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ViseGrip's JournalWaPo - Bernie Sanders is the realist we should elect
Opinion -
Jan. 25, 2016 Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at a town-hall campaign event at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. Mark Kauzlarich/Reuters
By Katrina vanden Heuvel January 26 at 8:04 AM
As the Iowa caucuses near, Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have released TV ads that together echo a popular theme in the mainstream media. Clinton’s ad depicts the job of the presidency as tough and change as hard. You need someone experienced who can face down foreign adversaries and stand up to reactionary Republicans. Sanders’s ad — with Simon and Garfunkel’s “America” stirring memories — offers the romance of the United States coming together. Many of the pundits agree — this is a choice between head and heart. If Democrats think with their heads, they will go with Hillary; with their hearts, with Bernie.
But this conventional wisdom clashes with the reality that this country has suffered serial devastations from choices supported by the establishment’s “responsible” candidates. On fundamental issue after issue, it is the candidate “of the heart” who is in fact grounded in common sense. It wasn’t Sanders’s emotional appeal, but his clearsightedness that led the Nation magazine, which I edit, to make only its third presidential endorsement in a primary in its 150-year history.
For example, foreign policy is considered Clinton’s strength. When terrorism hits the headlines, she gains in the polls. Yet the worst calamity in U.S. foreign policy since Vietnam surely was George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Clinton voted for that war; Sanders got it right and voted against. Clinton has since admitted her vote was a “mistake” but seems to have learned little from that grievous misjudgment. As secretary of state, she championed regime change in Libya that left behind another failed state rapidly becoming a backup base for the Islamic State. She pushed for toppling Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war and lobbied for arming the Syrian opposition, a program that ended up supplying more weapons to the Islamic State than to anyone else. Now she touts a “no fly zone” in Syria, an idea that has been dismissed by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as requiring some 70,000 troops to enforce, and by President Obama as well. People thinking with their heads rather than their hearts might well prefer Sanders’s skepticism about regime change to Clinton’s hawkishness.
The worst economic calamity since the Great Depression came when the excesses of Wall Street created the housing bubble and financial crisis that blew up the economy. Clinton touts her husband economic record, but he championed the deregulation that helped unleash the Wall Street wilding. The banks, bailed out by taxpayers, are bigger and more concentrated than they were before the crash. Someone using their head — not their heart — would want to make certain that the next president is independent of Wall Street and committed to breaking up the big banks and shutting down the casino. But Clinton opposes key elements of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) rational reform agenda for the banks, and her money ties to Wall Street lead any rational observer to conclude she’s an uncertain trumpet for reform.
Americans continue to suffer from a broken heath-care system that costs nearly twice per capita as those in the rest of the industrialized world — with worse results. Obama’s health reforms have helped millions get health care — particularly through the expansion of Medicaid and by forcing coverage of pre-existing conditions. But millions continue to go without care, millions more are underinsured and unable to afford decent coverage, and even more are gouged by drug companies and insurance companies that game the system’s complexities. Eventually the United States will join every other industrial nation with some form of simplified universal care. Sanders champions moving to “Medicare for all.” Clinton has mischaracterized his proposal, erroneously claiming it would “basically end all kinds of health care we know, Medicare, Medicaid, the Chip Program. It would take all that and hand it over to the states.” She says she would build on Obamacare but has yet to detail significant reforms that would take us closer to a rational health-care system. Sanders supported Obamacare but understands we can’t get to a rational health-care plan without leaders willing to take on the entrenched interests that stand in the way. It isn’t romantic to think that it is long past time for the United States to join every other industrial country and guarantee affordable health care for all.
Similarly, Clinton, like every Democratic politician, decries the big money that is corrupting our politics. But though she offers a reform agenda, she vacuums up big contributions and dark money in a complex of super PACs, saying she can’t “unilaterally disarm.” Sanders knows that the billionaires get what they pay for. He not only makes getting big money out of politics a centerpiece of his agenda, he has proved his commitment by refusing to set up a super PAC and raising his funds from millions of small donors, proving that he can raise enough to be competitive in the process. It isn’t romantic to think that this gives him the independence and credibility to actually reform the system if he is elected.
