The Globe in Iowa: Clinton battles to stave off defeat in Iowa

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In the final televised tilt between Democratic candidates before the Iowa caucuses, Bernie Sanders trained his fire on Hillary Clinton. He pointed out that she voted in favour of invading Iraq as a U.S. senator and accused her of vacillating on the Keystone XL pipeline.

Ms. Clinton, for her part, took aim at Republican front-runner Donald Trump, describing his plan to ban Muslims from immigrating to the United States as "shameful and offensive" and "dangerous."

These choices of target signalled opposite strategies at the CNN-hosted town hall at Drake University in snow-blanketed Des Moines Monday night. While the former secretary of state and first lady tried to appear presidential, the Vermont senator looked to shore up his leftist campaign by hammering away at his rival's progressive bona fides.

The caucuses – the first electoral test of the U.S. presidential election – have become a tough battle, with Ms. Clinton, the favourite of the party establishment and early front-runner, struggling to fight off Mr. Sanders's surprisingly strong insurgency. The RealClearPolitics average of polls gives Ms. Clinton a lead of just 0.6 per cent.

The town hall format was unusual. Ms. Clinton, Mr. Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, the distant third-running candidate, were each brought in individually for an interview by host Chris Cuomo and a series of questions from the audience. There were no direct exchanges between the candidates.

Mr. Sanders, who had the first slot, walked a fine line, trying to skewer Ms. Clinton's record without appearing too nasty about it.

"I've known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. You know what? I like Hillary Clinton and I respect Hillary Clinton," Mr. Sanders said, then launched his broadside.

On Iraq: "I voted against the war in Iraq … Hillary Clinton voted for the war in Iraq."

On the financial system: "Wall Street has operated … in a fraudulent way, and obviously their greed and recklessness helped destroy our economy and create the worst recession since the Great Depression. I led the effort against Wall Street deregulation. See where Hillary Clinton was on this issue."

On Keystone: "On day one, I said the Keystone Pipeline is a dumb idea … I think we've got to break our dependence on fossil fuel," he said. "Why did it take Hillary Clinton such a long time before she came into opposition to the Keystone Pipeline?"

Mr. Sanders was put on the defensive over gun control, particularly his previous opposition to a law that would hold gun companies liable for crimes committed with their weapons. Mr. Sanders argued he was in favour of punishing companies that knowingly sell large amounts of guns that end up on the black market, but not of holding responsible smaller gun stores that unwittingly sell weapons to criminals.

Towards the end of his segment, he appeared close to tears when asked what his parents would think if they could see him running for president. "We grew up in a 3 1/2-room rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y. … It's certainly something that I don't think they ever believed would've happened," he said.

Ms. Clinton, meanwhile, trained her sights squarely on Mr. Trump, who she said "insults, demeans, denigrates different people."

"American Muslims deserve better, and now their children and they are the target of Islamophobia, of threats, I've met a number of parents who've said their children are afraid to go to school because they are afraid of how they will be treated," she said.

She seemed reluctant to take aim at Mr. Sanders. On the only occasion when she seemed ready to attack him directly, Mr. Cuomo cut her off.

"You campaign in poetry but you govern in prose," she said of one of Mr. Sanders's ads, a puffy number that shows him shaking hands and waving to crowds while Simon & Garfunkel's "America" plays. "I obviously respect Senator Sanders greatly and appreciate what he has done in this campaign. But I believe that I'm the better person to be the Democratic nominee and to be the president and commander-in-chief because – "

"Got another question for you," Mr. Cuomo interjected.

Mr. O'Malley, for his part, made a plea for his supporters to "hold strong," even as his campaign remains mired in single digits, and at one point decried Mr. Trump's "fascist rhetoric."

Agreeing to the forum was a change in direction, and possibly a sign of worry, from the Clinton camp. Several U.S. news outlets reported that Ms. Clinton hastily agreed to it within the last week after previously holding out.

But she didn't go for broke Monday, instead banking that her best shot of pulling out a win remains in appearing the candidate of reason rather than passion. While she did try to humanize herself with the odd folksy line (asked how she would work with obstructionist Republicans in Congress, she replied: "I'm gonna be just givin' 'em all bear hugs whether they like it or not"), she spent most of her speaking time highlighting her quarter-century experience at the centre of her country's public life. In one particularly lengthy reply, she recited a story on how she once negotiated an eleventh-hour deal to restrain Israel from invading Gaza.

At her best, Ms. Clinton played like the serious and measured candidate she is trying to be. At others, she slid into "lecturing university professor" territory that showed her weakness at retail politics.

Her most humanizing moment, perhaps surprisingly, came when one young audience member told her that "quite a few people my age … think you're dishonest."

Ms. Clinton turned the question around, using it to highlight all the attacks on her from special interest groups, dating back to her time as first lady trying to create a universal health care system. "People have thrown all kinds of things at me and, you know, I can't keep up with it, I just keep going forward. They fall by the wayside," she said.

Mr. Sanders, for his part, sounded as always like a gruff assistant principal, talking tough about big banks and moneyed interests, and contrasting himself with Ms. Clinton while trying not to sound mean about it. He got his message across – and did a good job making himself relatable, with the answer about his parents and the odd self-deprecating joke – but did little to dispel the image of his campaign as a one-trick pony.

In all, it felt like a fight – or tussle, perhaps – between the Democratic party's heart and its head.