Sanders knocked off stride by foreign policy focus

[RandySF]

Bernie Sanders didn’t sign up for a foreign policy election. Yet that's exactly what he's getting in the wake of the Paris attacks, a shift that's turned the primary contest — temporarily at least — into a test for commander-in-chief.

For the Vermont senator, it's already proving discomfiting as he faces off against an already-dominating front-runner on terrain that's familiar to her as a former secretary of state.

As Clinton works to remind Democratic voters of her experience — “I spent a lot of time in the Situation Room as secretary of state and there were many very difficult choices presented to us,” she said on the Des Moines debate stage on Saturday — Sanders suddenly finds himself forced to deviate from the stump speech he’s effectively been honing for decades. His once-soaring campaign, until recently firmly welded to a focus on domestic policy and income inequality, is now reliant on a work-in-progress argument that leans further into his criticism of Clinton’s 2002 vote to authorize the Iraq War.

There's a sense of urgency to Sanders' task of proving he belongs in the national security discussion, said Democratic operative Chris Kofinis, who ran a focus group of 33 undecided Iowa Democratic caucus-goers during the debate. That group unanimously decided that Clinton would be a stronger commander-in-chief after the forum, and Kofinis found that her message on terrorism resonated particularly strongly with the Iowans.



http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/bernie-sanders-foreign-policy-paris-215937#ixzz3rhz65l1j

[Skidmore]

1. I can't imagine

Sanders getting up like the President today and addressing all those questions he fielded.

[Cha]

2. He'd go to his stump speech as fast he could.

[Nye Bevan]

3. I can sympathize with him on this.

It sucked for him that right before the debate a huge issue cropped up that plays to Hillary's strengths and his weaknesses.

The flip side would have been something like a huge scandal involving a Wall Street bank suddenly coming to light; senior Goldman Sachs bankers being videotaped offering bribes to politicians, for example.

[HerbChestnut]

4. His remarks tonight prove otherwise.

I suggest you check out his speech in Cleveland when you get the chance.

[hill2016]

6. you don't get to do a do-over for extra credit

two days later when you're president.

[HerbChestnut]

10. Well it's a good thing we're just talking about a speech here huh.

[Bjorn Against]

5. Bernie is far better than Hillary on foreign policy

When Hillary voted for the Iraq War Resolution she played her part in supporting the biggest foreign policy disaster in American history.

I don't care about how many years of experience she has had, I care about her actions and through her actions she has shown me that she can not be trusted on foreign policy.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. When was he knocked off stride?

[riversedge]

8. He has time to bone up before the next debate.

[Broward]

9. No Iraq War, no ISIS. Bernie wins hands down on foreign policy.