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The Democratic Candidates' Best Debate Moments

by Lauren Holter

The three candidates on stage at the second Democratic debate got a lot of applause from the audience at Drake University, but they each had a stand-out moment that really caught voters' attention. The Democratic candidates' best debate moments stayed true to their individual strong suits, highlighting how they inspire supporters. Although the debate's focus was altered to address Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris, none of the candidates' comments on foreign policy drew the most praise.

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley were much more aggressive this time around, and took every opportunity to call each other out for past decisions and bluntly say that their plans were better than their competitors'. Even O'Malley, who's struggled to gain support in the shadow of Clinton and Sanders, pulled a few punches at both his opponents and fought with the moderator for time to speak. Because there were only three candidates involved, each got a lot more time to explain their stance on each issue, which led to a much more substantial and detailed debate about everything from ISIS to health care.

Here's each candidates' best moment of the second Democratic debate, not to say there weren't other noteworthy moments as well.

Hillary Clinton

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Because CBS partnered with Twitter for this debate, the network was able to analyze which moments were the most talked about on the social media site. For Clinton, that moment came when she mentioned her large amount of female donors after Sanders questioned her campaign funds. She said: "And I'm very proud that for the first time a majority of my donors are women — 60 percent." This comment's popularity came as no surprise since Clinton has positioned herself as the best ally for women. The high statistic also drew attention away from Sanders' point that she takes money from oil, coal, and Wall Street millionaires. Oil who? Clinton's main supporters are women.

Bernie Sanders

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Sanders' shining moment in the debate popped up in a discussion about Wall Street (of course). After Clinton talked about why she can be trusted to even the playing field for Americans when she's indebted to some of the biggest players on Wall Street, saying she wants to do more than just combat big banks, Sanders was asked what he thought of her answer. He said: "Not good enough." Fighting Wall Street is Sanders' main objective, so it's no surprise that he's unimpressed with Clinton's plans.

Martin O'Malley

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Martin O'Malley had a much better performance at the second debate in comparison to the first, but his biggest crowd-pleaser was dissing Donald Trump. On the subject of immigration, he said: "The fact of the matter is — and let’s say it in our debate because you’ll never hear this from that immigration-bashing carnival barker Donald Trump. The truth of the matter is net immigration from Mexico last year was zero." Calling Trump names is a surefire way to get people's attention.