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John Wagner at the Washington Post writes that Sanders Is No Johnny-Come-Lately to the issues of the campaign.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is touting his consistency as a virtue as he seeks the Democratic presidential nomination.
In an interview here over the weekend, Sanders (I-Vt.) rattled off a series of issues -- including the war on Iraq, gay rights and Wall Street deregulation -- on which his views have remained steady over his long service in Congress. And he invited voters to compare his track record to others seeking the nomination, including that of front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“You can come up with any position you want today, but people have a right to know, have you been consistent?” Sanders said. “It is fair to say, ‘Is one a Johnny- or a Mary-come-lately to the issues, or have you been there for the stretch?’ And I think if you look at my record, I’ve been there for a long period of time.”
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“Some people say, ‘Should Hillary Clinton be disqualified because she voted for the war in Iraq?’ The answer is obviously not,” Sanders said. “You don’t get disqualified because you made a vote that turned out to be wrong. But I do think that people have a right to know how people assessed the information they received at the critical time when they needed to make those important decisions.”
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“I listened to the same information and received the same information as Hillary Clinton did about the war on Iraq,” Sanders said. “I listened to [then-President George W.] Bush, I listened to [then-Vice President Dick] Cheney, I listened to [then-Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld, I listened to all the neocons, and I thought they were not telling the truth.”
Salon's Conor Lynch thinks:
Bernie Sanders Can Give America What It Needs... Class Warfare:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has struck a nerve in the heart of America. Throughout the country, the Vermont Senator has been drawing enormous crowds, equal to that of Hillary, while also gaining in the polls and prompting Clinton to muster up her best Elizabeth Warren impression. It is clear that Sanders’ populist message, which addresses economic inequality and Wall Street corruption, is resonating with the American people. But what’s most important about the rise of Bernie Sanders, whether you believe he is a true populist or a cog in the Democratic machine, is that he (and other progressives like Warren) is bringing back what has long been stomped out in America: class politics.
Well, thats not entirely true. Class politics never really went away, there was simply a shift in aggression. Since the ’70s, the ruling class has gone on the offensive, while the middle and lower classes have been brought to their knees. Of course, when the lower classes go on the attack, its class warfare; but when the ruling class does it, it’s reform. (At least this is what has been hammered into the minds of so many Americans over the past 40 or so years.)
Local Labor Leaders in Iowa are announcing their support for Bernie:
More than a dozen Iowa labor leaders announced support for Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders this past week.
Two Northeast Iowa union members were among those signing onto the Labor for Bernie initiative that urges primary support for the independent senator from Vermont.
“We need a presidential candidate willing to confront big money and its corrupting influence on American politics,” supporter Steve Abbott, president of the Communication Workers of America Local 7108 in Waterloo and head of the CWA’s Iowa State Council, said in a statement.
Sanders has criticized the growing influence of money in politics, a topic he mentioned frequently during his last stop in Waterloo on June 14.
Abbott continued: “That kind of leadership is not going to come from someone trying to raise a billion dollars from Wall Street banks and other business interests. We need a voice of our own, not an echo of the Republicans.”
The Guardian has more on the Killer Mike endorsement:
Rapper Killer Mike of Run the Jewels has endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, pulling a key hip-hop endorsement from Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
Killer Mike said in a tweet on Monday to his more than 148,000 followers that he was moved to officially endorse Sanders because of the Vermont senator’s call to restore the Voting Rights Act, which was weakened in 2013 when the US supreme court invalidated key protections in the act.
In replies to the initial tweet, Killer Mike further explained why he was choosing Sanders over other candidates.
Twitter user @TristanHerzog said he was concerned that by voting for Sanders, Killer Mike could take away a vote from Clinton, the clear Democrat frontrunner. “I cannot support another Clinton or bush ever,” Killer Mike tweeted.
“I am beginning to see American political families like monarchs and I have no affection for monarchs,” he said.
Part of
Bernie's Challenge is keeping the grassroots involved:
Bernie Sanders is eliciting some effusive responses from voters: one man called him the "penicillin" that the country needs, while another compared him to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The independent Vermont senator drew crowds of hundreds this weekend in New Hampshire and, with them, a host of compliments. But Sanders often cut those comments short.
"This is not about me," he would say. "It's about you."
Sanders repeatedly asked voters during his seven-stop, two-day swing to take his vision to their friends and neighbors, even those who are Republican.
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Sanders has surprised many, even his closest aides, as hundreds, sometimes thousands, of voters have turned out to see him speak in recent weeks.
