By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and the Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is a 22-year political, legal and investigative journalist who trained for 17 years, and under six different editors, at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA-Poised, confident, and on point, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton (pictured) won the first Democratic presidential debate held Tuesday night in Las Vegas Nevada,  say political pundits, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (pictured) held his own.

Both were, by many accounts, a breath a fresh air from the Republicans, and they showed the depth of intellect and sensitivity to issues,  from poverty, to racism, to women's rights and voting rights, that have traditionally drawn Blacks to the Democratic party.

Clinton was the most aggressive against the Republicans and said that when Democrats stay home and do not vote, Republicans win the White House. And she said that the thought of a Republican succeeding Obama, a Democrat and America's first Black president,  is unnerving.

But she also said that while she supports the president, she will build upon his mistakes, and will embrace his efforts to bridge the partisan divide.

CNN analyst David Alelrod, the chief strategist for President Obama's successful run for president in 2008 and his reelection campaign in 2012,  told reporters that Clinton, who lost a bid for president in 2008, was at her best, and was "poised and in command."

Less known candidates of former Virginia senator Jim Webb, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley,  and Lincoln Chafee, a  former U.S. and senator and former governor of Rhode Island, also shared the debate stage, one of substance,  and nothing that remotely resembled the bickering and name calling that have overshadowed the three Republican debates thus far.

O'Malley said that he was pleased that none of the candidates, unlike the Republican presidential candidates, denigrated women, and that they did not make what he referred to as racist comments against immigrants.

The former first lady and prior secretary of state under the Obama administration, Clinton was ready for the questions that came her way, a two and a half hour debate hosted by CNN and moderated by seasoned anchor Anderson Cooper.

Asked by the talented Cooper why voters would want a Washington insider like herself, Clinton said that she is an outsider by virtue of possibly becoming America's first woman president.

"I can't think of anything more outsider than being the first woman president," said Clinton.

She said that her record as first lady and  U.S. senator speaks for itself, and that she has backbone, experience, stamina, and patience.

"I know how to find common ground, and I know how to stand my ground," she said, also saying that the attack on Planned Parenthood is unwarranted.

On Benghazi, she said that as long as the United States sends diplomats abroad, there are risk that come with it, and that America's presence there was, to some extent, liberating for its people.

The congressional committee investigating the Benghazi incident, and for which she is prepared to testify before, is pushing an anti-Democratic political agenda, a self-serving strategy by congressional Republicans, she said, that is designed to reduce her poll ratings.

As to the email controversy that has dogged her campaign, Clinton made no excuses, though she did say that the Obama administration approved the private email server when she was secretary of state.

Sanders preached his massage  of equality and criminal justice reform that has made him popular on the campaign trail, and said that "today we have  people in jail than another county on earth."

He supported Clinton on the email fiasco, and called it a deterrent from the real issues that voters want to discuss.

"The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your emails," said Sanders.

A former lawyer turned politician, Clinton took on Sanders, saying he is soft on gun control, and Sanders said basically that Clinton needs to move more to the left, politically.

All five candidates courted the Black vote, each saying how much they love Black people, and that Black lives do, in fact  matter.

Former senator Webb explained how, as senator, he help to clear a Black man accused of murder that had since died.

"I have done the hard job, I have taken the risk," said Webb.

Clinton's answer on the heightened attention in the country relative to police killings of unarmed Black people, and the nation's broken legal system in general, had more substance, and she said that racial discrimination, poverty, and public policy measures that enhance the rich and subordinate America's poor, are at the heart of the problem

Sanders said on the subject that "we need to combat institutional racism from top to bottom."

On legalizing recreational marijuana, Clinton said that while she supports the use of medical marijuana she would leave it to the individual states to decide, while Sanders said that he supports it due to  disparities across racial lines that work for the- haves, and hinder the- have- nots.

Voters in Ohio will decide the issue at the ballot box in November.

Voters in Ohio will decide the issue at the ballot box on Nov. 3, and measure that will follow Colorado's legalization of weed for recreational use and sale if it passes .

"Too may lives are being destroyed for non-violent offenses," said Sanders, on the controversial issue. "We need to rethink our criminal justice system."

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the conflict in Syria were also hot topics of debate.

The candidates agreed on a a broad agenda common to the Democratic party and want to tax  the wealthy and protect the middle-class, expand social security, lower the cost of college education, reduce mass incarceration, tackle Wall-street greed and corruption, and reform the nation's legal system.

Paid family leave was also a consensus, as was health care, income equality, fighting climate change, and dealing with the threat of ISIS and middle eastern terrorists in general.

Former senator Chafee said that one of his  biggest assets is that he has high ethical standards, and that he has "had no scandals," a reference obviously to Clinton, the wife of former Democratic president Bill Clinton, a Rhode's Scholar whose personal life has often been one of political intrigue.

The candidates differed on what is the most severe security threat to the United States, Clinton saying that she supports the Iran Nuclear deal, and former senator Webb, a long-shot presidential candidate like Chafee and O'Malley, all three of whom helped to make Tuesday's debates more well-rounded, saying that "the greatest security threat is resolving our relationship with China."

(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)