Three candidates had serious baggage: Sander's vote against the Brady bill, Clinton's e-mails and her sudden switch to cuddling up to Wall Street after she became Senator of NY, and O'Malley's one-strike-and- you're-out policy which contributed to the problems in Baltimore. Only Clinton escaped unscathed, mostly because of Sander's policy of sticking to issues and not making ad hominem attacks. As others have observed only Clinton and perhaps Sanders and Biden remain serious contenders, but you could see from the debate that O'Malley is aiming for the vice-presidency: his attack of Sander's record on gun control let Clinton stay above the fray. In effect O'Malley did Clinton's dirty work for her.