2015 Democratic debate on CNN

For all the talk about the terrorist attacks that killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi in 2012, there had been precious little public attention paid to the aspect of the US engagement in Libya that is much trickier politically for Hillary Clinton. That is, until CNN Democratic debate moderator Anderson Cooper pushed Clinton and war-wary former Sen. Jim Webb into an exchange on the merits of the war Tuesday night.

It’s tough territory for Clinton because Stevens wouldn’t have been in Benghazi but for Clinton’s diplomacy, her belief that Libya could transition into something resembling a stable democracy, and her choice of Stevens, a practitioner of “expeditionary diplomacy,” to run the US Embassy. It will be an even sharper point of foreign policy contrast for her if Vice President Joe Biden, who opposed the US bombardment of Libya, enters the presidential race. And with Clinton due to testify before the House Benghazi committee October 22, it was a reminder that she’ll still have to defend herself on Capitol Hill.

Political reporters and pundits think Hillary Clinton won the first Democratic presidential debate. The focus groups called it for Bernie Sanders. But the reason for the split should be discouraging for fans of either candidate.

It wasn’t because of Bernie’s policy ideas but because of his demeanor: he was “strong,” “direct,” and “powerful,” where Clinton was “too tame,” focus group members said. This was true across the board. CNN’s panel of undecided voters in Nevada, Fox News’s group of Florida Democrats facilitated by pollster Frank Luntz; Fusion’s focus group of millennial voters in Miami: All went strongly for Bernie, and style was the number one reason.

At last night’s Democratic debate, the candidates said one name more than any other: Obama.

The president’s name was invoked 21 times — and largely by Hillary Clinton. She referred to him 13 times, usually in a positive manner, talking about the things “President Obama and I” did. When Lincoln Chafee questioned her judgment because she voted for the Iraq War, she said, “I recall very well being on a debate stage, I think, about 25 times with then-Senator Obama, debating this very issue. After the election, he asked me to become secretary of state.”

CNN doesn’t take climate change seriously, so it’s no surprise that last night’s Democratic debate featured a tepid discussion of the issue. A young woman asked the candidates how they’d handle global warming. Anderson Cooper interrupted to talk more about Jim Webb (why?). He called on Bernie Sanders to prove he was “tougher” on climate than Hillary Clinton. Then Clinton talked about hunting Chinese delegates at Copenhagen.

It was a brief — and unenlightening — exchange.

The first question asked by a “normal American” during the CNN Democratic presidential debate — and the only question asked by a person of color — was this: “Do black lives matter, or do all lives matter?”

There’s a reason the question was asked this way: Martin O’Malley, in particular, got in trouble this summer for responding to activists affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement by saying “all lives matter.” But the reason that O’Malley got in trouble for that is that the two aren’t supposed to be mutually exclusive.

At Tuesday night’s Democratic debate, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb was antsy for attention. Webb is an extreme long-shot candidate and appeared to feel that the CNN moderators weren’t giving him enough time.

But when Anderson Cooper asked him about the US intervention in Libya, of which he’s been a vocal critic, he decided instead he’d rather talk about Syria. Then, even more strangely, he pivoted to China, saying that’s what he’d really been waiting “10 minutes” to talk about.

Vice President Joe Biden didn’t make it to the first Democratic presidential debate, but he was there in spirit — or at least in image — thanks to a new ad from an organization trying to “draft” him into the presidential debate.

Draft Biden 2016 is running an ad on CNN, the cable network hosting the debate, that focuses on Biden’s appeal to working families and his service in President Barack Obama’s administration. It’s a lot better than the group’s first ad, which was pulled after criticism that its emphasis on the deaths of Biden’s first wife and two of his children was in poor taste. Biden himself was reportedly upset about the content.

Candidates usually say their opponents’ names for one specific reason: to attack them.

In preparation for tonight’s Democratic debate, we analyzed transcripts from the 2008 Democratic primary debates to see whose name was uttered most often by an opponent. We found that if you’re worth attacking, you’re probably doing well in the polls. Once your opponents start ignoring you, you’re in big trouble.

The first Democratic presidential debate of the 2016 campaign season begins tonight at 8:30 EST. And to make it a bit more fun, we’ve created two bingo cards so you can turn it all into a game.

Here’s the first one:

Update: The debate has concluded. Check out highlights at CNN.com, and read our recap of what happened here.

The first Democrat presidential debate of the 2016 campaign season is at 8:30 pm Eastern tonight. If you have a cable account, you can watch it on CNN, and a free internet live stream will be available for all at CNN.com. TV listings have the debate wrapping up around 11 pm Eastern.

Many in the media decided Hillary Clinton was likely to lose Tuesday’s first Democratic presidential debate long before CNN went live from Las Vegas.

Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin best encapsulated this establishment view this weekend when he said that if Clinton makes a single mistake, it will be the “only story” out of the debate. Setting aside the self-fulfilling nature of that prophecy, it’s true that any frontrunner has the most to lose in a political debate. That’s why the frontrunners tend to want to limit the number and scope of debates, and challengers generally want as many chances to debate as possible.