman, John Podesta. But, making clear how uninterested he was in the topic, Sanders seemed eager to put it to bed altogether.

Next question.

5. Sanders knows what hurts him in the Democratic primary.

Judging by the force of his answers, Sanders has zeroed in on two issues that could prove to be his downfall in the Democratic primary: gun control and his dismissal of Planned Parenthood as part of the “establishment.”

Sanders — whose campaign has started circulating mailers in Iowa telling voters that he stands up to the National Rifle Association — was ready for a question about gun control, a topic that’s driven his disagreements with Clinton, and on which she has leaned on hard in the run-up to the caucuses. He recited parts of his voting record on guns while deftly reminding the audience that in 2008 Clinton was to Obama’s right on gun control, despite her attempts to hug him close now.

But it was on Planned Parenthood that he made his most impassioned plea, after Democrats have lambasted him for labeling the organization — as well as NARAL and the Human Rights Campaign — as the “establishment” after their endorsements of Clinton.

“That’s not quite accurate, I have a 100 percent pro-choice voting record,” Sanders insisted, explaining that his “establishment” comment was about their endorsement policies. “In every speech that I give, what I say is not only do we need to stop the Republican efforts to try to defund Planned Parenthood, we should expand funding for Planned Parenthood.”

It wasn’t nearly enough — NARAL sent out a news release before the end of the evening describing him as a “an ally, not a champion.”

Once the event ended, Sanders made his focus all the clearer, blasting out his own news release seconds after Clinton finished her remarks, celebrating a Texas grand jury’s choice to indict a pair of activists who took undercover videos of Planned Parenthood workers claiming to show them illegally selling tissue of aborted fetuses.

“The Texas grand jury decision undercuts the entire Republican attack on Planned Parenthood,” he said. “Planned Parenthood is doing an excellent job and should be supported and expanded, not defunded.”