Conventional wisdom holds that primary debates are bad for Hillary Clinton. According to this view, the Democratic front-runner has more to lose from sharing a stage with her rivals than she has to gain. Inevitably debates are risky; for a highly disciplined candidate like Clinton, this most unpredictable of campaign exercises would appear to pose serious risk with minimal potential for reward. But a counterargument can also be made. In the first two Democratic primary debates of the 2016 presidential cycle, Clinton has shown herself more than capable of navigating these tricky shoals. And while Saturday night's CBS debate in Des Moines constituted a considerably less decisive victory than...
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