The Democratic presidential debate

I was talking to one of my Republican friends Tuesday afternoon and asked him if he was going to watch the Democratic Presidential debate that was going to air later that night. He said he wasn't, that he would just let the pundits interpret it for him the next day. I've always thought it was risky to take the word of a third party about what a second party said. I've never trusted a "he said that she said" kind of commentary because they often get it wrong. But if I watch and listen myself, I hear it firsthand and can make my own judgments.

I think a lot of Republicans were disappointed due to a solid performance by Hillary Clinton in the debate. She appeared confident, informed, displayed a sense of humor from time to time and, maybe most importantly, came across as likeable, something she sometimes has a difficult time in doing. But there wasn't much to dislike in her Tuesday night performance. Bernie Sanders didn't hurt himself but didn't do much to help himself either. He is a self-described Democrat Socialist which puts him on the left-wing fringe of the Democratic Party and no one from out there can be elected to ANY position in a national election, just like the Republican Party's answer to Socialism is the right-wing fringe Tea Party and no one can be elected from out there either in a national election.

The other three candidates on stage were mired in the low single-digits before the debate and said nothing to increase their ratings. If it's a two-person race, Hillary wins the nomination easily. Vice President Joe Biden is still considering entering the race and the latest news is that he may now wait until November to decide, after the Benghazi hearings are completed.

His delaying tactics are frustrating to many Democratic voters but I understand why he's doing it.

He wanted to see if Hillary would come across in the first debate as wooden and defensive like she has sometimes appeared before, but her public persona was just the opposite of that, so now he's going to wait and see if she gets scarred by the Benghazi hearings. In other words, Biden knows his only chance in the race is to give the voters an option to a wounded and vulnerable Hillary Clinton because he has no chance of beating her if she's strong and confident.

There is another dynamic in the Democratic field this year that few people are talking about publicly but is the elephant in the room in my opinion, and that's Hillary's husband, former President William Jefferson (better known as Bill) Clinton. I've been in and around politics since I worked in my first gubernatorial campaign in Arkansas when I was 19 years old and I've never met another politician that can hold a candle to him.

He has an encyclopedic mind, never forgets a face, a name or an issue and a good ole boy charm that many people can't resist. What he's going to do during the campaign and more importantly, what he's going to do as first gentlemen is a question everybody should be asking.

He's certainly going to be giving his wife advice but we have to remember that he's an Alpha male and Alpha males don't adjust very well to playing second fiddle to anything or anybody.

When he was running for president, he said repeatedly that a vote for him would mean you were getting two for one because his wife had her own bona fides and now we face the same possibility in reverse. I can see almost a co-presidency in which Bill makes many decisions FOR Hillary, something that's never been done before. Others would argue however that Hillary is enough of her own woman to never allow Bill to do that because she wants to stand on her own two feet instead of being accused of being Bill's lap dog. I think either scenario is a possibility and that's what makes this race so intriguing.

The Republicans are going to have to come up with a candidate that can turn this campaign into a real race and the only possibility I see after watching the first two Republican Presidential debates is Marco Rubio.

Because of her strong favorability ratings from African-Americans, Hispanics and women, no one else on that stage can beat Hillary.