After days of jostling over whether to meet for more debates, and how many, aides to Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders have reached an agreement, of sorts, they said Saturday: The two will meet next week in New Hampshire and will hold three more debates thereafter.
The two campaigns have engaged in a measure of brinkmanship in recent days, with Mr. Sanders’s team one-upping Mrs. Clinton’s by saying it would agree to an additional debate in New Hampshire if her team agreed to more beyond that....
The Democratic National Committee has yet to weigh in on whether it would sanction the added debates.
The New Hampshire debate next week was originally scheduled as an unsanctioned one, sponsored by MSNBC and the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper. But a Democratic National Committee official said The Union Leader would not be a sponsor.
Still, it would mean a highly watched showdown between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders before the Feb. 9 primary in New Hampshire.
It's unclear whether O'Malley can last much longer, (he didn't get enough signatures to appear on the ballot in Ohio, for instance) but the other two candidates have staying power through Super Tuesday and perhaps beyond. More debates doesn't change that either way.
And as one colleague pointed out, Trump is going to dominate the Republican news for weeks anyway, but when it sinks in he's actually their nominee.. then things get interesting.