It was a good day for Bernie Sanders – and it came just when he needed one.
In a string of victories Thursday morning for the insurgent Democratic presidential candidate, Sanders announced that his campaign had hit its goal of receiving 2 million individual campaign contributions, picked up the endorsement of the 700,000-member strong Communications Worker of America and earned a nod from the liberal group Democracy for America.
It’s a much needed boost for a candidate whose campaign’s momentum seemed to stall a bit lately, and it comes just two days before the party’s next presidential debate in the crucial state of New Hampshire.
Introducing Sanders at a joint press conference at the union’s headquarters here as “the next president of the United States,” CWA President Chris Shelton said the union decided to back Sanders only after its members had made their preference overwhelmingly clear in an online poll.
Bernie Sanders was overdue for a day like Thursday.
Flagging in national polls, stuck behind Hillary Clinton in Iowa, struggling to grab headlines, and laboring under the perception that he refuses to talk about ISIS, the Vermont senator’s campaign was stuck in an unmistakable rut heading into Saturday’s Democratic debate.
Then came Thursday. First, the campaign announced it had collected more than 2 million contributions— a sign of Sanders' popularity among small donors — raising $3 million since Monday alone. Then Sanders formally picked up his biggest labor endorsement, smiling alongside the leadership of the Communications Workers of America in Washington. At noon, the biggest news yet: million-member liberal group Democracy For America — founded by close Clinton ally and surrogate Howard Dean — was throwing its support behind Sanders in its first-ever presidential endorsement.
“Last night, when we went over 2 million people, it was an indication that we are ready, and able, to truly fund a real, national race,” a fired-up Tad Devine, Sanders’ top strategist, told POLITICO Thursday afternoon, previewing an uptick in campaign activity all over the country within the next few weeks after Thursday’s public spark of momentum. “Today is an indication that there are a lot of people in the left wing of the Democratic Party that think we are doing the right things to win, to achieve the agenda they’re committed to."
"Does this look like an 8-minute story to you?!" a 30-something attendee at the Boston rally asked me, referring to a recent story on Sanders' paltry network airtime and gesturing at the sea of humanity. "These people are clamoring for someone to... to tell them the truth!"
Indeed, as the so-called "Summer of Trump" extended toward winter, the media's treatment of Sanders grew even more appalling. After all, a closer look at the polls suggests that more Americans wants Sanders to become the 45th president than want Donald Trump, and yet the short-fingered vulgarian of Manhattan real estate is getting 23 times as much network news coverage. Indeed, the Tyndall Report, which conducted that analysis, found that ABC had featured Trump for 81 minutes and Sanders for only about 20 seconds.
What's up with that? It's fair to note that Trump remains the frontrunner in a fractured GOP field, while Sanders continues to trail Hillary Clinton, at least nationally, in what has largely become a two-person race. Sanders' most ardent supporters say it's simply the corporate media trying to hold down someone who would shake up the status quo. Perhaps, but as a veteran journalist I think it's mainly because Bernie doesn't play the game. He maybe the first candidate of the post-Reagan era to actively shun the contrived soundbite of the day, as well as the photo op. Instead, he delivers The Lecture -- a 55-or-so minute overview of America's economic and social ills -- night after night...and the crowds love it even if the TV producers don't. Sanders' view -- wacky as it sounds in 2015 -- is that if you speak the truth enough, the masses will come around. And his refusal to play the game is what Bernie's partisans love about him.
In 1969, in his own Vermont newsletter called The Movement, Sanders wrote that "the Revolution is coming, and it is a very beautiful revolution." The next year, Gil Scott-Heron sang that "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" -- and some 45 years later, it look like Scott-Heron was right. But does that really matter? I have no doubt that Sanders would love to shock the world and become America's 45th president, just as he shocked the world in 1981 by winning election as mayor of Vermont's largest city as a socialist just six weeks after Reagan's inauguration. But his real battle is the battle of ideas. With recent trend of Democratic presidential victories, and with the Democratic field moving to the left this year on everything from climate change to trade to criminal justice, you could say that Sanders is already winning.
