Long before challenging Clinton, Sanders reached out to her on health care. He got nowhere.

[NewSystemNeeded]

In 1992, the lone socialist in Congress, Rep. Bernard Sanders, as he was then known, wasn’t wild about the centrist Arkansas Governor running for president, and he let it be known publicly. “Bernie was the founder of the progressive caucus. Clinton was the founder of the Democratic Leadership Council, the whole point of which was to exterminate the progressives,” said Bill Curry, who served as counselor to the president during Clinton’s first term. “They weren’t even two ships passing in the night. They were two ships sailing in the opposite direction.”

One of Bill Clinton’s first acts in office in January of 1993 was to appoint his wife to chair the administration’s Task Force on National Health Care Reform. Sanders had convened his own, much-smaller task force pushing single-payer health care for Vermont, and he began trying to pull Hillary Clinton in that direction.

In February, Sanders requested a meeting with Hillary, “to bring in two Harvard Medical School physicians who have written on the Canadian system,” according to the records of the administration’s task force. Those physicians were Stephanie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, leading advocates for single-payer health care.

They got their meeting at the White House that month, and the two doctors laid out the case for single-payer to the first lady. “She said, ‘You make a convincing case, but is there any force on the face of the earth that could counter the hundreds of millions of the dollars the insurance industry would spend fighting that?’” recalled Himmelstein. “And I said, “How about the president of the United States actually leading the American people?’ and she said, ‘Tell me something real.’ ”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-119082.html

[onehandle]

1. Bernie is a friend and admirer of the Clintons, according to your 'Politico' article.

Bernie would not approve of much of what is implied by his 'supporters' here.

---------

Sanders’ confidants say he’s always been impressed by the intelligence of both Clintons, and he continues to publicly profess good will for Hillary. “Maybe I shouldn’t say this: I like Hillary Clinton,” he said on CNN last month.

“He’s always admired Hillary,” said Huck Gutman, an adviser to Sanders in the early ’90s. “They’re modest friends.”

[truebluegreen]

3. Yes, he is such a friend and admirer

that he is running against her in the primary in order to insure too-often disregarded voices are heard.

[JEB]

5. I admire Hillary too. I just don't want her as POTUS.

[Wilms]

2. .

[2banon]

4. Wow.. where to start?!

thanks for posting this, i had no idea Bernie started the progressive caucus, (wow, how did i miss that!) and this quote in the excerpt above :

She said, ‘You make a convincing case, but is there any force on the face of the earth that could counter the hundreds of millions of the dollars the insurance industry would spend fighting that?’” recalled Himmelstein. “And I said, “How about the president of the United States actually leading the American people?’ and she said, ‘Tell me something real.’ ”

This is the crap we've been dealt and it's damn time we threw it back in their faces.

[Lancero]

6. Except he didn't found the progressive cacus like the article implies.

He WAS however a co-founder to the CPC and acted as its first chairman. He played a part it its founding sure, but to say he was the one who founded it is a exaggeration.

[Cali_Democrat]

7. The OP has left the building. nt