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Bernie Believes He Can Do Well With Republican Voters:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), widely regarded as the most liberal candidate in the Democratic presidential field, made a pitch Thursday morning for his potential appeal to a not-so-obvious segment of the electorate: Republicans.
Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist from Vermont, was a guest on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, nudged him to talk about areas of “crossover” with GOP voters.
Sanders, who has emerged as a surprisingly strong challenger to Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton as he campaigns on a message of economic fairness, noted at the outset that he has several “strong differences” with many Republicans, including on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage.
“But you know, Republicans have to send their kids to college,” Sanders said. “Working-class Republicans can’t afford to do that. Working-class Republicans have seen their factories shut down and moved to China. Working-class Republicans are equally disgusted about a campaign-finance system which allows billionaires now to buy elections.”
Bernies Debate Prep:
Hillary Clinton has had aides lined up to run her debate prep for months. A Washington super lawyer is mimicking Sanders and her top policy staffer is acting as Martin O’Malley.
Bernie Sanders started studying for next Tuesday’s event not even a full week ago. And that’s because his two top aides sat him down in Burlington on Friday and asked if he had a plan.
Sanders has briefing books, a couple of meetings with policy experts, and an abiding aversion to the idea of acting out a debate before it happens. He knows the stakes are high, his staff says. But the candidate, whose New Hampshire polling and fundraising prowess have put a scare into Clinton, is uninterested in going through the motions of typical debate practice.
The Vemonter’s debate preparations, in other words, don’t look a ton like debate preparations.
'Let Bernie Be Bernie':
There are no image consultants, no mock stages and no body language coaches.
Instead, Bernie Sanders and his campaign team have a relatively simple plan for his debut appearance in a nationally televised debate: "Let Bernie be Bernie."
It's a strategy aides say fueled Sanders' rise in the Democratic primary campaign, where the often-disheveled, 74-year-old Vermont senator has won the hearts of his party's base with an unapologetically liberal message. He enters the first Democratic debate as an insurgent challenger to front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, eager to prove that a self-identified democratic socialist could be the strongest nominee the party has to offer.
With limited preparation, Sanders is getting ready to present his policies — free college tuition, a single-payer health care system and a $15-an-hour minimum wage — to the largest audience of his 34-year political career
Outselling Clinton:
More people are buying shirts, hats, mugs, bumper stickers and baby onesies with Sanders name than the gear of rival Hillary Clinton, at least according to online retailer CafePress.
The website has been tracking sales of souvenirs for all the 2016 candidates. So far, CafePress has sold 19,132 Sanders products and only 17,276 Clinton ones.
The site has correctly predicted the past three presidential elections based on its sales data.
In a worrisome sign for Clinton, she was leading Sanders on gear sales until mid-September. Then Sanders began to pull ahead — right around the time his poll numbers started to close the gap with Clinton, especially in the key states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
The slogan “Feel the Bern” has especially caught on.
West Texans Host A Bernie Bash:
West Texans for Bernie Sanders will host a “Bernie Bash” Friday night.
The event will be from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Downtown Oyster Bar at 609 18th St. There will be local music and stand-up comedy, as well as a silent auction of artwork donated by local visual artists, according to a news release. Tickets are $10.
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West Texans for Bernie Sanders is a grassroots organization of 430 individuals who have united to support the independent Vermont senator’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
Campaigning On Horseback:
Mikel Carmon says the country needs Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to lead the way forward.
To help get the word out on Sanders’ vision for Americans, she’s riding her horse from Cortez to Glenwood Springs.
“Bernie has integrity, and he can’t be bought by big money corporations,” Carmon says of her favorite candidate. “That is getting pretty rare these days.”
Starting out from the Montezuma County fairgrounds last week, Carmon prepared for her “Ride for the Bern” political adventure.
Preperations Underway For The Tucson Rally:
Presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders is coming to Tucson on Friday. Sen. Sanders is challenging Hillary Clinton for the democratic nomination.
He's been drawing big crowds on the campaign trail and a large turnout is expected Friday at Reid Park.
On Thursday, crews were preparing for the big event. City crews set up trash cans and got the area near the Deemester Outdoor Performance Center ready.
News 4 Tucson found a Sen. Sanders supporter preparing Thursday.
"I am doing a little recon so we know where set up tomorrow for Bernie's event," said a supporter named Kate.
Kate knows about the big crowds that come with Sen. Sanders' rallies. She went to one in Phoenix with more than 11,000 people.
Robert Reich: Sanders And The Free Market:
Crass distortions of the choices facing the nation sometimes come masked in the media as “political analysis.” But whatever they’re called, they can’t be allowed to stand.
Such was the Washington Post’s front-page piece last week, ostensibly an analysis of the policies proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Sanders, wrote the Post’s David Fahrenthold, “is not just a big-spending liberal. His agenda is not just about money. It’s also about control.”
Fahrenthold claims Sanders’ plan for paying for students’ college tuition at public universities with a tax on Wall Street trades would mean “colleges would run by government rules.”
Apparently Fahrenthold is unaware that three-quarters of college students today attend public universities financed largely by state governments.
And even those who attend elite private universities benefit from federal tax subsidies flowing to wealthy donors. Meg Whitman’s recent $30 million donation to Princeton, for example, is really $20 million from her plus an estimated $10 million she deducted from her taxable income.
Big Crowds For The Boulder Ticket Giveaway:
An enthusiastic crowd on Thursday snapped up tickets for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders' rally on the University of Colorado's East Campus on Saturday.
A few minutes after 9 a.m., when ticket distribution began, a long line stretched out from the ticket table in the courtyard between the Engineering Center and the Mathematics building.
Several hundred people of all ages waited patiently along the sidewalk in the sun while campaign staffers peppered them with requests for pictures holding "Bernie 2016" campaign signs. Activists with petitions for an array of issues also trolled the line.
The free tickets — which are being distributed on a first come, first served basis — are still available at three locations on CU's campus starting at 9 a.m. Friday.
Potts Field — where the rally will be hosted at 2 p.m. on Saturday — can accommodate up to 10,000 people, but it's unclear how many tickets will be made available for the event.
Outreach Is Key:
Bernie Sanders doesn’t have an official presidential campaign operation in Connecticut — he doesn’t have the money now to form one in this small, late-primary state — so the meeting of 16 supporters Thursday night was running on grass-roots volunteer energy.
The organizational meeting at the Fair Haven Branch Library on Grand Avenue was relatively small, said state events coordinator Kara Rochelle, because it was the second organizer held in the congressional 3rd District. Fifty supporters of Sanders came out to the first one, and 30 more came to a training session in Shelton Sunday, she said.
“He doesn’t have the same kind of funding to have an official campaign in every state,” Rochelle said. All of the Connecticut people are volunteers but, “We’re all people who in one way or another know how to do this already.”