If you're explaining, you're losing. And if you have to follow up a debate by declaring what you aren't, you're both explaining and losing. 

I didn't watch the debate between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers in Michigan last night. However, I do know who won it, or rather, I know who lost it, based on this statement:

For those old enough to recall the 2010 campaign, this will sound very familiar. Christine O'Donnell won a Republican primary for Senate in Delaware thanks to Tea Party support, but found herself outmatched in the general election against Chris Coons. O'Donnell admitted in a 1999 Bill Maher panel discussion to have "dabbled in witchcraft" as a teen, and Maher re-aired it during the campaign. O'Donnell tried to put an end to the controversy by cutting a 30-second TV spot that began with her declaring, "I am not a witch, I'm nothing you've heard, I'm you." That spot attracted massive ridicule and contributed to her loss in the election. 

El-Sayed has now been reduced to making his own version of an "I am not a witch" declaration, but unlike O'Donnell, his flirtations with socialism are not limited to his teen years. In this very campaign, El-Sayed is pushing for socialized medicine in the Medicare for All proposal promoted by Bernie Sanders. The Democratic Socialists of America have it as part of their platform. Pushing for government control of healthcare – including the prohibition of private-sector coverage – makes one a functional socialist, if not a capital-S Socialist. 

This also looks like a distraction from the real problem El-Sayed faces – his connections to Islamist terror financing, and his family connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. Rogers raised these connections during the debate, causing El-Sayed to sputter about why anyone would question his mother's work as a nurse in Missouri:

Recommended
Crisis Point: IRGC Officially Hits Zero As Hormuz Shipments Peak Ed Morrissey DOJ Announces Charges in $2 Billion California Health Care Fraud John Sexton

"Because my mom was a nurse in Missouri? It doesn't make any sense." That's because no one cares about Fatten Fathy Elkomy's work in the Missouri medical field. El-Sayed is flat-out lying to distract from Elkomy's years working for the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), where she wired money to front groups linked to both Hamas and al-Qaeda. The Treasury Department listed IARA as a terror-linked group, and the Department of Justice indicted IARA for violating U.S. sanctions against Islamist groups in Iraq. Elkomy personally conducted eight of those wire transfers, according to the indictment.

The "I am not a socialist" play intends to distract from the bigger issue of El-Sayed's sympathies for and connections to Islamist terrorism. Unfortunately for El-Sayed, socialism is nearly as big of a problem in a general election as sympathies for Hamas and Hezbollah, and as getting funded by Muslim Brotherhood front orgs via his father-in-law. 

That may also explain his temper at the debate last night. Rogers apparently got under his skin and El-Sayed isn't used to having to answer for his connections and sympathies. Perhaps he understands the part about explaining and losing, but he hasn't figured out that this track record probably didn't lend itself to political office outside of Dearborn ... except perhaps in Tehran. No amount of witchcraft will cover that up. 

Note: Christine O'Donnell was (and presumably still is) an intelligent and gracious woman who made a big mistake, but deserved better treatment for her efforts. Maher apologized to her on-air two years later, but O'Donnell called it a "self-inflicted wound."