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Bernies Soul-Food-Sitdown With Larry Wilmore:
As part of his bid to become the next president, Bernie Sanders took part in a “soul-food sit-down” with Comedy Central’s Larry Wilmore that ended with the White House hopeful donning a baseball cap declaring that “Black-Eyed Peas Matter.”
The segment, recorded Friday and broadcast Monday on “The Nightly Show,” was the latest attempt by Sanders to broaden his exposure as he competes for the Democratic nomination against Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, gamely played along as Wilmore, an African American comedian, asked deadpan questions about Sanders’s status as a “democratic socialist,” his advancing age and his outreach to black voters -- all while the two of them ate soul food.
“Do you think America is ready for the first socialist president?” Wilmore asked.
“Yeah, I do,” Sanders replied, suggesting that the United States could learn a lot from Scandinavian countries where health care and college education are free.
Wilmore pressed him. “Do you think people are afraid of of the word ‘socialism?' Are you going to take my deviled egg? Is that what it means?”
The Bernie Bash In Asheville (video in link):
Supporters of democrat Bernie Sanders held a rally in Asheville Sunday aptly called Bernie Bash.
Some speakers and local bands took the stage at New Mountain to raise awareness about their presidential candidate.
They say Sanders is finally getting significant national coverage and they want to keep that momentum going.
Organizer Gregory Scott says Bernie Bash was also a time for supporters to meet other supporters.
"We can actually make a difference just talking to people, talking to family and friends, talking to perfect strangers about his message and what he's trying to do for our political system," Scott said.
A Self Identified Grump.. And Voters Like It:
Bernie Sanders doesn’t kiss babies. He promises them a revolution.
“This is for you,” the upstart Democratic presidential candidate told 3-month-old Lily Landretti after an event in southeastern Iowa. He meant his insurgent campaign. Lily just kept gurgling.
In an age of carefully planned campaigns, the Vermont senator is different. A self-identified grump, Sanders gets angry, rolls up his sleeves and winds up drenched in sweat. Like Donald Trump in the Republican race, Sanders has been drawing big crowds and giving the buttoned-up candidates a run for their money.
For his supporters, Sanders’ grouchy persona is one of his charms. They say he feels like a real person, not a slick politician. They believe him when he bellows his unvarnished liberal message, pledging to work for single-payer health care, paid maternity leave and a higher minimum wage.
“I wanted to give him a hug,” said Lily’s mom, Jane Landretti, 37, of Madison, Wisconsin. She said he’s like a “very smart thinking grandpa.”
Bernie Is Winning The Media War:
While all eyes have been on Donald Trump’s media dominance and premature reports of his media demise, the story that hasn’t been getting much attention is Hillary’s fading media fortunes in the Democratic race. Much like Donald Trump, Bernie’s entrance fundamentally shifted the media dynamics of the field, capturing one third of all media coverage of Democratic candidates, a position which he has largely held ever since, increasing as high as 40% in recent weeks.
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Over the last 30 days Sanders accounts for 24.4% of all Democratic mentions versus 2.3% for Martin O’Malley, 0.3% for Jim Webb, and 0.2% for Lincoln Chafee. Over the last 7 days Sanders has enjoyed a surge in coverage, reaching 35.9% of Democratic mentions, while Martin O’Malley has fallen to just 0.9%, Jim Webb to 0.2% and Lincoln Chafee to just 0.1%.
More troubling for Clinton is the focus of the coverage she is getting. The first word cloud below shows the words most frequently mentioned within 10 seconds of her name on national television coverage August 12th. Words like “server,” “mail,” “private,” “department,” “justice,” “email,” “handling,” and “trust” all feature prominently, focusing on her use of a private email server as Secretary of State. Words mentioned most frequently within 10 seconds of Bernie Sanders’ name the same day are “poll,” “voters,” “clinton,”, and “trump.” This suggests that coverage of Sanders tends to focus less on him as a standalone candidate and more on his role as a foil for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Fast forwarding a month to September 13th, “mail” and “server” are still among the words most closely associated with Clinton’s candidacy, suggesting she is having difficulty shaking the issue. On the other hand, Sanders’ word cloud shows coverage of the Senator refocusing to emphasize Sanders himself and his policies rather than treating him merely as a foil – the prominent mention of “poll” also reflects his continued rise in national polls.
Is Bernie Really Unelectable?:
In reality, both Ms. Clinton and Mr. Sanders have positives and negatives that would come to the fore in a general election campaign. Ms. Clinton is indeed more able to position herself as a centrist, has the potential to bring large numbers of older white women back to the Democratic Party, is less easy to attack as an ideological left winger, is extremely knowledgeable on all the issues and has very high name recognition. On the other hand she is old enough that she may have a hard time resonating with younger voters and has spent a political life time more or less hopping from one scandal to the next. These scandals may not all have been real, or serious, but have been distractions.
Mr. Sanders has more credentials as an outsider than Hillary Clinton, as well as a message that resonates very positively with the party’s base. He is a likable, if gruff, politician, who appears to be genuine and has avoided scandals. Mr. Sanders is also the same generation as Ms. Clinton so age is not an issue when comparing the two of them. The main obstacle to Sanders’ electability is that he is almost a caricature of a Northern liberal, hailing from Vermont and calling himself a democratic socialist. In addition, Mr. Sanders is Jewish. In the pre-2008 world of Democratic politics, Sanders would be prima facie unelectable, but it is not 1992 anymore.
