Republican Operatives Are Trying to Help Bernie Sanders

[MrWendel]

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-01-19/republican-operatives-are-trying-to-help-bernie-sanders

"Picking your opponent" is an age-old political manipulation tactic.



Republican operatives are having a strange crush on Bernie Sanders.
During Sunday night’s Democratic debate, the Republican National Committee made the unusual move of sending no fewer than four real-time e-mails to reporters defending the self-described democratic socialist from attacks by Hillary Clinton or echoing his message against her. Based on their content, one could be forgiven for thinking the RNC communiques came from the Sanders campaign.

One RNC e-mail, which was titled “Clinton’s Misleading Health Care Attack,” defended the Vermont senator from what it described as “the Clinton campaign’s inaccurate remarks on Sanders’ single-payer plan,” and quoted news articles that featured rebuttals of her arguments. A second message countered Clinton’s attacks on Sanders over gun control by pointing out her gun-friendly statements in the past. Two other e-mails sought to bolster Sanders’ case that Clinton is too close to Wall Street and the drug industry.

After the debate, the Republican political action committee America Rising promoted the narrative that Sanders won the debate. “Clinton needed a win last night. Instead, everyone is talking about how well Bernie Sanders, her chief rival, did,” the group’s communications director Jeff Bechdel wrote to reporters.

Meanwhile, American Crossroads, a group co-founded by Karl Rove, is airing an ad in Iowa bolstering a core tenet of Sanders’ case against Clinton: that she has received large sums of campaign contributions from Wall Street, and therefore can't be trusted to crack down on big banks. “Hillary rewarded Wall Street with a $700 billion bailout, then Wall Street made her a multi-millionaire,” a narrator in the ad says. “Does Iowa really want Wall Street in the White House?”

"In Iowa, American Crossroads is helping Bernie Sanders by depicting Hillary Clinton as a Wall Street insider," Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, wrote on his blog.

"My guess is that Republican operatives know that Clinton is likely to win the nomination even if Sanders upsets her in Iowa and New Hampshire. But an extended challenge will force her to use up money too early, and nudge her farther to the left," Pitney wrote in an e-mail to Bloomberg. Whether it will work remains to be seen, he said. "But at this stage, campaigns will grab for every advantage they can get."

Priorities USA, a group backing Clinton, said the ad was designed by Republicans to “interfere with our primary process” in an “attempt to clear their path to the White House.”

At Sunday night's debate, Clinton made a note of the ad, too. “I’m the one they don’t want to be up against,” she said, referring to the financial sector.

The efforts indicate that Republicans aren't buying recent polls that show Sanders out-performing Clinton in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups against GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump. One reason may be that, unlike Sanders, Clinton has been through the wringer of Republican attacks. While a spokesman for Sanders didn't immediately return a request for comment on the Republican attempts to boost him, the senator went out of his way in Sunday's debate to invoke recent surveys to make the case that he's electable.

“In terms of polling, guess what? We are running ahead of Secretary Clinton in terms of taking on my taking on my good friend, Donald Trump,” Sanders said. A NBC/Wall Street Journal poll finds him leading Trump nationally by 15 points, while Clinton leads Trump by 10 points.

Republican candidate John Kasich indicated in a debate last week that he'd love to face Sanders. "We're going to win every state," he said, "if Bernie Sanders is the nominee."

[Live and Learn]

1. Or, are they trying to help Hillary in typical Rovian fashion?

Seems they've fooled a few people.

[Gregorian]

2. I'm never going to last til election night. But I'm loving it.

[Kalidurga]

3. I get what you are saying

Republicans are as bad at reading match-up polls as Hillary supporters are.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. You could see this coming.

The Republican Party has always claimed if Hillary ever got the Nomination,that would trigger the largest ever Republican voter turn out in History.

[Renew Deal]

6. Did you read the article?

They are helping Bernie.

[Wellstone ruled]

14. Yes and Yes.

The GOP thinks they have a better chance to beat Bernie in what is called the Mondale Campaign. Or a Dukakis campaign. This is only the start. And whom ever gets the Democratic Nomination has to be ready for real Sh*t throwing Campaign. Know fully what Wall Street and the 1%ers are up to and have written memo after memo warning of this. When we lack any media source,we have to expect ever dirty trick in the book. These Assholes will use age and health against Bernie. Impeachment will be filed on Hillary on day one,or there will be Congressional Investigation after investigation. But what the hell. Bring baby.

[redstateblues]

11. Bernie"raising taxes" Sanders

Would be toast in the GE. That with the prospect of a Socialist in the White House would trigger a Dukakis style 49 state landslide. Or was it Mondale that ran on a raising taxes platform?

[2pooped2pop]

16. Raising the taxes platform

u guys are killing me. Lol. It's like some of you took the HRC manipulating the bullshit course yourselves. Omg it's hilarious and shows the desperation.

[Renew Deal]

5. Click click click

[Armstead]

7. Meme # 307....Rinse and Repeat

Funny how many people have the same "spontaneous thoughts" simultaneously

[Skwmom]

8. Fooling the other sides voters is an age old technique. If they wanted Sanders, they wouldn't

say it out loud.

[riversedge]

9. " Republican operatives are having a strange crush on Bernie Sanders."....

Struck my funny bone!!

[Warren Stupidity]

10. Nah. It's the double double reverse psychology.

They want you to think they want sanders so that you will support Clinton but they really want Clinton so you should support sanders.

Oh wait. Maybe it's the double double double reverse psychology and they really do want sanders.

Oh wait. Maybe it's the double double double double reverse psychology and they really do want Clinton.

Oh wait ....,

[Dr. Strange]

18. Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!

[alittlelark]

12. uhhhh, yeah.....

[jberryhill]

13. They think Bernie is more easily beatable - they are incorrect

Which is not surprising considering that a majority of Republicans believe Trump is a preferable candidate.

The GOP is not good at picking their own candidates, and not good at determining the best opponent for them.

That is consistent.

They thought Hillary was going to be the nominee in 2008, and were delighted that Obama got the nomination, because they did not believe he could win.

They were wrong then, and they are wrong now.

[rurallib]

15. OMG - shall I fall for this diabolical scheme and caucus for Sanders?

These Republican operatives are so much smarter than I!
Notice the way they a lulling us into complacency by having their own candidates act as fools and nitwits.
Diabolical I tell ya.

[Ferd Berfel]

17. The Reich has 20 years of Opposition research on the CLintons.

Bernie will stump them

[SoLeftIAmRight]

19. yea

they do lots of stupid stuff