Welcome to the Bernie News Roundup. Visit the group page for past editions and most any other Bernie news you might need. Don't forget to contribute in any way you can over at Bernie's Official Page.
Our first video of the day feature Bernie on ALL IN discussing his poll numbers, the ACA, and more:
From the Huffing Post:
It's Official -- Bernie Sanders Has Overtaken Hillary Clinton In the Hearts and Minds of Democrats
According to PBS, Bernie Sanders is "gaining against Clinton in early polls." Salon's Bill Curry believes "Hillary Clinton is going lose," primarily because millions of voters longing for a truly progressive candidate will nominate Sanders. POLITICO explained recently that Early-state polls hint at a Bernie Sanders surge, a headline that was unthinkable only several months earlier. Yahoo's Meredith Shiner calls Sanders a "progressive social media star and pragmatic legislator" and states that "Sanders also has a much more substantial legislative history" than any GOP challenger. In Iowa, 1,100 people packed a gym to hear Bernie Sanders speak in May.
In contrast, Team Hillary had an intimate business roundtable discussion with five "ordinary" Iowans. The only problem was that according to The Washington Post, "All five were selected to attend her events." In fact, Clinton's "staged roundtables" were attended by a total of 13 Iowans, picked by either the campaign or the host.
Therefore, a paradigm shift has taken place. Many Iowans drove 50 miles to hear Sanders speak in Des Moines, primarily because Bernie Sanders has surpassed Clinton as the ideal choice for Democratic nominee. Regarding electability, Sanders has also surpassed Clinton as the realistic choice for Democratic nominee in the minds of many voters, because as one Salon piece illustrates, Hillary "just doesn't get it."
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If voters around the country still care about middle class economics, the federal budget, trade and other hot button issues in 2016, Sanders has a legitimate chance to win. Also, since Sanders isn't tied to Obama fatigue like Hillary Clinton, it's quite possible the Vermont Senator re-energizes an America that just recently decided the Confederate flag doesn't represent its value system.
According to a POLITICO piece titled The 2016 Results We Can Already Predict, "Assuming the lean, likely, and safe Democratic states remain loyal to the party, the nominee need only win 23 of the 85 toss-up electoral votes." Therefore, there's no need to jettison cherished values for the sake of pragmatism; those days are over. Senator Bernie Sanders, known in Washington and throughout the nation as an advocate for middle class Americans, veterans, the environment, and other cherished causes can win crucial electoral votes just as easily as Hillary Clinton.
Video of Bernie advocating for the candidacy of Jesse Jackson:
From The Hill:
Sanders calls for hike to the estate tax
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants to increase the estate tax for wealthy Americans and close tax loopholes, which he says will help bridge the country’s wealth gap.
Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, introduced legislation that would require anyone who inherits more than $3.5 million to pay an estate tax, sometimes referred to by opponents as the “death tax.”
He would also increase tax rates so anyone who inherits an estate or assets worth between $3.5 million and $10 million faces a 45 percent tax rate; anyone who inherits an estate worth between $10 million and $50 million faces a 50 percent tax rate, and anyone who inherits an estate worth more than $50 million faces a 55 percent tax rate.
Under current law, a deceased person’s estate or assets have to be worth more than $5.43 million before they are subject to the tax. Currently, the top estate tax rate is 40 percent.
Sanders said under his plan, 99.75 percent of Americans wouldn’t pay more in estate taxes.
“Our nation cannot survive morally or economically when so few have so much while so many have so little,” Sanders said. “We need a tax system which asks the billionaire class to pay its fair share of taxes and which reduces the obscene degree of wealth inequality in America.”
TIME talks about the Omalley campaign's distancing itself from the highly criticized
SuperPAC attack on Sanders:
A spokesperson for O’Malley’s campaign said the former governor was not aware of the ad before it was released and that he doesn’t currently fundraise for Generation Forward.
O’Malley’s super PAC is a scrappy operation without the fundraising firepower of the pro-Hillary Clinton Priorities USA or Jeb Bush’s Right to Rise operations. The governor’s long shot chance in winning the primary and his anti-Wall Street rhetoric don’t help attract donors, and many donors that do contribute to his nascent campaign will do so directly, not to outside groups.
