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Things to Watch in the Democratic Town Hall Debate

Des Moines, Iowa (CNN)Time is running out.

With just a week left until the Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley will make their closing arguments Monday in a town hall hosted by the Iowa Democratic Party and Drake University and aired on CNN. The event, moderated by CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, will air from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET and comes as Clinton and Sanders are neck and neck in the polls.

Here are five things to watch for on Monday night:

1. Which Hillary Clinton shows up?

Clinton has vacillated between two tacks in recent weeks: The hard-nosed campaign puncher, taking direct aim at Sanders, and the pragmatic defender of Democratic values, focused on her own record and her ability to keep Republicans from unraveling President Barack Obama’s work.

The former secretary of state hit Sanders by name in Indianola on Thursday, casting him as a foreign policy novice with an unrealistic agenda, saying she is “not interested in ideas that sound good on paper but will never make it in the real world.”

Since then, though, she has spent much more time on her own record, drawing only implicit contrasts with Sanders. Even in stressing her own ability to achieve results, she hasn’t tut-tutted the aspirations of the party’s liberal base.

Instead of hitting Sanders, Clinton is making the case that she is the obvious heir to Obama’s legacy — and the only candidate who could successfully build on what he has done.

“Let’s build on what we have. We have been moving, in our nation, thankfully, in a positive, progressive direction. Maybe not as fast as some hope, but we keep moving forward,” Clinton said Sunday in Marion, Iowa.

The version of Clinton that shows up Monday night could reveal whether she has found openings to confront Sanders without alienating his supporters just before the race’s first votes are cast.

2. Who wins the Obama argument?

While Clinton is claiming the mantle to Obama’s legacy, Sanders is reminding voters of his promise.

It’s a head-versus-heart argument — and part of the broader theme of which candidate is most electable against a Republican in November.

Clinton has latched herself to Obama’s legacy, leveraging her four years in his administration to try to lock in her edge with minority voters. She’s described herself as more of a party-builder focused on winning in midterms and on the state level, too.

Sanders, though, has made sweeping cases that sound more like Obama in 2008 on topics like avoiding endless entanglements in the Middle East and offering universal health care.

The Vermont senator made the comparison explicitly on Saturday in Clinton, Iowa.

“Eight years ago, Obama was attacked for everything. He was unrealistic. His ideas were pie in the sky. He did not have the experience that was needed. But you know what, the people of Iowa saw through those attacks then and they’re going to see through those attacks again,” Sanders said.

He’s also begun working to appeal to the minority voters who were key to the Obama coalition — but whose support Sanders hasn’t yet won. He’s recently started touring black historical sites and is appearing in Ebony magazine, but faces a challenge convincing black voters they should trust he will look out for their interests.

Whoever makes the most cogent argument about Obama may have the strongest evening.

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Source: Eric Bradner, www.cnn.com