Will a progressive Hillary win the White House?

IT is close to being official in the aftermath of the first Democratic presidential debate in Nevada on Oct 13, which was hosted by CNN and Facebook: Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Indeed, notwithstanding unexpected developments - and unforeseen "scandals" have always been part of the Clinton political narrative - the former secretary of state and senator from New York, and the wife of a popular US president, will be the Democratic candidate who will be facing the Republican presidential nominee in the race to the White House next year.

And as the current Washington political joke suggests, if the Republican running for president will be real estate magnate and former reality-show host Donald Trump, the broadcasters showing the television debates between Hillary and the Donald will probably demand that viewers pay for what will become the most watched media event in the history of television.

That, however, was not the way anyone would have described the first Democratic presidential debate, especially if one compared the event to the first two Republican presidential debates. With up to 17 major candidates vying for the Republican presidential, Fox News and CNN/Facebook, which hosted the first two GOP debates, were only able to include 10 candidates in the prime-time events, each drawing around 24 million viewers worldwide.