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Some local reporting:
On the tail end of a three-day Iowa swing, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says he's feeling good about his momentum here and across the country.
More than 150 supporters marched with Sanders on Saturday in Waukee's Independence Day parade, the last of his eight Iowa stops this week.
"It's very gratifying to have so many people here in Waukee marching with me," said Sanders, an independent vying for the Democratic nomination for president. "I think our message is getting through. People are tired of seeing our great middle class disappear."
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In Waukee, Sanders led about 155 supporters who marched behind him. They chanted "Bernie, Bernie," donned "Bern Unit" shirts and cleverly inserted his name into a number of musical tunes.
"Bern, Bern, Bern, Bern is the word," they sang together to the tune of The Trashmen's 1963 hit, "Surfin' Bird."
Some parade-goers seemed surprised by Sanders' following.
"Wow, look at all those people," one woman said. "Dear God."
The most important quotes Ive seen in days:
Sanders drew both traditional Democrats and conservatives on Saturday.
"This will be the first time I've caucused with the Democrats," said Michael Tallman, 25, of Des Moines.
Tallman, who works in banking, said Sanders seems like a candidate who will represent all people — rich or poor, male or female, gay or straight. He said many millennials are disturbed by the current political process and they could be key to boosting Sanders' shot at winning.
"I think he has a real chance," Tallman said. "We've seen it happen before."
Micheal Davenport, 35, of Des Moines said he generally votes conservatively. But he marched in support of Sanders Saturday.
Davenport is an anti-abortion Catholic (Sanders is staunchly pro-abortion rights). But Davenport said Pope Francis' call for tolerance and more moderate rhetoric surrounding social issues has made him rethink some issues.
"There's an interesting synchronicity between the Pope and Bernie," said Davenport, who works in security and is going back to school to become a teacher.
Sanders Bernstorms Through Iowa:
Bernie Sanders' momentum is spreading as the senator addressed the biggest crowd of Iowa so far this election cycle.
The Vermont presidential candidate drew more than 2,500 people in Council Bluff, Iowa, on Friday night, the largest crowd for a presidential candidate in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, the Washington Post reported.
A few days after more than 10,000 people showed up to a rally in Wisconsin, the Post reported.
The independent senator has been drawing fervent interest on the campaign trail with rhetoric on income inequality and the influence of the "billionaire class" in politics, according to the Post.
At the Huffington Post I stumbled across One More Teacher For Bernie by Peter Greene:
Boy, I really don't want to start wading into the 2016 Presidential election season yet, but it seems increasingly unavoidable. And besides, I'm a little excited about Bernie Sanders.
Is he some kind of crazy radical? Fellow Democrats, of all people, accuse him of being too far Out There, while no less an authority than George Will says that calling Sanders a Socialist is a charade, the Sanders is no more Socialist than the last 70 years of American politics. But the Washington Post has gone from ignoring him to delivering daily coverage as if he were -- shocker -- a legitimate Presidential candidate -- including a piece two weeks ago confirming that many Americans agree with many of Sanders's positions. And that Democrat who spoke out against him is solidly in Hillary Clinton's camp. Is somebody becoming more than a nuisance?
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But beyond simple style, Sanders has appeal because he has ideas.
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I am tired of casting my vote for the lesser of several evils. The candidate I support will have to earn my support by some argument tougher than, "I don't suck as much as that other guy, as far as you know." I'm done with that. I've had it. And before you call me a single-issue voter, I am concerned about the larger issues of the erosion of democracy and the continuing attempts to create a oligarchy; education just happens to be the current front of that battle.
The NY Post:
Trying to create a presidential persona and a rationale for running, Hillary Clinton relaunched her campaign at a memorial to FDR. She used the glorious setting of Four Freedoms Park to summon Roosevelt’s legacy and frame her theme as “Four Fights.”
She also invoked her husband and President Obama, as if piggy-backing on presidents would define her. Perhaps it will work, but her predicament recalls a Dem president she didn’t mention: Lyndon Baines Johnson. The similarities must scare her.
LBJ looked certain to be re-elected in 1968, until a Minnesota senator with a penchant for poetry named Eugene McCarthy shocked the world by getting 42 percent in the New Hampshire primary, against Johnson’s 49 percent. Less than three weeks later, the president famously declared that “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”
If there is a McCarthy-like figure on the scene today, it is Bernie Sanders, the scrappy underdog threatening to upset Hillary’s coronation.
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Echoing the Mark Twain line that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme,” the Clinton-Sanders dynamic is starting to rumble like the political earthquake of ’68.
