not answering questions exactly ~cnn townhall

[Her Sister]

At Democratic town hall
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/14/opinions/cnn-democratic-town-hall-ohio-reyes/

"Sanders generally came across as prepared and amiable (yes, he faced that same old question about how he would pay for his free public college programs). Yet to a certain extent he skated by: he did not receive one question about foreign policy, an area outside his comfort zone.

For better or worse (depending on your view of him), Sanders is slowly evolving into a more traditional candidate. We saw this in the way he dodged a few specific questions entirely. When asked about how his plans for more government programs would affect middle class people, he pivoted to his familiar talking points about the need for Wall Street to pay its fair share. He's right, but the question was about the burden that would fall on regular folks.

Similarly, Misty Jordan from Radio One asked a terrific question about how a President Sanders might move his progressive agenda forward without a change in congressional power. In response, Sanders emphasized that he was attracting large numbers of new voters and that people needed to tell Congress to represent all Americans, not just the rich. Both of these statements are correct -- but Sanders did not answer the actual question."


Finally media pinpointing what we've been noticing for a while now!!???

[Cha]

1. Good Grief.. same ol same ol

Thank you, Her Sister~

[livetohike]

2. Math is not his strong suit. He received a few questions on taxes last night and his answers

were not direct. My husband works for H&R Block during the tax season. People complain enough about the current taxes. Thankfully, they won't have to worry about Bernie. He will not be the next President.

[Her Sister]

4. His whole life and career dedicated to the same issue

How come:
He has not come with better answers?
or a real plan?
or helped liberals/progressives get elected so his ideas would have a real chance?

[livetohike]

5. My opinion is he is only in politics to preach his ideology. He doesn't know how to put plans into

action, or else he would have more achievements in his 25 years. I think his colleagues just nod and smile at him. He is probably the brunt of many jokes.

He wants his revolution to result in more people who think like him to get elected. Problem is he is not giving them any of his vast haul of money to help out. Unless I have missed something.

[Her Sister]

10. Revolution w/o thought

a lil reckless, no!?

to throw words like that.

When we see what revolutions cause in the world!

We have a Democracy!! Let's work on our democracy! Let's mold our democracy as per our constitution. How many countries wished they had our Democracy, our constitution. I think all of this makes us strong. Will help us prevail.

I prefer Progress! Based on reality.




HRC Group here!!!

[livetohike]

12. He's stuck on the '60's. The world has changed a bit

since then. Leaders need to be able to adapt to changing situations. He is unable to do so.

He is reckless, nearly as reckless as Trump. What else would you call all the vitriol and rhetoric against The Establishment? That too is such a 60's term. He belongs in a museum with the other antiques.

[pandr32]

11. I think you're right!

[livetohike]

13. Thanks!

[LisaM]

15. Ding ding ding!

I have been hammering at this point for a while. I've tried to figure out where he has gone and stumped for other candidates. The only instances I could find (not saying that they are the only instances, but they are what I could locate) was to campaign for Jesse Jackson in 1988 and to campaign for a Vermont Democratic governor candidate a few years back. I can't find any cases of his actually going into another state to do so. He doesn't tend to mention local Democratic officials at his rallies either - I suppose he may do so, but I don't think he bothers much about it. Hillary, OTOH, has been out and about campaigning for fellow Democrats and raising money for them for years. She should have mentioned during that Flint debates that she actually came out and campaigned for Snyder's opponent in 2014. Where was Bernie?

His supporters can whine about super delegates all they want, but most of them are friends and colleagues of Hillary's, and she's provided support and fundraising heft for them over the years. You are exactly right that Bernie has not helped Dems out in the past and he doesn't seem to be doing anything for them now, either.

I thought his answer to that question was absolutely ridiculous. Even in a best-case scenario, he would have to deal with a GOP Congress. Voter turnout alone isn't the answer because gerrymandering is so rampant (and, Hillary's lawyers are actually actively involved in getting some redistricting in Florida and Ohio even now).

[livetohike]

20. Good points Lisa! He wasn't a Democrat until recently. Maybe no one

wanted an Independent campaigning for them.

Not impressed with Sanders at all. His talking points are boring. He has few people endorsing him and that is telling me that his colleagues know more than we do about him.

[jmowreader]

17. I think you missed that there IS no "vast haul"

Presidential campaigns bern through money at a prodigious rate; IIRC he's spending those $27 average contributions as fast as they're coming in. He's ceding a lot of states - like the South, which Obama did well in - because he simply hasn't got enough money. With the exception of Michigan, the states he spends heaviest in are the states he loses the worst.

[livetohike]

19. Thanks. I keep seeing posts that is breaking fund raising records

and assumed he had tons of money to support the Revolution. 😊

[jmowreader]

23. He breaks records for number of donors

Here's an interesting page:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/election-2016-campaign-money-race.html?_r=0

He's spending almost everything he receives.

[Surya Gayatri]

3. K & R enthusiastically.

[Thinkingabout]

6. President Obama attracted many new voters, did that alhave an affect

On Congress, no. First a realistic agenda will have to be presented, throwing the amount of taxes to Congress is not going to excite the members to embrace the agenda, first and foremost a loser. To say other nations have a national health care system is not going to encourage the enactment of a national health care system.

I liked how Hillary is planning to work on getting drug cost down, help remove some of the overhead in health care, positive moves.

[Her Sister]

7. and get the last 10% not covered

covered!

[BlueMTexpat]

8. Excellent points all!

[Blue Idaho]

9. Bernie says your tax increases will be offset by health care savings

Ok - fair enough. So tell me - which comes first, the tax increase or the single payer health care? Tell me - which year of his administration does he plan on having free college available to all Americans and how he convinces the 31 republican governors to hand over their education budgets to make it happen? Tell me which of his lofty goals he says is "job one?" Which one will he concentrate on making a reality in that first golden year of his administration? The year when most presidents can actually accomplish something of merit.

Bernies a big picture guy not a nuts and bolts guy - without a timetable and specific plans big picture guys always end up disappointing.

[shenmue]

14. Exactly

[LisaM]

22. And, only if your employers - at least in some cases - decide to give it to you.

How does he guarantee that employers who see costs savings in healthcare will actually increase their employees' wages? Some very well might (mine included), but is this mandated? How do we make sure the companies who have these vast savings on healthcare costs don't pocket the money that the employees are being taxed at a higher rate for?

It's not that I don't think that there could be far better efficiencies for healthcare - of course I do. You'd have to be brain dead to think otherwise. But I can't see most employers passing that savings on to the workforce. I just see people getting into a little deeper hole unless they have lots of out-of-pocket costs to begin with.

Like many of his schemes, I think it's only half thought through.

[MSMITH33156]

16. The foreign policy thing is important

Doesn't matter how much people like him (or not), in a general election, someone who cannot speak to foreign policy is in trouble.

And he is clearly out of his depth. He can fake an answer or 2 right now, but what happens when they have a debate entirely on foreign policy in the general election? Where he can't talk about Wall Street? It'll be a complete disaster.

[UtahLib]

18. He's developed a definite pattern

of not answering the questions that make him squirm.

[mcar]

21. My observation too