A question about women and power should have been easy to answer for the candidates on the Democratic presidential debate stage Thursday night. But two of the most prominent men on the stage swung and missed.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt) and former Vice President Joe Biden botched the question from Politicos Tim Alberta, who brought up former President Barack Obama s recent comments that if women ruled every country, the world would see a significant improvement across the board on just about everything.

Alberta also cited Obamas observation that most politicians are old men who need to get out of the way for a younger, more diverse generation.

Sanders awkwardly interrupted Alberta and reminded the crowd: And Im white, as well!

The interjection lingered before Alberta finished his question and allowed Sanders to answer in full. The senator then brought up just about every other issue in the book besides gender.

Here is the issue: the issue is where power resides in America, and its not white or Black or male or female, Sanders said. We are living in a nation increasingly becoming an oligarchy where you have a handful of billionaires who spent hundreds of billions of dollars buying elections and politicians.