Robert L. Borosage
President, Institute for America's Future

When Hillary Clinton's expressed doubts about the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement and issued a call for new Wall Street reforms, pundits suggested she was trying to mute her differences with Bernie Sanders in the run-up to the first Democratic debate on Tuesday. A new Candidate Scorecard, released this week by the Campaign for America's Future (which I help direct), tracks the scope and the limits of that effort.

Not surprisingly Bernie Sanders gains the highest scores of the field, with Martin O'Malley second and Hillary Clinton third. Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb lag far behind, largely because their campaigns have not begun to fill out their platforms.

Sanders lead is built on his forceful commitment to major structural reforms - on breaking up the big banks, Medicare for All, enhancing Social Security benefits, taking on climate change, curbing big money in politics, cutting military spending and opposing costly interventions abroad.

That Sanders leads the others was no surprise, but most striking is the extent to which all of the major Democratic candidates have endorsed populist economic and political reforms. All three leading candidates have plans to raise taxes on the rich, crack down on corporate tax havens and loopholes, and limit capital gains tax breaks for investors. All support raising the minimum wage, guaranteeing paid family leave and paid vacation days, and empowering workers to organize and bargain collectively. All call for curbing the role of big money in politics. All favor action on climate change and a larger public investment in infrastructure and R&D. The contrast with the Republican field is stark and clear.