Fearing Bernie Sanders blowback, Hillary Clinton likely to play nice at debate

In a week, Hillary Clinton will take the stage alongside Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee to duke it out in the first Democratic debate, hosted by CNN in Las Vegas. While the Republicans have had their share of verbal elbowing and name-calling on live TV, Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, has much more to lose if her takedowns backfire — especially if her criticism is leveled at her primary competition in the field, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

"I've seen every attack people have thrown at him, and none of them have worked," former Vermont governor and Clinton supporter Howard Dean told The New York Times, adding that condescending to Sanders' character or political alignments will "only make him stronger, especially with his base — and we need his base." Clinton herself has said that she "knows Bernie" and respects his "enthusiastic and intense advocacy of his ideas." What's left, then, is for Clinton to prove her worth against Sanders using his wobbly record with gun control against him — as well as the flaws in his proposals:

Sanders, however, will likely share none of the same reservations about taking swings at Clinton. "If you think establishment politics and establishment economics is the answer to our problems, fine," he told David Axelrod in a podcast. "There are good candidates out there."

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