Without the spectacle of a Donald Trump, CNN’s Democratic presidential debate tomorrow evening won’t draw the record 23 million viewers who tuned into the network’s GOP slugfest last month. But as the only Democratic debate scheduled to air on a weeknight before the February 1 Iowa caucuses, Tuesday night’s face-off comes with high stakes for the five candidates slated to appear onstage at the Wynn Las Vegas.
Hillary Clinton, who retains a comfortable but diminished lead, hopes to assuage doubts about her candidacy, but she must avoid a repeat of the disastrous 2007 performance in which she took multiple stances on driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants — in the space of one answer. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders will seek to expand his appeal beyond the white progressive activists who have cheered his egalitarian message, and Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee will compete to score break-out performances.