But in order to take his presidential campaign to the next level, Sanders and his aides will need to turn the crowds' interest in him into something more meaningful.
"The biggest challenge in this campaign," Phil Fiermonte, Sanders' field director, told CBS News on Sunday, "is taking these 200,000 people who want to help Bernie and getting them to be doing constructive activities that are going to help get him elected."
And that means he'll need more than just their votes.
Kendyl Kearly writing at Bustle has
8 Key Ways Bernie's Voting Record Differs From Hillary Clintons:
These frontrunners have a lot in common, but differ in a few ways that might be the deciding factors for many primary voters. Choosing one of them — or the other Democratic nominees Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee — isn’t easy, not to mention if you are a Republican with 13 names to choose from right now. To make it a little easier, here are eight ways Clinton and Sanders differ int their voting records and statements:
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Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is a controversial issue that has divided parties. Clinton is an advocate of the death penalty with restrictions, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
In 1994, Sanders voted to replace the death penalty with life in imprisonment, according to the House of Representatives.
Flag Burning
In 2005, Clinton co-sponsored a bill that would criminalize burning the American flag, according to The Washington Post.
In 2003, Sanders voted against a bill that would prohibit desecration to the flag.
H.A. Goodman at the Huffington Post presents:
Why Bernie Sanders Will Become the Democratic Nominee and Defeat Any Republican in 2016:
What gives Hillary Clinton a better chance of winning states like Ohio (Brookings has a study titled Did Manufacturing Job Losses Hold the Midwest Back) than Bernie Sanders? Unlike Sanders, Hillary was for the TPP and voters weary of China and Vietnam taking jobs away from Americans will think twice about Hillary Clinton.
Also, communities around the country hit by the repercussions of American counterinsurgency wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where close to 7,000 Americans died, over 50,000 wounded in combat, and over 900,000 injured, will think twice about voting for Hillary Clinton after her Iraq War vote. Bernie Sanders, however, was on the right side of history with Iraq and Afghanistan, he's always against horrible trade agreements, supported gay marriage and marijuana legalization (Hillary was against even the decriminalization of marijuana not long ago) and championed a range of other issues.
In other words, the electoral map shows that Bernie Sanders is not only a realistic candidate for president, but his record on a number of issues speaks to a wide range of voters. If Democrats simply vote based on their value system (considering demographic shifts favor Democrats), Bernie Sanders can easily win the presidency. If they nominate Hillary Clinton out of despair, thinking this is still 1999, then email scandals and an Iraq War vote could mitigate any advantages a Democratic challenger has over Jeb Bush or another Republican.
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Ultimately, the only way for the GOP to win the White House in 2016 would be to campaign against a Democratic candidate who most resembles the Republican platforms on Wall Street, war, trade, and other issues. Hillary Clinton voted for Iraq, she's amassed $328,759,064 over the years (three of her top five donors are Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan), and she was against gay marriage up until recently. Bernie Sanders is actually the only hope Democrats have of winning the White House without a controversial email showing up days before people line up at the voting booths. While the GOP is ready for Hillary Clinton, Sanders represents a real challenge to union busting Scott Walker and Jeb Bush's support for the Iraq War. In today's political environment, Hillary Clinton winning the presidency is the "fairy tale," while Senator Bernie Sanders is the most realistic choice for president in 2016.
Bernie has the energy of a certain robotic rabbit made famous in battery commercials. He will soon be making a second visit to Minnesota
Sanders, a senator from Vermont, will be in Rochester on Thursday morning. He's scheduled to hold a fundraiser and a town hall meeting at the Rochester International Event Center.
This will be Sanders second campaign event in Minnesota in the past two months. In May, several thousand people attended a Sanders rally in Minneapolis. He is campaigning heavily on eliminating income inequality by raising taxes on the wealthy, universal pre-kindergarten and subsidies for college tuition.
Sanders visit comes the week after Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton held a private fundraiser in Minneapolis. She held no public events.
Warren To Campaign For Sanders?:
Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren isn’t ruling out joining ultra-liberal Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail in New Hampshire, saying she’s not surprised at all that the Vermont senator is surging in the polls and drawing enthusiastic Granite State audiences.
“Bernie’s out talking about the issues that the American people want to hear about,” Warren, who hasn’t endorsed anyone in the Democratic primary yet, told the Herald yesterday.
Asked if she would campaign with Sanders at some point, she didn’t dismiss the idea.
“Too early to say,” she said.