Hillary Rodham Clinton's foreign policy record and her ties to Wall Street became the rallying cries of her two remaining opponents in a Democratic debate Saturday in which the candidates seemed acutely aware of the grief in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday.
Moments after the candidates bowed their heads for a moment of silence to honor the victims of the terrorist attacks, both Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Martin O'Malley began what became a pointed, yet polite, critique of Clinton's foreign policy, including her 2002 vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq, which Sanders directly tied to the rise of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
"Let me have one area of disagreement with the secretary," Sanders said gingerly, as if on eggshells to lob an attack in such a somber moment. "I would argue that the disastrous invasion of Iraq — something that I strongly opposed — has unraveled the region completely and led to the rise of al-Qaida and ISIS."
Asked by John Dickerson, a moderator and anchor of the CBS News program "Face the Nation," if he was referring specifically to Clinton's votes, Sanders reaffirmed his argument.
"I don't think any sensible person would disagree that the invasion of Iraq led the massive level of instability we are seeing right now," he said.
Without directly faulting Clinton and President Barack Obama, O'Malley painted a dark portrait of the administration's Middle East policy. "Libya is a mess. Syria is a mess. Iraq is a mess. Afghanistan is a mess," he said.
Clinton, who stared blankly at her opponents as they discussed her record, responded with an in-depth assessment of decades of granular foreign policy developments that contributed to the current crisis.
"If we're ever going to really tackle the problems posed by jihadi extreme terrorism, we need to understand it and realize that it has antecedents to what happened in Iraq," she said. "And we have to continue to be vigilant about it."
Until the attacks Friday, the three candidates had been heavily focused on economic issues and their plans to address stagnant wages and the growing gap between the rich and poor. Fears about Islamic terrorism had seemed a distant concern compared with anxieties about the rising costs of college and health care. But the tragic developments in Europe prompted CBS News to shift its emphasis in the debate, which was held at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, to foreign policy and national security and how the United States can combat the threat of the Islamic State.
For Clinton, the somber discussion provided her a platform to project her serious side and her command of national security issues.
In his opening statement, Sanders said the "country will rid our planet of this barbarous organization called ISIS" but quickly pivoted to his standard message that the economy is "rigged" to favor the wealthiest Americans. Asked how high he would increase income taxes on the rich, Sanders elicited laughter when he said that he was not sure yet but that he had promised not to raise rates as high as the 90 percent level that existed during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican.
Clinton, who has argued that her experience as Obama's chief diplomat gives her a grounding in international affairs unmatched by her rivals in either party, focused her opening statement on national security. "All the other issues we want to deal with depend on us being secure and strong," she said.
Asked if he had any disagreements with her record as secretary of state, Sanders said: "I'm a little bit more conservative than the secretary in that I am not a great fan of regime change."
O'Malley also targeted Clinton's push for intervention in Libya. "We need to be much more far thinking in this new 21st-century era of nation-state failures and conflict," he said. "It's not just about getting rid of a single dictator."
Clinton defended her decision to back the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi, who, she said, "probably had more blood on his hands than anybody."
According to a New York Times-CBS News poll released Thursday, 53 percent of Democrats said they were "very confident" in the former secretary of state's ability to handle an international crisis, compared with 16 percent who said the same about Sanders. In a pre-debate focus group unaffiliated with any campaign or group, a vast majority — 26 of the 31 participants — said they viewed Clinton as a stronger potential commander in chief than Sanders.
But with Clinton's experience also come pitfalls.
Clinton has further solidified her support among Democrats after her testimony before a congressional committee investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. But the testimony highlighted wider questions about Clinton's tenure at the State Department, namely her dependence on the advice of a small cadre of political aides and her insistence that the White House join a NATO-led coalition to oust Gadhafi.
Sanders arrived in Des Moines under pressure from some of his backers to deliver crisper lines of attack against Clinton. In the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas on Oct. 13, Sanders, in a remarkable moment of civility and candor, said the American people were "sick and tired of hearing about" Clinton's "damn emails."
After the debate, Vice President Joe Biden announced his decision not to enter the Democratic primary and Sanders has seen his standing in the polls decline in comparison with Clinton's. The most recent New York Times-CBS survey showed that 52 percent of likely Democratic voters were backing her, compared with 33 percent for Sanders. Clinton has secured the support of half the Democratic Party's superdelegates needed to capture the nomination, and she has extended her lead in polls in Iowa and closed in on Sanders in New Hampshire, the first states to vote.
In an election year in which political outsiders have been ascendant, Sanders has cast himself as an outsider not bound by the conventions of negative politics and preferring to deliver his well-honed stump speech on economic inequality.
But in recent weeks, he has portrayed Clinton as ideologically inconsistent, wavering in her stances on Wall Street regulation, trade and climate change attuned to shifting political winds.
O'Malley has also questioned Clinton's liberal convictions and commitment to issues like immigration and same-sex marriage. But his critiques have so far won him little traction among voters in Iowa or New Hampshire.
The event provided Clinton with a chance to confront one of the campaign's longer-term challenges: polls that show a growing number of general election voters do not have a favorable opinion of Clinton.
An ABC News-Washington Post poll released this month showed 51 percent of voters had an unfavorable opinion of Clinton, while a CBS News poll released in October showed 61 percent of registered voters did not trust Clinton.Clinton's refrain in the first debate — "I'm a progressive who likes to get things done"— appears to have resonated with a Democratic electorate tired of gridlock in Washington. The New York Times-CBS News poll found 62 percent of Democratic primary voters said Clinton could bring about real change in Washington, compared with 51 percent for Sanders.