A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll indicates one third of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders' supporters cannot see themselves voting for Hillary Clinton in November. This could spell trouble for Clinton who will likely need Sanders' backers in order to win the White House. Photo: Getty Images

In a statement issued early Wednesday, Sanders said:

“I am grateful to the people of Michigan for defying the pundits and pollsters and giving us their support. This is a critically important night. We came from 30 points down in Michigan and we’re seeing the same kind of come-from-behind momentum all across America.

“Not only is Michigan the gateway to the rest of the industrial Midwest, the results there show that we are a national campaign. We already have won in the Midwest, New England and the Great Plains and as more people get to know more about who we are and what our views are we’re going to do very well.”

Sanders, who hasn’t done well with minority voters in Southern primaries, refused to abandon the state where Clinton had been expected to maintain her so-called “firewall” of support among African-American voters.

The Democratic socialist has hit Clinton hard on her support for trade deals, which hurt her in the Rust Belt where agreements like North American Free Trade Agreement have cost jobs, as well for a a false representation of Sanders' position on the 2009 auto industry bailout.

A Clinton campaign aide told CNN the former secretary of state didn’t underestimate Sanders, but misunderstood the electorate. After an impressive win in Mississippi Tuesday, the Clinton campaign is emphasizing that she carried the night in delegates. She picked up 28 in Mississippi, compared with 1 for Sanders. In Michigan, 148 Democratic delegates are it stake, and they could be evenly split.
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Listening to Clinton's accusation at Sunday's debate, a Democratic primary voter in Michigan might be forgiven for concluding Sanders was against the 2009 auto bailout...in large part because Clinton literally said he "was against the auto bailout."

That statement is untrue. Sanders was not against the auto bailout. He favored extending help to U.S. auto companies at the time, but opposed another part of that legislation that was to bailout large financial firms.

Let's go to a timeline that begins in fall 2008 to unpack what makes Clinton's attack misleading. Recall that the nation was in full-blown fiscal crisis with large financial institutions collapsing and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac placed under conservatorship by the Treasury Department.

That October, Congress passed and then-President George W. Bush signed the Troubled Asset Relief Program (or TARP), authorizing up to $700 billion to help strengthen the financial sector. Sanders was not a fan.
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With the Michigan primary coming up Tuesday, Democratic party front-runner Hillary Clinton is trying to paint her challenger, Bernie Sanders, as having been against the auto bailout in 2009. Chalk it up to election year nonsense. The truth is both candidates were in favor of the auto bailout.

In the world of Congressional votes, the truth is seldom seen, but much mischief can be made.

During the debate in Flint, Michigan, a visibly tired Sanders did a poor job of explaining the confusion. I am not a Sanders supporter, but the truth is always important.

Secretary Clinton is chastising Sanders in the Motor State for not voting for the bill that created the funding for an auto bailout. Except, it wasn’t known that the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bill, designed to bail out Wall Street banks from their subprime mortgage loan debacle that was crashing the economy, would be used to rescue the auto industry at the time Senators Sanders and Clinton voted on it. Clinton voted yay. Sanders voted nay. It was President Bush who signed the bill into law.

Later, in December 2008, the Senate took up a separate bill that would have provided rescue funds specifically for the auto industry. That bill failed to get the 60-vote filibuster-proof minimum when Republicans balked at saving General Motors GM -2.94%, Ford and Chrysler, in large part because they wanted to use the occasion to try and destroy the United Auto Workers union, which stood to benefit from a bailout by having their healthcare fund and pensions protected, and its interests prioritized over bond holders. Both Clinton and Sanders voted for this bill.
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Ontario has announced it could soon be sending a monthly cheque to its residents as it plans to launch an experiment testing the basic income concept.

While officials in the Canadian province are yet to release any specific details of the project – including how much will be given to residents who participate – the finance ministry has published a report confirming the government’s intention to roll out the experiment.
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“As Ontario’s economy grows, the government remains committed to leaving no one behind. Maintaining an effective social safety net is one part of the government’s broader efforts to reduce poverty and ensure inclusion in communities and the economy,” Ontario’s budget statement said.

It added: “The pilot project will test a growing view at home and abroad that basic income could build on the success of minimum wage policies and increases in child benefits by providing more consistent and predictable support in the context of today’s dynamic labour market.
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Thousands of Boston high school students have descended onto the Boston Common and the Massachusetts State House in an unprecedented citywide walkout. Students are demanding the city rescind a controversial property tax break to General Electric and cease all budget cuts.

The Boston Public School District (BPS) is facing a budget deficit ranging from anywhere between $10 and $50 million for 2016. BPS students are calling out Mayor Marty Walsh for granting huge corporate tax giveaways while forcing schools to cut important curriculum and lay off faculty and staff. BPS Superintendent Tommy Chang estimates the budget deficit is approximately $50 million, but Mayor Walsh estimates the figure to be $10 million.

$18.6 million of the budget deficit comes from the district being forced to pay for charter schools that enroll BPS students. While the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is supposed to reimburse BPS for the charter school costs, it didn’t even cover half of the expenses last year.

A recent city-approved property tax break for General Electric is to blame for another $25 million that could’ve gone toward plugging the BPS budget gap. GE also receives an additional $151 million in city and state tax incentives. In return for all of these tax breaks, GE is only directly employing 600 people, which the commonwealth estimates will result in an additional 590 indirect jobs.

Boston city councilor Tito Jackson said the entire reason for GE choosing Boston’s workforce is due to its excellent schools, which are being sacrificed for corporate handouts.

"I hated Hillary Clinton's answer," Walters, 38, told The Huffington Post on Monday. "It actually made me vomit in my mouth."
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"To tell a Flint resident that we'll handle this in five years is no different than what the city was telling us and what the state was telling us," Walters said.
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Sanders at the debate promised that under a Sanders administration the EPA would keep its eye on water safety, which is essentially what the agency is already supposed to do. Walters considered it a lame answer, but a more honest one.

Another thing she disliked about what Clinton said was the former Secretary of State's focus on lead from paint and dust. Epidemiologists consider paint and dust to be the more significant sources of lead exposure, but public water systems have used those factors to downplay concerns about water lead.
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"I voted to save the auto industry," she said. "He voted against the money that ended up saving the auto industry. I think that is a pretty big difference."

What Clinton said is technically true, but it glosses over a lot of important nuance, including the fact that Sanders is actually on the record as supporting the auto bailout. He even voted for it.

Clinton clearly figures the auto bailout may prove to a big factor going into Tuesday's primary in Michigan and the one next week in Ohio, where both candidates are hoping to do well and where the auto industry is big. So it seems like she's willing to take the gamble that fact checkers may call her out for her tactic Sunday -- but that voters won't.

The drama isn't likely to go away, as Clinton and Sanders battle it out for support in union-heavy auto states in the coming days.
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