Who had the worst week in Washington? Hillary Clinton.
more at link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-sanders-is-the-realist-we-should-elect/2016/01/26/6af4d268-c392-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html
Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders - different sides on Monsanto & GMO food labeling
Monsanto is one of the top donors to the Clinton Campaign! Even hired one of their guys!
This is why Iowa farmers don't like her.
GO BERNIE
FLORIDA DEM'S MESSAGE TO IOWA, N.H.:IF YOU WANT OUR HLEP IN NOVEMBER, DON'T NOMINATE 'THIS MAN'
(Title used in the online version of the Tampa Bay TImes, www.tampabay.com)
Prominent Florida Democrats agree Hillary Clinton is stronger candidate than Bernie Sanders
(This is the establishment speaking here!)
• By Adam C. Smith, Times Political Editor
Tuesday, January 26, 2016 6:00am
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn (D) has a message for Democratic voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.
"It's okay to be right, but it's more important to win. And if you don't win, you can't govern,"
Buckhorn said when asked about the excitement Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is generating in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. "When all is said and done — certainly in Florida — Hillary has a much, much better chance of prevailing than Sen. Sanders."
The electoral math is simple: If Democrats win Florida's 29 electoral votes in November, they win the White House. Florida's most prominent Democrats overwhelmingly say Hillary Clinton stands a much better chance of carrying Florida than Sanders.
Like it or not, a self-described democratic socialist like Sanders is simply not a strong Florida candidate, said former chief financial officer Alex Sink (D).
"Absolutely not," said Sink, who recently hosted Clinton at a fundraising reception at her home east of Tampa. "Look at the history of the Democrats Floridians have elected: Bill Nelson's not going to go for a socialist Democrat. I'm not going for a socialist Democrat. Bernie's touching a nerve, and rightfully so, about income inequality. I totally agree with him that that's something this country has to address and fix, but I don't agree with his solutions."
Florida has long been viewed as Clinton country. She and husband Bill have deep roots dating back to when he was an obscure Arkansas governor successfully campaigning to win a state Democratic Party presidential straw poll in 1991. Today, virtually every prominent Democrat in the state is publicly backing Clinton or remaining officially neutral.
"The person the Republicans are the most scared of is Hillary, because she's going to be very tough, particularly in Florida, and specifically in Miami-Dade, which is hometown to a couple of the Republican candidates. I think she would win Miami-Dade against either (Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio)," said Miami congressional candidate Annette Taddeo, who was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2014. "And from a Florida Hispanic perspective, it's going to be very tough for somebody besides Hillary to get the Hispanic vote. She's known, and she clearly has a track record."
The pragmatic, Hillary-can-win argument is not new. Nor is it necessarily effective.
Even when Barack Obama was challenging Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2008, supporters of the former senator and first lady argued that Clinton — strong with Hispanic voters, seniors and Jewish voters — was far better equipped to win Florida than Obama. Neither of them campaigned for Florida's 2008 Democratic primary, which was declared meaningless by the national party, but Clinton beat Obama by 17 percentage points.
He still wound up carrying Florida in two general elections.
"The more people get to know Bernie the better they like him," said Michael Briggs, a spokesman for the Sanders campaign.
The two most recent polls of Florida Democrats show Clinton leading Sanders by at least 36 percentage points.
In Iowa, at least one poll suggests Sanders is neck-and-neck with Clinton ahead of the caucuses on Monday. Sanders leads most polls in New Hampshire, which neighbors his home state and votes Feb. 9.
Winning those two states could give Sanders a big burst of momentum, but then he faces contests that appear stronger for Clinton: Nevada Feb. 20, a South Carolina primary Feb. 27, and on March 1 the so-called "SEC primary" in a dozen states, many of them in the south.
