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UPDATE: When we posted this, it was centered on a critique of the alleged polls Bernie Sanders fans were citing to argue that he’d won the debate. Since then, two legit online polls — from NBC and Huffington Post — have verified that not only did Hillary Clinton win the debate, she picked up preference points as well.

Lots of left-liberal, “progressive,” and anti-Establishment Democrats who love Bernie Sanders have been screaming bloody murder because, as they see it, Bernie was declared the winner of the Democrats’ first debate in focus groups and polls but Hillary Clinton was deemed the winner by pundits and commentators of the mainstream media.

What gives? they ask.

Here’s what gives. There is absolutely no evidence that the focus groups put together by CNN, Fusion and Fox included a genuine cross section of Democratic and independent voters or were led by non-partisan professionals. Any seasoned pollster could make a focus group say any damn thing he or she wanted them to say.

The “polls” that are cited are all online “surveys” with self-selected participants who cannot possibly represent a genuine random sample of viewers or voters. Whether on left- or right-wing web sites makes no difference: any group of committed people can control the results of almost any online “survey.”

MSM Not Necessarily Right This is not to say the collective judgment of the media analysts is automatically correct. But given the overwhelming bias against Hillary Clinton most of these same analysts had expressed before the debate, it’s hard to argue they were primed to give her special treatment after the debate.

Clinton’s answers were sharp, her demeanor was poised, she was strong where she needed to be and gentle where it was called for. She showed humor and compassion, wit and wisdom. She was weak on the issue of legalization of recreational marijuana: she should state clearly whether she’s for it or against it. But on every other issue she had a well-defined, arguable position.

One point Sanders made that we’ve not seen discussed was his argument why he believes a democratic socialist  (who would be red-baited as a commie in a general election) can win the presidency.

All that matters, he said, is that enough people get out and vote. In other words, if he were the nominee and failed to win it would be the fault of the American people who failed to how up at the polls. But blaming the voters has never been a particularly smart strategy – even if a candidate tries to inoculate himself in advance of what would be, we think, a crushing, perhaps 50-state, defeat.

Many analysts – including Calbuzz – concluded that there was only one candidate in the Democrats’ debate who looked and sounded like a potential president of the United States.

And that was Hillary Clinton.