MEGAN MCARDLE: Democrats Wasted Their Chance to Test Clinton.

The most electric moment of last night’s Democratic debate was when Bernie Sanders declared that he was sick of hearing about Hillary Clinton’s e-mails. The sentiment clearly resonated with the audience, and it was therefore smart politicking on the part of Sanders, who is not going to win himself more primary votes by pursuing subjects that make the Democratic base mad.

And yet while this may be good for Sanders, it’s probably bad for the Democratic Party. . . .

Clinton is the probable nominee, which makes it unwise to anger her, and no one else has a sufficiently large following to risk the ire of the base by attacking someone whose approval rating remains high among Democrats. However, this has the effect of making Clinton look stronger than she is.

This has been the story of her career in politics: she has a lot of experience in government, but very little in campaigning for herself. The one time she played against a varsity team, she lost to Barack Obama. In her only successful campaign, she was ushered into Pat Moynihan’s Senate seat by the senator himself, running as the Democratic heir-apparent in a deep-blue state, and facing a Republican opponent of truly startling ineptitude.

Can Clinton survive a race against a more gifted campaigner, in a nation with considerably more conservatives than New York has? Now would be a good time for Democrats to find that out. At least Democrats could see how she performs under pressure from politicians who are out for blood. Instead they mostly treated her like a delicate aunt whose ears must be protected from harsh words.

Yep.