Hillary Clinton won first Democratic presidential debate "hands down" – and Vice President Joe Biden has until Friday to jump into the race if he hopes to have a fighting chance against her, pollster
John Zogby tells Newsmax TV.
In a panel discussion led by Steve Malzberg and Rick Ungar after the Tuesday night debate, Zogby said she "effectively neutralized some of the questions raised… particularly on the emails."
"She won hands down," he declared, adding, "She answered a lot of questions… particularly on the emails."
Zogby pointed to the singular moment during the sharp debate between Ciinton and rival Sen. Bernie Sanders in which the Vermont lawmaker enthusiastically declared to Clinton, "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails."
"Getting endorsement from Sanders was very important," Zogby said. "[I]t kind of shifted the email debate exactly to where [Rep.]
Kevin McCarthy had been … on Benghazi."
"The big loser was Joe Biden," Zogby said. "By not being there, not making the decision, he ceded the territory to [Clinton]… Biden can't find a position to run."
Pressed on how long Biden can stay on the sidelines before deciding if he wants to make a White House run, Zogby declared: "Friday."
"Oh God, yes," he added. "In terms of filing, he's got to decide decide before end of month. Secondly, people are getting tired of this."
As for Sanders' solid performance at the debate, Zogby noted he benefited from "a lot of exposure" to voters during the debate.
"But still you have a question of Bernie Sanders' electability," he said. "Even with his affability… his strong position on the issues. … Hillary did not hurt herself tonight."
Analyst
Dick Morris told Newsmax TV on Tuesday night that Sanders was so strong in the debate that party operatives will force Biden into the race for the nomination.
"The key thing about this debate was that Biden wasn't there," Morris said. "Once you put Biden in there, and you play it against what happened in this debate, the results are inevitable.
"And Biden has to come into this now because it's so obvious that Sanders would defeat Hillary," he said.
But Politico reported on Tuesday that Hillary Clinton closed what could have been multiple paths for Biden in Tuesday night's debate. If Biden runs for president, he vouches that he will "build on the work of the Obama administration, a third term with a twist."
However, Hillary Clinton beat Biden to his promise. "There's a lot that I would like to do to build on the successes of President Obama,” Clinton said at the debate. ”But also, as I'm laying out, to go beyond.”
Politico added, that "if Joe Biden was waiting for signs of a Hillary Clinton collapse to coax him into the 2016 race, he should have shut off Wednesday’s debate and watched the baseball playoffs."
But if Sanders bleeds votes from Clinton supporters, "you then have a situation in Iowa similar to 2008," Zogby asserted, calling it "a close race to the finish and whoever has the best organization on the ground and the most passion wins. That could very well be Sanders."
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