Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders addresses a crowd of 10,000 in Madison, WI.
If the Democrats wanted a race, they have one and the
New York Times is
reporting that Hillary Clinton's advisers are acknowledging as much. Sen. Bernie Sanders drew a
crowd of 10,000 in Wisconsin last week and another 2,500 Friday at a speech in Iowa, where Sanders has been
gaining steadily on Clinton in the polls.
“We are worried about him, sure. He will be a serious force for the campaign, and I don’t think that will diminish,” Jennifer Palmieri, the Clinton campaign’s communications director, said Monday in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Some of Mrs. Clinton’s advisers acknowledged that they were surprised by Mr. Sanders’ momentum and said there were enough liberal voters in Iowa, including many who supported Barack Obama or John Edwards in 2008, to create problems for her there.
“I think we underestimated that Sanders would quickly attract so many Democrats in Iowa who weren’t likely to support Hillary,” said one Clinton adviser, who like several others spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly share views about the race.
And so now we will have a real debate of liberal ideas since the Clinton camp cannot afford to ignore the appeal of her opponent from Vermont. It's on, and that's a good thing for the Democratic party.