The Democratic National Committee has suspended Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign from accessing its voter database after the campaign took advantage of a software error to access Hillary Clinton's confidential voter information.
Sanders' campaign said the sneak peek was inadvertent.
Still, the suspension is a setback for the Vermont senator because the database is a goldmine of information about voters nationwide. Campaigns usually use that data to plot their next moves.
The DNC database keeps the information gathered by different campaigns separated by a firewall.
But the data systems vendor that runs the program dropped the firewall for a brief period of time Thursday, during which time the data was accessed.
According to the Sanders team, one staffer has been fired.
"That behavior is unacceptable and that staffer was fired immediately," Sanders' spokesman Michael Briggs told CNN.
The oft-cited quote “A rose by any other name” rings apt when considering the brand of democratic socialism proposed by presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Fairness and social equity remain so, no matter what we call them. The Vermont senator’s stance on Social Security is a case in point.
While most Republican presidential candidates propose fixing Social Security by raising the retirement age (maybe as high as 70 for future retirees), Sanders calls for lifting the cap on the maximum taxable wage base so everyone pays the same percentage of his or her income into Social Security.
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His Social Security Expansion Act would increase current benefits and provide a realistic annual cost-of-living increase for retirees. It would additionally guarantee a minimum Social Security benefit, to help reduce the plight of seniors living in poverty.
If that’s democratic socialism, then it sure smells sweet.
Bernie Sanders hates big money in politics.
Sanders has long insisted he won’t rely on super PACs in his bid to win the White House. The political-spending operations capable of accepting unlimited corporate donations stand as a symbol of the power of money to buy elections. Denouncing them helps Sanders build his credibility as a populist. It has also set the self-described Democratic socialist apart in a field in which many candidates have ties to big-money groups backing their presidential run.
But even for Sanders, escaping the pull of money in politics is not easy.
A few loyal fans of the senator have hit upon the idea of using super PACs as a way to show support. In an odd twist of fate, Sanders can’t do much to stop that. Almost anyone can set up a super PAC, and the outside groups are supposed to operate independently from candidates. That creates a headache for the campaign: Each time a super PAC crops up, Sanders faces pressure to renounce it and ward off charges of hypocrisy.
Sanders’s opposition to super PACs leaves supporters with a difficult choice. Should they renounce super PACs as well, even if creating one could help their favorite candidate? If they make use of one, how do they justify that decision?
Some supporters have taken steps to create super PACs, only to abandon their efforts after realizing it wouldn’t sit well with the campaign. Others have forged ahead with spending operations that qualify as super PACs, while defiantly rejecting the label.
While interviewing Bernie Sanders on her 10 Most Fascinating People special, Barbara Walters said the Vermont Democrat doesn't look like a president, and in fact that he could be "better looking." While he took mock umbrage with the whole good-looking part ("Now you're insulting me, Barbara," he joked), Sanders agreed with the idea that he doesn't look like a president. But is that true? I'd argue that Sanders has a "lovable grandpa" look going on, that this is probably at least part of his appeal as a candidate, and that as far as having a "presidential look" goes, he could do much worse than he is.
For comparison, and with all due respect, let's look — literally — at some of the other people running for president. We have Jeb Bush, the human South Park character; Rand Paul, the man with the ramen noodle hair; Ted Cruz, whose face appears to be melting off; and Donald Trump, who... well, the less said about his looks, the better.
Conversely, plenty of candidates with that "presidential look" eventually learned that being good-looking isn't enough to get you into the Oval Office. There's former vice president Dan Quayle, the "young, conservative and handsome" politician whose 2000 presidential campaign crashed and burned. There's Mitt Romney, who was seemingly designed in a laboratory to look as much like president as humanly possible; needless to say, that didn't work. And of course, there's John Edwards who, despite looking very polished during his 2008 presidential run, eventually ran into other problems on the campaign trail.