"It's possible that Bernie could win the first two — the caucuses in Iowa and the primary in New Hampshire. But once you get into the flow of South Carolina, the SEC primary, and later on in mid March in the Florida primary, Hillary is going to win in Florida and she's going to win big," said Sen. Bill Nelson, a Clinton supporter who suggested "it would be difficult for Bernie to win" Florida in the general election.
"Despite all the partisan politics," agreed Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, "Florida is a moderate state, and Hillary is definitely less liberal than Bernie."
more at:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/prominent-florida-democrats-agree-hillary-clinton-is-stronger-candidate/2262744
Well Bernie Sanders is 74 but Hillary Clinton wants more war....
Our nation and treasure have all been spent,
Our citizens can't afford much food nor rent.
Our nations children are racked with debt,
While our mortgage and lending were the banks best bet.
No one is fooled, and no one still cares,
That the best man for prez is 74 with white hairs.
Nice try CNN/DNC/DWS/HRC
Just donated again to Bernie Sanders
To Clinton: "We think you're dishonest"
Why has no one asked about the dishonesty of being under enemy fire? Like Brian Williams and a few others?
That is more bad judgment that Bernie Sanders speaks to, when it comes to Hillary's experience. Judgment while working is what it's about. She is very dishonest and used very bad judgment when telling this most disrespectful lie. She shouldn't ever be considered.
Help us Iowa!
I support paying the taxes that Bernie Sanders proposes. It's all for us!
Now will come the Bernie will raise taxes squawking points. I don't care, as long as they're Bernie taxes!
Do only Republicans allow non cable users to view debates online?
Are we cut out of the Town Hall Debate again tonight?
Why are democrats restricting these events? If it's CNN, then move it to another channel.
I can catch it later....and I'm voting for Bernie. But this is just wrong. Damn, this party of exclusion.
I don't want to bother getting a SlingTV account for one free week, then canceling it in a week. To watch a public debate? This is shut out again? This is ugly.
Student describes how she became a Clinton Plant - Why is this Town Hall even taking place?
GRINNELL, Iowa (CNN) -- The college student who was told what question to ask at one of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign events said "voters have the right to know what happened" and she wasn't the only one who was planted.
Student Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff said a staffer told her what to ask at a campaign event for Sen. Hillary Clinton.
In an exclusive on-camera interview with CNN, Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff, a 19-year-old sophomore at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, said giving anyone specific questions to ask is "dishonest," and the whole incident has given her a negative outlook on politics.
Gallo-Chasanoff, whose story was first reported in the campus newspaper, said what happened was simple: She said a senior Clinton staffer asked if she'd like to ask the senator a question after an energy speech the Democratic presidential hopeful gave in Newton, Iowa, on November 6.
"I sort of thought about it, and I said 'Yeah, can I ask how her energy plan compares to the other candidates' energy plans?'" Gallo-Chasanoff said Monday night.
According to Gallo-Chasanoff, the staffer said, " 'I don't think that's a good idea, because I don't know how familiar she is with their plans.' " Watch the student speak out about question »
He then opened a binder to a page that, according to Gallo-Chasanoff, had about eight questions on it.
"The top one was planned specifically for a college student," she added. "It said 'college student' in brackets and then the question."
Topping that sheet of paper was the following: "As a young person, I'm worried about the long-term effects of global warming. How does your plan combat climate change?" Watch the student ask the planted question »
And while she said she would have rather used her own question, Gallo-Chasanoff said she didn't have a problem asking the campaign's because she "likes to be agreeable," adding that since she told the staffer she'd ask their pre-typed question she "didn't want to go back on my word."
Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee said, "This is not acceptable campaign process moving forward. We've taken steps to ensure that it never happens again." Elleithee said Clinton had "no idea who she was calling on."
Gallo-Chasanoff wasn't so sure.
