Watching Claire McCaskill's appearance on Morning Joe today makes it quite clear that, indeed, the Clinton team is concerned about the crowds and momentum pushing a Sanders' surge in Iowa and New Hampshire.
When asked if there is any concern in the Clinton camp about Sanders' surge, McCaskill responds:
"No, I think the media is giving Bernie a pass right now. I very rarely read in any coverage of Bernie that he's a socialist."
As today's Bloomberg polls of
Iowa and
New Hampshire show, Sanders is slowly eating into Clinton's leads in each state.
Sanders' net gain in New Hampshire is +12 since last month's Bloomberg poll. In Iowa, Sanders' net gain is +15 from last month's Selzer/Bloomberg/Des Moines Register poll.
So when I hear McCaskill -- an all-in, "Ready-for-Hillary!" advocate -- trot out the "socialist" rhetoric, I am immediately brought back to the panic-stricken `08 Clinton campaign that sent out the likes of Bob Kerrey shortly before Hillary's disastrous performance in the Iowa caucus to say crap like this:
“It’s probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There’s a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal.”
Hear the echo?
I am sure the Clinton brain trust is saying among themselves, "We're not going to have that problem again! We're killin' this one in the crib!"
McCaskill went on to describe Sanders as "too liberal," and said of Sanders' recent massive crowds:
"Rand Paul's father, Ron Paul, got massive crowds. Pat Buchanan got massive crowds. It's not unusual for someone who has an extreme message to have a following."
Yeah, so Bernie's message is "extreme," too extreme for McCaskill, certainly (and, by extension, Clinton).
Keep it up, Camp Clinton. While you have your surrogates running around pointing at Bernie and yelling, "Socialist!", the people Bernie is speaking with (and for) will continue to think, "Damn... This guy is onto something."
I love the smell of panic in the morning, Joe.
Some things never change...
UPDATE:
Sanders responds to McCaskill's inanities. (Thanks to cdub24.)
“Do I believe, in opposition to Senator McCaskill, that we need trade policies that are fair to the American worker, and not just benefit CEOs and large corporations?” Sanders said. “I plead guilty.”
Sanders said he “absolutely” believes in a single-payer health care system and opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
McCaskill said the media has given Sanders a pass, especially when it comes to pointing out his political leanings.
“I find it surprising that she says that the media doesn't refer to me as a socialist,” Sanders said. “There's no article that I've seen that doesn't refer to me as a democratic socialist. I am.”
(By the way, click on the link and watch the video. The video highlights McCaskill's comments. She basically underlines Sanders' primary message on all that is wrong with our current politics.)