The point is, looking "presidential" doesn't really mean that much. And as far as Sanders goes, plenty of presidents have skated into office with similar looks to his.
This article looks at polling data from the point of view of an Independent plurality which favors Bernie Sanders by 36% over Clinton, making him in turn a likely winner against any Republican, while leaving Clinton only a toss-up chance in November. It is risky for a party that shares only 30% of the electorate to ignore the decisive role that Independents play in choosing Presidents. The Democratic Party's own shrinking base gives it features of a third party in need of coalition with the larger "party" of Independents that Bernie Sanders brings to the table.
Meanwhile, due to their partisan resistance to understanding President Obama's deepest flaws, Democrats fundamentally misunderstand what the rest of the country seeks in a 2016 candidate. Polls show misinformed Democrats failing to form a coalition for these reasons.
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To win in 2016, Democratic primary voters need to vote strategically, based upon reliable information, in favor of the alliance with Independents that Sanders offers them. This alliance would join voters across the line now separating those who accept systemic political corruption as a lesser evil than electing a Republican, on one side, and a growing majority that does not, on the other.
The polls' most optimistic message can be summarized in the mathematics of the Democratic primary. With 30 percent of the electorate expected to vote 2:1 for Clinton, Democrats provide Sanders half the votes he needs to win the primary. But since he leads Clinton by 36% among Independents, who are 43% of the electorate, he can gain another 14% if his Independent supporters will only deign to contaminate themselves by participating in the primary of the Democrats they otherwise disdain. This would deliver Sanders a 24-20% victory over Clinton in the primary. If he wins the primary, again with the support of Independents, Sanders is a slam dunk to win the general election against any Republican.
Although Hillary Clinton represented New York in the U.S. Senate for eight years, she hasn't locked up her support among the state's progressive voters, some of whom are backing a self-proclaimed socialist from neighboring Vermont, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Former state Senator Tom Duane is the latest New York Democrat to balk at Hillary and support her leading challenger.
"I have long admired him. And now, not only will I have a chance to vote for him, but I will also get a chance to fight for him here in New York State," Duane said.
Earlier this month, the Working Families Party decided to go with Sanders.
"We are proud to endorse Bernie Sanders," said Bill Lipton of the Working Families Party. "We did an online poll of our members, and 87 percent came out resoundingly supporting Bernie Sanders."
Local supporters of Sanders say they like his message about taking on corporate interests. Some cited his foreign policy positions, noting that Sanders voted against the Iraq war while Clinton supported it.
Lydia Emily has an agenda: to spread tolerance, like a virus, before she dies.
The street artist, activist and mother of two has secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. ("The bad kind," she says.) So on good days, when her hands are nimble and her eyesight is intact, Emily paints — with a vengeance.
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On a recent afternoon, however, Emily is savoring the moment, kicking back on the sun-faded patio of the Lyric Café in Silver Lake and sipping a chai latte. The L.A. native has flown in from Austin, Texas, where she lives now, to paint a mural supporting democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on the side of the café.
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Politically-minded works, particularly those promoting issues of social justice, are Emily's hallmark — in her oil paintings and street art alike. Her murals are pointedly message-driven, with simplistic designs so passersby can digest them in seconds.
The new red-white-and-blue Sanders work features a jagged, sketch-like outline of the politician's profile with "Feel The Bern" below it. She painted a similar one on 3rd and Main in downtown L.A. It was recently defaced — often the fate of public artwork —- but restored by a friend a few days later.
"I have a personal stake in his campaign," Emily says. "If the Democrats don't win this, I die — because I could lose my healthcare."
The Bernie News Roundup is a voluntary, non-campaign associated roundup of news, media, & other information related to Bernie Sanders' run for President.
More information about Bernie & The Issues @ feelthebern.org
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