Clinton is running hard as 'Hillary Obama,' says PBS analyst Mark Shields

Mark Shields says Clinton is running as &quot;Hillary Obama&quot; — (Image credit: PBS Newshour)

PBS hosted a spirited, earnest, mostly break-free Democratic debate in Milwaukee on Thursday night, and its post-debate analysis by Hari Sreenivasan was similarly different from the post-game chatter we've seen on cable news and network TV. When they joined Sreenivasan, liberal columnist Mark Shields and conservative columnist David Brooks agreed that Hillary Clinton started out the debate stronger and Bernie Sanders ended the night fighting on his home turf.

Clinton's "strategy was pretty simple, it struck me," Shields said. "She ran as Hillary Obama. She hugged the president, she wouldn't let any daylight between them, and accused Bernie of infidelity." Brooks laughed, quipping, "That's good, coming from a Clinton." He argued that Clinton's "Obama moment is the moment that will go viral, when she dropped the Obama bomb" on Sanders. But Sanders ended the night in good shape, he said, in part because he has a "core narrative" and so these debates are "always sort of on his turf," but also because "he's unhindered by budgetary reality," while Clinton "limits herself to what is practically possible."

Brooks returned to that theme later. "I think the question for Sanders is, is there a point where the Democratic voters begin to say, 'Wait, is any of this actually going to happen?'" he said. "Are people going to think, 'Is any of this ever going to happen?' Because it seems highly implausible unless the Democrats sweep everything.... Whether people get that, sort of, into the wonkery of it, or whether they just want to express some anger, is really the core question between these two." Watch the earnest Shields-Brook wonkery below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.