Washington Post Editorial Board: Clinton pays an unfair price for nuanced policy response. (HRC)

The convential wisdom about Saturday night’s Democratic presidential debate is that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the front-runner, committed a number of gaffes that might come back to haunt her. This demonstrates that the perception of how candidates “do” in debates has little or no relation to the substance of their words.

Ms. Clinton is paying a price for attempting to inject a modicum of policy nuance into a discussion with two opponents, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, who are trailing her and have nothing to lose by spouting undiluted populism. On the minimum wage, for example, Mr. Sanders and Mr.?O’Malley insisted that it be raised over time to $15 per hour, even after the questioner posited that a leading Democratic labor economist, Alan Krueger, believes the costs in lost jobs of such a huge increase, from the current level of $7.25, could outweigh the benefits. Their answers boiled down to: “I don’t care what the leading expert says, I want $15.” So much for evidence-based policy-making....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hillary-clintons-sensible-gaffes/2015/11/16/80eb1174-8c9f-11e5-ae1f-af46b7df8483_story.html?postshare=7711447730947020&tid=ss_tw via Washington Post