Chafee, O'Malley and Webb are out
(perhaps Webb would make an excellent Sec. of Defense)
O'Malley......Looks presidential but has no wiggle room between Sanders and Clinton (perhaps an excellent candidate for the Dept. of Energy.)
Chafee's best line (paraphrased): "I didn't leave the GOP, the GOP left me"......
(Very, very true thanks to the Tea Partiers.)
Sanders (feisty Brooklynite and a favorite of the young.....but like Ron Paul perhaps off the mainstream voter bloc who simply does NOT understand the meaning of social democrat)
Clinton (not my favorite candidate) is UNBEATABLE, not only within the Democratic Party's nomination but certainly can beat the daylights out of any of the GOP clown posse.)
Sure, there will be right wingers still desperately calling for her incarceration, but the smarter ones well know that is just wishful thinking. Bottom line: No GOP'er in the WH for another decade.
Don't discount O'Malley. He's been a victorious underdog his entire career. The other two were out before they even announced. They're fucking morons. O'Malley started slow, but he revved up by the end. His strategy was to go in with memorized, scripted speeches. He struggled to remember and found it difficult to weave them into the context of the discussions that unfolded. He changed strategies about a quarter of the way through. He began improvising, firing on offense, and parrying attempted attacks at him. Now that he's had a taste, O'Malley will likely be the shining star of the next debate.
Sanders' entire campaign is based on an insurgency of the masses. His "overthrow the establishment" is the same phenomenon that has garnered Trump attention, but it will be equally failed in the long run. Sanders' surge is now prepared to stall, and his performance in the debate proves that he has reached his plateau. The question is, where will Sanders' support go when the decline begins? It won't rush to Clinton. It'll flow to O'Malley.
Clinton has shown her experience. But her well practiced deflections of substantive issues will not be enough to win over anti-Hillary Democrats. And as O'Malley emerges and shows that he is a more viable candidate than previously thought (due to his comparative obscurity) many of the reluctantly-Hillary voters will be eager for a fresh face.