Clinton, Sanders ready for first Democratic presidential debate

Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton will finally square off with top rival Bernie Sanders on Tuesday in the party’s first debate of the 2016 campaign as she seeks to prove she is the candidate to beat.

 Clinton will take center stage in Las Vegas with Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont who has drawn huge crowds on the campaign trail, and three other hopefuls seeking to make their mark with a national audience.

 Vice President Joe Biden has been mulling a run for months, and is the wild card of the Democratic race. But he has not announced his decision and is not expected to participate in the debate, which starts in Sin City at about 6:00 pm (0100 GMT Wednesday).

 The spotlight therefore is likely to be on Clinton and Sanders.

 While there is unlikely to be a dramatic clash of personalities as seen in the first two Republican debates, the former secretary of state will no doubt face pressure from the upstart senator in their much-anticipated encounter.

 The other three challengers -- former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, ex-senator Jim Webb and former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee -- will try to generate breakout moments to show they are electable alternatives to Clinton.

 The 67-year-old Clinton is nearly eight years removed from her campaign clashes with ultimate White House winner Barack Obama, and part of her goal will be to show she still has expert debate skills even though she appears to struggle to personally connect with voters.

 "Tonight I'll walk on stage at the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas and present our plans and ideas for this country -- the same plans and ideas I've been talking about with Americans every day since we launched this campaign," Clinton told supporters in a fundraising email early Tuesday.

 Besides focusing on her proposals for gun control, Wall Street regulations and other policies, Clinton will want to prove that she can be the first woman to win the White House, despite a recent downward trend in her poll numbers.

 Clinton still leads nationally in polls, but she trails Sanders by nearly 10 points in New Hampshire and holds only a modest lead in Iowa, both key early-voting states.

 Her lead increases in debate state Nevada, where her support has reached 50 percent compared to 34 percent for Sanders and 12 percent for Biden, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Monday.

 While Clinton still elicits more unfavorable than favorable reactions among US adults (49 percent to 47 percent), she is far more popular than Sanders among Democrats, who view her favorably by 79 to 19 percent, compared to Sanders' 47-24 percent split, a Washington Post-ABC News poll out Tuesday shows.

 For Sanders, a rumpled, self-declared democratic socialist, Tuesday night will be the biggest test of his decades-long political career.