Nonetheless, even the most ardent supporter of Mr. Sanders would recognize that he is not the ideal electable candidate, but neither is Ms. Clinton. If Mr. Sanders were running against a 50-year-old centrist Christian senator or governor from a swing state in the primaries, the more conventional electability arguments might resonate, but he is not. Instead, Mr. Sanders is competing with Hillary Clinton for the nomination. In that context, it is harder to stick the Senator from Vermont with the unelectable label.
And if Mr. Sanders manages to win the nomination in a remarkable upset, he will be positioned well for the general election.
Sanders Gets Celebrity Love:
A group of more than 128 celebrities calling itself Artists and Cultural Leaders for Bernie Sanders has endorsed the Vermont independent senator’s bid to unseat Hillary Clinton as the Democratic front-runner.
The list, which continues to grow, features the names of celebrities and cultural icons spanning many age groups and backgrounds, including such notables as: Margaret Cho, Patch Adams, Danny DeVito, Mark Ruffalo, Flea, Anthony Kiedis, Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Zoë Kravitz, Justin Long, Killer Mike, Susan Sarandon, Sarah Silverman, Jeff Tweedy, Hans Zimmer, Juliette Lewis, John C. Reilly, Patton Oswalt and many others.
“As artists and citizens we believe it is time for government to once again represent the people and not just big money,” McKay, who helped write and direct the films “Anchorman” and “Step Brothers”, said. “Bernie Sanders is the only candidate speaking against the wide spread legalized corruption that has handed our government to billionaires, large corporations and banks.”
Other members of the pro-Sanders group similarly praised the candidates populist message.
“Bernie Sanders is a public servant who places people ahead of profit,” guitarist Wayne Kramer said of his decision to back Sanders. “He understands that, above all, leadership is necessary to move this country beyond its current retrogressive political condition.”
West: ''Bernie Is An Insurgent On Par With Jackson":
Bernie Sanders is as much an insurgent as Jesse Jackson was, according to Cornel West, who worked for both Jackson campaigns and is now the socialist Democratic presidential candidate’s most high-profile black backer.
“Absolutely, no doubt about it,” the academic and campaigner told the Guardian. “There are some similarities and elective affinities.”
Jackson ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988, winning 6.6m votes and 11 states in his second campaign, and his run was “historic”, West said.
But “the Sanders campaign is even more progressive than Jackson’s were, because his critique of Wall Street is more direct,” West said in an interview last week.
What Jackson had – and Sanders does not – was strong black support. But, said West, “that’s what we are going to get – once black people find out who Brother Sanders is”.
West said he thought African Americans would rally behind the white guy from the Ben and Jerry’s state who is not “a household name” when they discovered he was for economic reforms such as free tuition at public universities, single payer healthcare and “closing tax loopholes for oligarchs”, he said.
Progressives Rally @ Fighting Bob Fest:
Folks attending Fighting Bob Fest are among the few who might argue that Russ Feingold, Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Sen. Bernie Sanders could stand to shift a little farther to the left.
That being said, support for the likes of Feingold and Sanders was abundant at this year's event, which organizers said drew several thousand throughout Saturday to Madison's Breese Stevens Field. The festival lacked Sanders' presence this year, although he was featured at the last two Bob Fests.
Despite his absence, "Bernie 2016" and "Feel the Bern" signs papered the booths and tables that lined the turf, and three separate tables were dedicated to promoting the Vermont senator's presidential bid.
Organizers running the "Better With Bernie" table said they're selling buttons and bumper stickers, with hopes to eventually be able to buy barn signs like the ones that could be seen from Wisconsin highways supporting Republican Gov. Scott Walker in recent elections.
Sanders Questions The Skyrocketing Cost of Prescriptions:
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is calling on a drug company to justify a dramatic spike in the price of a 62-year-old drug that was reported Sunday.
One day before rival Hillary Clinton is set to propose a plan to rein in high costs for specialty drugs, Sanders in a letter to Turing Pharmaceuticals demanded an explanation for why the price of a drug used to treat dangerous parasitical infections leapt from $13.50 per tablet to $750 after the company acquired the drug from a competitor.
The price hike followed the sale of the drug, Daraprim, to Turing in August for $55 million, the New York Times reported.
“The enormous, overnight price increase for Daraprim is just the latest in a long list of skyrocketing price increases for certain critical medications,” wrote Sanders and Rep. Elijah Cummings, who are investigating sudden jumps in the costs of older, generic medicines.
Sanders was the first presidential candidate to propose a plan to combat high prescription drug costs, which recent polls have found to be Americans’ top health care priority, outranking Obamacare even among Republicans and independents.
Bernie Broke The Internet:
Behold the power of the internet. It is beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
Monday morning we published a story about our poll results showing Bernie Sanders was leading the Democratic field in Utah.
Interesting? Yes.
World shattering? Probably not.
That is until sometime between 11 am and noon Mountain time on Monday. During that timeframe, someone posted the story to Reddit.
Did I mention there are a lot of Bernie Sanders fans on Reddit? That's kind of important to my story.
So, these Bernie Sanders fans started "upvoting" the post linking to our story. In fact, so many in such a short time that the story was automatically pulled to Reddit's "front page" which gets the most attention. That brought literally tens of thousands of readers to our site in a minuscule amount of time.