Hillary Clinton’s 'best debate yet', Bernie Sanders gets the applause, Trump tweets 'like a bird'

New York: American television’s political pundits came away saying the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas Tuesday night is “one of Hillary Clinton’s best debates yet” while surprise challenger Bernie Sanders stayed true to his image as a man “deeply committed” to the issues that really matter to America.

Joining Clinton and Sanders on stage in Las Vegas was a trio of low-polling candidates looking for a breakthrough moment: former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, a former Navy secretary and US senator from Virginia, and former senator and governor Lincoln Chafee, the Republican-turned independent-turned Democrat from Rhode Island.

“Who won?” Not the “other three.”  No one’s saying Sanders lost, everyone’s talking about how Clinton kept it all together, the rock star applause Sanders got and how Donald Trump tweeted “like a bird.”

Political experts are saying Clinton won the “insider” game by telling Vice President Biden there’s no space for him. Sanders, they say, won the “outsider” game, as he has the best outside chance yet.

“Hillary Clinton had a good time tonight, she was not uncomfortable,”said CNN’s Democratic Debate Spin Room.

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner ran a parallel real-time fun fest on Twitter while Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders hogged the spotlight.

“There’s no STAR on stage tonight,” Donald Trump tweeted as Clinton and Sanders clashed over U.S. involvement in the Middle East, gun control and economic policy outlining competing visions for a party seeking to keep the White House for a third straight term.

Except on the issue of gun laws, where Sanders got caught on the wrong foot, he cruised. Debate host CNN kept an extra podium on standby just in case Vice President Joe Biden decided to show up, but the vice president stayed home and watched the debate.

Clinton, dressed in a relaxed-fit deep blue and white pant suit, started nervously and then warmed up as the debate kept circling around the surprise rivalry that this race has thrown up - Clinton verus Sanders.

Clinton kept her poise on tricky questions, Sanders fired on all cylinders from the word go, the other three candidates dipped in and out but the focus stayed on the two frontrunners.

The former secretary of state has also faced criticism that she’s shifted her positions on trade, gay marriage and other issues to match the mood of voters — a charge she vigorously denied Tuesday.

“Like most human beings, I do absorb new information, I do look at what’s happening in the world,” Clinton said, and got a lot of compliments later from TV commentators for her poise in handling the flip-flop question.

“I am not running for my husband’s third term or President Obama’s third term,” Clinton has repeatedly said on the campaign trail but she was careful not to brush aside Obama in tonight’s show.

The political reality is that Clinton now has a nomination to secure and a presidency to win. For a party seeking a third White House victory in a row, history has some data points for reference. This has only happened once in the last 60 years, when George HW Bush followed two terms of Ronald Reagan in 1988.

Sanders rescued Clinton on the issue of her controversial email practices as secretary of state.

“The American people are sick and tired are hearing about your damn emails,” Sanders exclaimed as the crowd roared with applause. A smiling and visibly relieved Clinton reached over, shook his hand and said, “Thank you, Bernie.”

But Trump remained unimpressed. “The hardest thing Clinton has to do is defend her bad decision making including Iraq vote, e-mails etc,” he tweeted.

“All very scripted and rehearsed, at least two should not be on stage,” he tweeted. But Sanders’ defense of Clinton on the issue of the “damn emails” was anything but scripted. Gracious and unambiguous, Sanders stayed true to his independent streak which has won him the support of the older “hippies.”

While the Republican primary has been roiled by the emotional debate over immigration, the Democratic candidates were largely united in their call for providing a path to legal status for the millions of people currently in the US illegally. The party is counting on general election support from Hispanics, a group that overwhelmingly voted for President Barack Obama in 2012.

A steady drip is wearing on Clinton’s air of invincibility as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. The troubles include Clinton using a personal email account and server while at the State Department; the fatal attack on the US diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, on her watch; and big donations from foreigners and political supporters to the Clinton family’s charitable foundation.

Until Biden makes a decision, the Democratic race will remain focused on establishment (Clinton) versus anti-capitalism (Sanders). Both these folks made sure the other three men in the fray stayed on the sidelines from start to finish.