The last time Bernie Sanders met Hillary Clinton on the national debate stage, he handed her a gift tied with a ribbon, dismissing the emails controversy that had dogged her for months.
“The American public is sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails!” Sanders said.
Clinton smiled as wide as a piano, and shook his hand.
It was not a master class in cutthroat debating technique. But Sanders, the senator from Vermont, has something of a chance to redeem himself on Friday night, as the Democratic presidential hopefuls convene in South Carolina for a candidates’ forum. Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, will join Clinton and Sanders.
The event is not being billed as a debate. The candidates will not, according to event organizers, have the chance to address one another or even, it seems, appear onstage at the same time.
But host Rachel Maddow of MSNBC is expected to invite participants to point out their rivals’ flaws and to pitch the public on their own virtues.
Here, then, are five things Sanders might do to make the most of the outing.
1. Hit Clinton on character
Hours before the start of the last Democratic debate, a leaked memo from the 2008 Obama campaign describing how to beat Hillary Clinton was published for the first time. The memo, obtained by the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, said Obama should attack Clinton on her greatest vulnerability: her character.
“She’s driven by political calculation not conviction, regularly backing away and shifting positions,” one bullet point said.
Sanders should say that. In fact, he should just stand up and read the memo.
2. Hit Clinton on cozy relations with banks
Sanders’ strongest virtue as a candidate is his lifelong, impassioned opposition to corporate greed and the cozy insider relationships between Wall Street and Washington that enrich the bigwigs and impoverish the little guy. It can be argued that Clinton exemplifies the relationship. She is known on Wall Street as a friend from her years as a New York senator and from her husband Bill’s administration, in which a Goldman Sachs executive served as treasury secretary.
Hillary Clinton, class warrior? Hardly. But a Sanders campaign video released on Friday shows that is what he has always been:
3. Hit Clinton on foreign policy hawkishness
In the last debate, Sanders let Clinton get away with what many regarded as a weak explanation for her 2002 Senate vote in favor of an authorization to use military force in Iraq. She said Obama had respected her judgment enough to make her secretary of state. On Friday night, Sanders could point out that Obama may have done so not out of any particular respect for Clinton’s foreign policy judgment, but in an attempt to unify the Democratic party after a bruising primary. Clinton has called for a no-fly zone for Syria. Sanders should ask Maddow to ask Clinton what she thinks about Obama’s new plan to station US troops there. An interesting contrast might emerge.
4. Talk about Black Lives Matter
Sanders might use the forum not only to take Clinton down a notch but to address some of his own weaknesses as a candidate, starting with his miserable performance among African-American voters. The latest poll out of South Carolina, the site of Friday’s forum, where black voters make up a majority of the Democratic primary electorate, shows Sanders an amazing 51 points behind Clinton.
In a way, the original sin of the 2016 Sanders candidacy may have been his failure to acknowledge the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement as unique from his blanket call for economic justice. He has admitted the error, but he has more work to do, and there would be no better place to start than onstage in the Palmetto State.
5. Just be Bernie
Bernie Sanders is a 74-year-old socialist consistently attracting audiences of thousands around the country and more contributions from small donors than any other candidate. Larry David is impersonating him on Saturday Night Live. Best of all, he doesn’t seem to care about the spotlight. What he wants is what he has always wanted, which is economic justice.
As much as any political figure could conceivably have nothing to lose, Sanders has nothing to lose. He should speak his message to the country. As if he ever could be persuaded to do anything but just that.
