The debate moderator looked at the woman in a dark pantsuit standing beside Senator Bernie Sanders and said, “Secretary Clinton, we’ll give you one minute for an opening statement.”
“I have a lot of experience in leadership,” the woman said Saturday from behind a music stand in a room overlooking Lake Champlain. “We need someone who is going to be able to stand up to the terrorists, who has really been tested in this way, and no one else on the stage can make that claim.”
The woman, Michaeleen Crowell, 41, is a policy wonk whose day job is chief of staff in Mr. Sanders’s Senate office. But in her off hours these days, she is the senator’s practice Hillary.
“She’s keeping me on my toes,” Mr. Sanders said.
That is increasingly necessary. On Sunday, Mr. Sanders and Mrs. Clinton will face off in another Democratic debate as polls show that the liberal Vermont senator has closed a gap with her in Iowa and pulled ahead in New Hampshire, the first two states to vote in the presidential primary season. Mrs. Clinton’s anxious campaign has begun challenging Mr. Sanders on issues including gun control, health care and electability in November. It is up to Ms. Crowell to get him ready.
Until recently, the notion that this 74-year-old independent senator from Vermont might take more than a handful of state delegates from the former secretary of state, let alone win the national Democratic primary and one day sit in the Oval Office, was the subject of ridicule among knowing Washington political commentators.
Many would say it still is, but a surge in opinion polls has brought Sanders a neck-and-neck position in Iowa, a steady lead in the New Hampshire primary due a week later, and validation from the most unlikely of quarters – Secretary Clinton’s own campaign team.
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“The Clinton people are acting like they were caught by surprise this week,” says Robert Becker, state director for Sanders. “The kitchen sink is being thrown at us. It screams desperation.” Becker says the “onslaught of attacks” are “mind boggling”.
There is more than a whiff of vindication among older figures like Becker – one of several veteran Sanders operatives who provide a gruff contrast to the starry-eyed young volunteers. He recalls the galvanising effect of seeing the campaign’s early popularity over the summer dismissed by leaders in the local Democratic party establishment.
“We were told that Sanders does not know how to organise, so we printed that out and put it up on a wall,” he says, before rattling off the statistics that prove otherwise.
Becker’s team now has 27 field offices across the state; 101 paid staff; 12,000 volunteers who have done at least some work for the campaign; and 2,200 precinct captains who are trained to help turn out the vote on caucus day.
What if we’re all talking about the wrong race?
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Hillary is also getting nervous. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, according to some polls, is catching up with her in Iowa – the state that rejected Mrs Clinton in 2008 and elevated Barack Obama. To make matter worse, she is also doing very poorly for a frontrunner in New Hampshire. Sanders, a socialist, benefits from grassroots enthusiasm and record-breaking fundraising. He also benefits from the ideological polarisation of America.
We talk a lot about the extremism of the Republican Party. In the past few decades, it has embraced ideological conservatism and sacrificed much moderate support. But a similar phenomenon has occurred among the Democrats. The southern populist tradition has been wiped out in elections – the tradition, ironically, that put Bill Clinton in the White House. Rustbelt social conservatism is dead; the fiscal conservatism of 1980s-style neo-liberals is extinct.
Sanders is widely perceived as having set the tone of the primary race, with Clinton endorsing many of his positions – promising to be a better campaigner for social democracy than he. Andy Borowitz, the wit at the New Yorker, wrote: “Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is on pace to adopt rival Bernie Sanders’s positions on all major issues by noon on Thursday, Clinton campaign officials have confirmed.”
Whether you are for or against this left-wing agenda, the point is that the Democrats are – more quietly and calmly – engaged in a Trump moment of their very own. The base has been energised by a wild, charismatic, outsider. And the establishment is struggling to catch up.
For most of the year, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and his supporters have been running an insurgent campaign against Hillary Clinton's well-oiled and well-funded political machine. But when it comes to the pricey undertaking of dominating the broadcast airwaves, the underdog has become the top dog.
According to data from the ad tracking firm Kantar/CMAG, the Sanders campaign has purchased more broadcast television ad spots than the Clinton campaign during every week since mid-November. Most of the buys from both campaigns are in TV markets in or around Iowa and New Hampshire, where voting gets under way next month.
The Clinton campaign aired its first TV ads in Iowa and New Hampshire in August, and had uncontested control of the airwaves for three months. But ever since the Sanders campaign started buying TV ads in November, the Clinton campaign has lost that advantage: Week after week the Sanders campaign has matched or exceeded the number of ad spots purchased in the early voting states by the Clinton campaign.
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The difference between the two campaign’s ad strategies—Clinton’s six month marathin versus Sanders’s three month sprint—reflect the different courses of their campaigns. While Clinton was always the presumed front runner, Sanders has had to show that he is a credible threat to her, both in terms of support and resources. Devine said the campaign made a conscious decision not to follow Clinton on the air in August, acknowledging her campaign’s money advantage.
“Because we conceded that resource superiority I think we had to make what, at the time, felt like a very difficult choice,” Devine said. “It’s a risk, but politics is a risk business, and you gotta decide what risks you’re gonna take.”
Senator Bernie Sanders talked about the “seemingly endless stream of tragedies” in black communities from clashes with the police, while Hillary Clinton sought to closely align herself to President Obama, as the two Democratic candidates worked to woo black leaders ahead of this state’s Feb. 27 primary contest.
In his address at a gala dinner hosted by the South Carolina Democratic Party on Saturday night, Mr. Sanders talked about attending the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 and tried to tie the theme of Dr. King’s speech to his economic message of ending inequality.
“Our job is not just to honor the life and work of Dr. King,” Mr. Sanders said. “That march on Washington was for jobs and freedom.”
Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration for Flint, Michigan, where a lead-poisoning crisis in the city’s water supply has left residents without safe water for nearly two years.
On Saturday the White House authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to provide water, filters, cartridges and other supplies for 90 days. Republican governor Ricky Snyder asked Obama for help on Friday, saying emergency measures could cost $41m.
Democratic candidate for president Bernie Sanders called for Snyder to resign on Saturday, saying he has “no excuses” for the the disaster.
“The governor long ago knew about the lead in Flint’s water,” the Vermont senator said in a statement issued by his campaign. “He did nothing. As a result, hundreds of children were poisoned. Thousands may have been exposed to potential brain damage from lead. Gov[ernor] Snyder should resign.”
Senator Bernie Sanders announced on Saturday that he is supporting legislation to amend a 2005 law on gunmakers’ liability that he voted for and that Hillary Clinton has been using to attack him as weak on gun regulations.
Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, both Democrats, have proposed to rescind portions of the 2005 law granting broad immunity from lawsuits to gun manufacturers and dealers.
Mr. Sanders has defended his support of the law by saying he was trying to shield small gun dealers who followed the law from expensive litigation. He also proposed an amendment to Mr. Blumenthal’s and Mr. Schiff’s legislation that would require the Commerce Department to monitor and report on the law’s impact in rural areas and on the availability of hunting supplies, including firearms, sold by non-negligent local gun stores.
“As I have said for many months now, we need to look at the underlying law and tighten it up,” Mr. Sanders said in a statement. “I do want to make sure that this legislation does not negatively impact small gun stores in rural America that serve the hunting community.”
Bernie Sanders is opening his second Massachusetts campaign office this weekend.
The Democratic presidential candidate hopes the Worcester location will help him rally supporters ahead of the state's March 1 presidential primary.
The office provides a location for Massachusetts volunteers to meet and then travel to New Hampshire for that state's first-in-the-nation primary.
Sanders is hoping to appeal to many of the same liberal Democratic voters who helped elect Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Like Warren, Sanders has made criticism of Wall Street a key campaign theme.
Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders’ campaign opened its 10th office in Nevada with a full house Thursday evening in Elko.
The office is in a house at 520 Fifth St.
“Because all of Nevada is important, we want to make sure that Bernie is not just concentrating on Las Vegas and Reno, but we’re focusing on other areas of Nevada, including Elko,” said Nevada State Director Joan Kato. “We’re also opening an office tomorrow in Winnemucca.”
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“The reason that I’m here tonight is I’m going to vote Democrat no matter what. I would like something different than Hillary Clinton. I like Bernie Sanders because he is always able to consider the other sides … I like that he owns that he’s a socialist,” said Jennie Ballot, describing how when she hears him in the debates he makes more sense.
Other supporters said they found Sanders’ message to be genuine and beneficial to their lives. There was also the opinion he is a people’s politician in the sense that he adheres to his own principles.
With the races for the presidential nominations heating up, and Iowa and New Hampshire just a stone’s throw away, it is time for Americans to come to terms with the undeniable truth: We are a country of equality-loving, regulation-supporting, bleeding-blue liberals.
Despite the political division in Washington, the far-right rancor being spewed by G.O.P. candidates, and the contention in the Democratic race over Wall Street, campaign finance reform, universal health care, and how to handle ISIS, poll after poll shows that the people of this country strongly support far-left progressive, liberal and democratic socialist ideas.
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We are a people who idolize Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Jesus Christ, Mother Teresa — individuals who represent solidarity, kinship and empathy. We respect and agree with the teachings that call us to revolution; to fight for all our fellow human beings; to deeply, truly transform the injustice and corruption long imbedded in human society; to eliminate such a tragic non-necessity as poverty with the institution of fair pay, health care, equal education, decent working conditions and financial reform.
We are a people who lionize the 1776 revolution, who look up to and admire those who stood strong against inequality.
We support Robin Hood-like taxes for the rich and the de-infestation of money from politics. We want a hike in pay for working-class people and health care for all humans sick and injured. We are in favor of destroying the vise-like grip corporations and their owners wield over our economy, regulations on the ghastly melting fumes we are spraying on the protector-bubble surrounding our planet, and heavy oversight of the people bestowed with murderous power and the grave duty of protecting others.
This slew of ideas have come to be known as liberal, as progressive, as democratic socialist, when, in reality, they are simply what we teach our children: don’t be greedy, treat others as you want to be treated, and speak up when you see injustice.
Who cares what they’re called?
Bernie Sanders will release a letter from his doctor before the Iowa caucuses on February 1, his campaign manager said Saturday.
The announcement comes after a Clinton-aligned super PAC suggested it would call on the 74-year-old Vermont senator to verify his health, and one day before the fourth Democratic debate, held in Charleston, South Carolina.
The letter, Jeff Weaver said, would prove Sanders -- the oldest candidate in the presidential field who also would be the oldest president to take office -- is in "excellent health."
The Sanders campaign's decision came after David Brock, the head of a Hillary Clinton super PAC able to coordinate with the campaign, telegraphed his plans to call for the medical records this weekend here.
Politico first reported Brock's plans, and a source with knowledge of his plans confirmed his desire to call for the records in a conversation with CNN on Saturday. Brock, who once was a Clinton antagonist, is now a vocal Clinton defender and surrogate.
Clinton's campaign and Brock's super PAC, Correct the Record, began to coordinate in May in a move that many campaign finance experts said tested the limits of campaign laws. The groups cites a 2006 Federal Election Commission rule that states providing free content online for free -- and not producing ads -- is unable to be regulated.
The ‘They Said What About His Age?” Jar
The Bernie News Roundup is a voluntary, non-campaign associated roundup of news, media, & other information related to Bernie Sanders' run for President.
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