5 takeaways from the South Carolina Democratic debate

Well, that was spunky!

South Carolina has a history of rapscallion politicians and rowdy debates and Wednesday night’s two-hour throw down in Charleston was no exception.

For those not named Michael R. Bloomberg or Bernie Sanders the debate may have been the last best chance for candidates to assert themselves ahead of Saturday’s Democratic primary, which could claim several casualties ahead of the balloting blitz on March 3, Super Tuesday.

Here are five takeaways:

— SANDERS GETS SWARMED

It took two Sanders victories and a third strong showing for his rivals to admit it, but on Wednesday night there was no doubting it: The Vermont senator is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

With Sanders threatening to run away with the contest, other candidates did all they could to trip him up.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar mocked his lofty promises: “The math does not add up.”

Pete Buttigieg took on his support for the Senate filibuster, in which bills need 60 votes instead of a simple majority to pass, accusing Sanders of impeding progress. “How are we going to deliver a revolution if you won’t even support a rule change?” the former South Bend, Ind., mayor scoffed.

Joe Biden all but accused Sanders of having blood on his hands for his past votes that aligned him with the National Rifle Association.

Sanders seemed peeved at times, barely suppressing an eye roll when his one-time progressive ally Elizabeth Warren argued she would be a more effective president.

But he largely parried the attacks by falling back on staples such as the virtues of his “Medicare for All” plan and jabbed back at Biden by saying he, too, cast plenty of “bad” votes during his decades as Delaware’s senator.

In fact, it was the audience that got deepest under Sanders’ skin, when they booed his answer explaining his praise for Cuba’s literacy programs.

“Really?” he shouted over the jeers. “Really?”

— BLOOMBERG DOES BETTER

Michael R. Bloomberg’s presidential campaign overflows with superlatives: staggering sums of money, a blizzard of advertising, an army of staff.

But his widely panned debate performance last week in Las Vegas invited less grandiose description, which left New York City’s former mayor nowhere to go Wednesday night but up.

He cracked a lousy joke, professing he was surprised others showed up after he wiped the floor with them in Nevada. There were moments of characteristic haughtiness, as Bloomberg brushed off a persistent Warren and griped about being cut off by moderators.

But for the most part he cleared the rather low bar set by his previous performance. (He was buoyed, perhaps, by the fact Sanders took so much incoming.)

The former mayor offered an ever-poignant reference to the 9/11 attacks and his efforts to bring about the city’s recovery and delivered one of the crispest arguments he’s made for his candidacy. “I have the experience,” he said, “I have the resources and I have the record.”

— BIDEN TURNS IT UP TO 11

He finished fourth in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire and a distant second in Nevada. For someone whose candidacy is predicated almost wholly on the notion of electability — that is the supposed ability to win elections — that’s not a lot of winning.

Which explains why South Carolina’s primary is the be-all that could be the end-all for Biden if he doesn’t win Saturday.

The urgency came across as he delivered arguably his strongest and most passionate debate performance to date.

In rat-a-tat fashion he strafed Sanders over his meager record of congressional accomplishment and assailed hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer, who is making his own all-or-nothing stand in South Carolina, by citing his investment in private prisons that abused minorities.

He wagged a finger at the camera — “I’m coming for you,” Biden told the NRA — and repeatedly refused to be shushed when his time ran out —“You spoke over time and I’m going to talk” — a contrast with past debates where he meekly gave in to the keeper of the clock.

“Why am I stopping?” he said at one point. “No one else stops.”

He drew a big cheer with a promise to appoint a black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The former vice president’s strong debate performance ahead of Nevada’s caucuses probably helped. His showing Wednesday night probably didn’t hurt.

Either way, when asked by moderator Gayle King if he would quit the race if he failed to win, Biden wouldn’t bite.

“I will win South Carolina,” he declared. Period.

— WARREN VS. BLOOMBERG, ROUND 2

Massachusetts’ senator really, really likes to tear into Bloomberg.

She reprised her attack lines from Las Vegas by drilling down into Bloomberg’s treatment of women who worked for him, calling yet again for him to issue a blanket release for those who signed a secret settlement with his company over his allegedly boorish behavior.

Sharing her own story of being discriminated against as a pregnant teacher, Warren reduced the former New York City mayor to sputtering outrage.

“At least I didn’t have a boss who said to me, ‘Kill it,’ the way that Mayor Bloomberg is alleged to have said to one of his pregnant employees,” she said. He categorically denied ever making the statement.

But the strategy lost a bit of its oomph the second time around, lacking the surprise factor and dampened by boos from the Bloomberg-friendly crowd.

“With this senator,” he said dismissively, “enough is never enough.”

— PAEANS TO THE PALMETTO STATE

When the candidates gathered for a Christmas season debate in Los Angeles, California-centric issues received virtually no mention. Nevada received similarly short shift last week.

But on Wednesday night, there was no mistaking the setting as candidates invoked local landmarks and matters of particular South Carolina interest, such as criminal justice, the anti-civil rights history of its benighted leadership and the racial disparity in maternal mortality.

Criticizing Sanders’ record on gun control, Biden brought up the 2015 mass shooting at nearby Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Touting his work alongside President Barack Obama, the former vice president cited the $500 million the administration poured into the local economy.

Steyer invoked the cruel legacy of slavery. Former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Buttigieg spoke of black voter suppression. Klobuchar said she understood why African Americans were skeptical of political promises.

The focus wasn’t a matter of politesse, or candidates acting as gracious guests of the Palmetto State. Black voters make up more than 60% of Saturday’s anticipated primary electorate, a contrast with the more atomized body politic in California and Nevada.

That’s not to say one size fits every South Carolina Democrat. But the overarching import of black voters does make it easier for candidates to pander, er, tailor their messages to a crucial and readily identifiable audience.