For some reason this article failed to even mention Bernie's name in the headline:
Hillary Challenger Drawing Big Crowds
Sen. Bernie Sanders looks like your grandfather, comes from the small state of Vermont, calls himself a democratic socialist, and is running against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president.
Somewhat improbably, he has become a political rock star in Iowa, which will hold the first election of the primary season and where Sanders is drawing standing-room-only crowds for his town hall meetings.
In Sheldon, population 5,093, more than 200 people showed up at 8 a.m. Friday to hear Sanders give his no-holds-barred argument for what he calls “fundamental change” in America.
Two hours later, in Storm Lake, the overflow crowd spilled out onto the streets from the Better Day Café, where Sanders, dripping with sweat in the sweltering coffee shop, passionately argued that America has been taken over by an elite wealthy class. He received a standing ovation when he said, “The billionaire class, Wall Street, and wealthy campaign donors are so powerful that we need millions to say, ‘Enough is enough! Our government, our country belong to all of us and not just a few!’ You cannot have it all!’”
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“Look,” he told me, wiping his brow after his 90-minute speech and Q&A in Storm Lake. “I think people are responding to the message. They want to know why is it that in the richest country in the world, people still cannot get affordable health care? Why corporations get huge tax breaks while children go hungry? Why is it that one-tenth of 1 percent control more wealth than 90 percent of the rest of Americans? People don’t understand how the country has become like this, and they want to talk about it.”
Sanders swiped an endorsement that O'Malley had been working hard for:
Sen. Bernie Sanders has snagged a key endorsement in New Hampshire that may sting a little for Martin O'Malley's campaign.
Longtime New Hampshire Democratic activist Dudley Dudley told CNN Friday that she has decided to endorse Bernie Sanders for the Democratic 2016 nomination. Her decision comes less than two months after she hosted O'Malley at both her Durham, New Hampshire homes.
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Dudley told CNN she was won over by Sanders focus on money in politics, but was particularly impressed by his style of delivering his message.
"He's very believable. A lot of people seem to say a lot of things that don't come to pass. I feel that he is compelling and trustworthy and I'm hoping that he will get the nomination," Dudley told CNN. "I particularly like what he has to say about Citizens United, about the need to have a more just tax system in this country, and to even out the income inequality. He has a way of stating it in a way that is no nonsense and so straight forward."
Sanders' campaign spokesperson Michael Briggs told CNN, "We are very grateful and appreciate the support from such a key figure in New Hampshire."
O'Malley's camp declined to comment on the endorsement.
As a state executive councilor in the 1970s, Dudley was the highest serving woman in the state's history.
MSNBC's Eric Levitz writes about the
activists spearheading Bernie's social push:
Bernie Sanders may trail Hillary Clinton by double digits in New Hampshire, but he leads the Democratic front-runner by more than 4,000 “points” on Twitter.
Between June 25 and July 1, the most popular hashtag associated with the Vermont senator’s presidential campaign, “#feelthebern,” was tweeted an average of 6,800 times-a-day, while “#hillary2016” garnered 2,700 tweets, according to Topsy, which tracks activity on social media.
The insurgent candidate’s campaign picked up some momentum over the past week, too. Last Wednesday, Sanders made headlines by drawing 10,000 supporters to a campaign event in Madison, Wisconsin – the largest crowd assembled by any candidate so far this year. The following day, his campaign announced that it had raised $15 million since April 30, and a Quinnipiac poll showed Sanders gaining ground in the early voting state of Iowa.
Still, by the candidate’s own estimation, it would take nothing short of a “political revolution” for Sanders to win the 2016 Democratic primary. Unable to compete with Clinton in fundraising or name recognition, Sanders will need to make social media fervor matter more than it ever has in an American election.
Thousands expected in Portland:
Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is scheduled to arrive Monday in Portland, where supporters expect him to be greeted by an adoring crowd of thousands.
The timing could not be better for Sanders, who has received a flurry of positive press coverage over the past week. Headlines have focused on his meteoric rise in the New Hampshire and Iowa polls, the early success of his grass-roots fundraising campaign, and the fact that he drew an impressive crowd of nearly 10,000 supporters at a Wisconsin rally Wednesday night.
Sanders’ appearance in Portland was moved from Ocean Gateway to the Cross Insurance Arena, which holds up to 9,500, including floor seating, after more than 3,000 people RSVP’ed to attend. The town meeting-style event is scheduled for 7 to 8 p.m. Monday.