Hillary Clinton:Democratic debate victorious

It was a victorious comeback for Hillary Clinton, a front-runner who has been on the downswing.

The former secretary of state and first lady, who once came within a few cracks of shattering the glass ceiling to win a major party's presidential nomination, stepped on to a debate stage once more Tuesday night. But this time, it was to ask the American people to allow her to succeed the very man who had crushed her White House dreams seven years ago.

In the first Democratic debate of the 2016 cycle hosted by CNN and Facebook in Las Vegas, Clinton faced off against four others trying to make the same case. But it was only the rival standing to Clinton's immediate right -- Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose insurgent call for a political revolution has electrified the liberal base — that shared her spotlight.

Hillary Clinton hadn't set foot on a national debate stage in seven years.

But far from seeming out of practice, it appeared as though she had been preparing for Tuesday night since her last failed White House bid.

For more than two hours, the Democratic front-runner showed off the very skills that made her so formidable in the more than the two dozen debates she participated in ahead of the 2008 election, offering crisp, confident and fluent answers on a wide range of policy issues.

Challenged on whether she is a progressive or a moderate, Clinton sought to link herself with the liberal wing Bernie Sanders represents without getting too attached to his brand of democratic socialism.

"I'm a progressive," Clinton responded. "But I'm a progressive who likes to get things done."