Sanders of course is as classy as ever:
Here is Bernie On NPR if you missed it.
Salon talks about the NPR interview here:
Bernie Sanders sat for an at-times testy interview with NPR’s “Morning Edition,” during which he was questioned on areas of burgeoning criticism facing his rising 2016 candidacy.
Here are some highlights from Sen. Sanders’ conversation with NPR’s David Greene:
After Greene ticked off a list of past underdog candidates who went on to foil their party’s shot at the White House, the straightforward Senator pushed back hard against the premise of the question:
Is your point being that people should not contest elections, that we should simply have the establishment bringing forth a candidate?
[...]
So the implication is I guess somebody should decide who the candidate is and we should all go to sleep. Well that’s a good idea, that’s what really democracy is about, right?
That’s an absurd point. The point is that we need serious debate about serious issues in this country.
The Wall Street Journaldiscusses the new NH polling:
A new poll shows Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders closing the gap with frontrunner Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire — the state that holds the first-in-the-nation primary — a sign the Democratic nomination might not prove to be the coronation that some of her supporters would like to see.
A CNN/WMUR poll released Thursday showed Mrs. Clinton with 43% of likely Democratic New Hampshire voters, compared with 35% for Mr. Sanders.
The eight point gap is a substantial improvement for Mr. Sanders, who was nearly 40 points behind Mrs. Clinton as recently as May in another CNN/WMUR survey.
Bernie thinks we should not only take down the confederate flag but we should also add a star to the one we already have:
Bernie Sanders joins push for DC statehood
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and a group of more than a dozen senators are calling for Washington, D.C., to become the 51st state in the nation.
In their proposal, the federal government would still maintain control over portions of the nation’s capital that surround the White House, Congress, Supreme Court and National Mall.
The rest of the nation’s capital would be renamed New Columbia and given full representation in Congress under the legislation introduced by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.).
Sen. Sanders (I-Vt.), one of 16 co-sponsors of the New Columbia Admission Act, said it is "morally wrong" to block District residents from federal representation.
“Washington D.C. is currently home to more people than the state of Vermont, yet its residents lack voting representation in Congress," Sanders told The Hill in a statement. "I think it is morally wrong for American citizens who pay federal taxes, fight in our wars, and live in our country to be denied the basic right to full congressional representation.”
Mother Jones writes about
Bernies Plan To Beat Clinton:
It's fortunate for Hillary Clinton that Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent socialist from Vermont who is challenging her for the Democratic presidential nomination, despises and eschews negative advertising. That's because the political consulting firm that Sanders has retained to advise his campaign has a well-developed expertise in devising attack ads. Earlier this year, this outfit, Devine Mulvey Longabaugh, won a Pollie award from the American Association of Political Consultants for creating the best Democratic congressional ad of 2014. The spot slammed Dave Trott, a Republican running for a congressional seat in Michigan, for making millions of dollars by foreclosing on residents of his state, and it focused on the harrowing eviction of a 101-year-old Detroit woman. Trott survived this assault and handily won the seat in the Republican district, but the Washington Post called the commercial "one of the most brutal attack ads you'll ever see."
The Sanders campaign has no plans to hurl these kinds of ads at Clinton. As Tad Devine, the veteran political operative who leads this firm and a longtime adviser to Sanders, notes, mudslinging is not part of the campaign strategy that Sanders and his advisers have crafted. There won't even be one speck of dust directly tossed at Clinton. But, Devine tells me, implicit negative messages aimed at Clinton will certainly be "embedded" in Sanders' advertising and social media messaging.
Sanders does have an overall plan on how to beat Clinton. As Devine explains, it goes something like this: Raise enough money to devote significant resources to building a full operation and maintaining a media presence in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as Nevada and South Carolina. At the same time, develop a basic foundation for campaign organizations in other states, so if Sanders fares well in the initial contests, these preliminary outfits can quickly be built out. Devine and other Sanders advisers estimate they will need to raise $40-$50 million by the Iowa caucuses to be in such a position, and they claim Sanders is on track to hit that mark, mainly with thousands and thousands of low-dollar contributions. (Sanders has drawn crowds of thousands at recent campaign events.) "I don't know if we can outright beat her in Iowa and New Hampshire," Devine says, "but we have a real shot at it in both places."