The Democratic presidential candidate debate in Charleston, South Carolina, reprised a piece of political theatre similar to a performance six days earlier in Las Vegas. On stage in Nevada last week, the debate played out like a dinner-theatre murder mystery. Michael Bloomberg was the victim, while everyone else on the stage had a motive and the means to do him in.

This time, on Tuesday night, it was Bernie Sanders who got the rhetorical bludgeoning. It was the last debate before South Carolina votes on Saturday – followed by 14 other states next Tuesday – and was full of tense moments and sharp exchanges, reflecting the high stakes. Right at the top, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg referenced a recent report that Russia was attempting to boost Sanders’s presidential campaign. “Vladimir Putin thinks that Donald Trump should be president of the United States,” he said. “And that’s why Russia is helping you get elected, so you will lose to him.”(BBC)…[+]