MANCHESTER, N.H. -- In the age of Twitter, the spin room happens during the debate, and a Hillary Clinton line Saturday night about the Islamic State picked up immediate attention.
During one of ABC's strange mid-debate breaks, George Stephanopoulos and company brought the line up, too. How could Clinton be so flip about the self-proclaimed caliphate as it sparks mayhem from Syria to San Bernardino?
Here's the full context of what Clinton said, parrying Sanders' proposal to fight ISIS now and worry about Syria President Bashar al-Assad later:
"I advocated arming the moderate opposition back in the day when I was still secretary of state, because I worried we would end up exactly where we are now.
"And so, when we look at these complex problems, I wish it could be either/or. I wish we could say yes, let's go destroy ISIS and let's let Assad continue to destroy Syria, which creates more terrorists, more extremists by the minute.
"No. We now finally are where we need to be. We have a strategy and a commitment to go after ISIS, which is a danger to us as well as the region.
Sanders, interrupting: "Secretary."
Clinton, resuming: " And we finally have a U.N. Security Council Resolution bringing the world together to go after a political transition in Syria. "
So Clinton's comment about "where we need to be" is followed immediately by "strategy," not about implementing it on the battlefield. Then she mentions this week's Security Council resolution.
Clinton campaign chief John Podesta called criticism of the remark "totally out of context," saying:
"She wasn't saying that about ISIS. She was saying that specifically about the U.N. Security Council resolution that passed yesterday to get on a political track to get a political resolution to get Assad out of the government and to move forward with a solution."
The Sanders campaign was not eager to harp on it, but did not come rushing to Clinton's defense either. When we asked about the remark, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver replied: "People have to make their own judgment about that."
The Republicans, though, see an opportunity. As soon as the debate ended, a quote from Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus landed in reporters' inboxes, saying in part:
"Clinton's assertion that we are 'where we need to be' on ISIS in the wake of the San Bernardino and Paris attacks shows a complete disconnect with reality and is completely out-of-touch with the American people."
Expect Republicans not to drop this one, and to see it in a lot more places, stripped of context. It could one day join the pantheon with Clinton's famous remark about Benghazi, in discussing the motivations of the killers: "What difference, at this point, does it make?"
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