"I don't know whether Hillary knew what my question was going to be, but it seemed like she knew to call on me because there were so many people, and ... I was the only college student in that area," she said.
In a separate statement in response to the campus article, the campaign said, "On this occasion a member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Sen. Clinton's energy plan at a forum. ... This is not standard policy and will not be repeated again."
Gallo-Chasanoff said she wasn't the only person given a question.
"After the event," she said, "I heard another man ... talking about the question he asked, and he said that the campaign had asked him to ask that question."
The man she referenced prefaced his question by saying that it probably didn't have anything to do with energy, and then posed the following: "I wonder what you propose to do to create jobs for the middle-class person, such as here in Newton where we lost Maytag."
A Maytag factory in Newton recently closed, forcing hundreds of people out of their jobs.
During the course of the late-night interview on Grinnell's campus, Gallo-Chasanoff also said that the day before the school's newspaper, Scarlet and Black, printed the story, she wanted the reporter to inform the campaign out of courtesy to let them know it would be published.
She said the "head of publicity for the campaign," a man whose name she could not recall, had no factual disputes with the story. But, she added, a Clinton intern spoke to her to say the campaign requested she not talk about the story to any more media outlets and that if she did she should inform a staffer.
"I'm not under any real obligation to do that, and I haven't talked to [the campaign] anymore," Gallo-Chasanoff said, adding that she doesn't plan to.
"If what I do is come and just be totally truthful, then that's all anyone can ask of me, and that's all I can ask of myself. So I'll feel good with what I've done. I'll feel like I've done the right thing."
The Clinton campaign's acknowledgment that it planted a question reinforces a widely held criticism of the senator -- that she is not entirely honest, said Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst.
"It's the same criticism often made of her husband," Schneider said. "Most Americans never felt Bill Clinton was honest and trustworthy, even when he got elected in 1992 -- with only 43 percent of the vote. His critics called him 'Slick Willy.' ... Will her critics start referring to the New York senator as 'Slick Hillary?' "
Asked if this experience makes her less likely to support Clinton's presidential bid, Gallo-Chasanoff, an undecided voter, said, "I think she has a lot to offer, but I -- this experience makes me look at her campaign a little bit differently."
"The question and answer sessions -- especially in Iowa -- are really important. That's where the voters get to ... have like a real genuine conversation with this politician who could be representing them."
While she acknowledged "it's possible that all campaigns do these kind of tactics," she said that doesn't make it right.
"Personally I want to know that I have someone who's honest representing me."
A second person has a story similar to Gallo-Chasanoff's. Geoffrey Mitchell of Hamilton, Illinois, on the Iowa border, said the Clinton campaign wanted him to ask a certain question at an Iowa event in April.
"He asked me if I would ask Sen. Clinton about ways she was going to confront the president on the war in Iraq, specifically war funding," said Geoffrey Mitchell, a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois. "I told him it was not a question I felt comfortable with."
No questions were taken at the event. Elleithee said this incident was different from what happened with Gallo-Chasanoff in Newton. Elleithee said the staffer "bumped into someone he marginally knew" and during a conversation with Mitchell, "Iraq came up." Elleithee denied the campaign tried to plant him as a friendly questioner in the audience.
Mitchell said he had never met the staffer before the event.
Former presidential adviser David Gergen said the front-runner's campaign could take a hit from the incident.
"When a campaign plants a question, it's a pretty minor infraction of the rules -- like a parking ticket," Gergen said. "The problem here is it feeds a damaging perception of Hillary Clinton that she can't quite be trusted."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/13/clinton.planted/
Jennifer Granholm even pulls the 'socialist' card on MTP. I know a few in her family support Bernie!
Ha ha ha Jennifer. I just lost ALL respect for you...sitting there in your Hunter boots. Even you know the difference between socialist and democratic socialist. Even someone in your family discussed it with me. They support Bernie.
We realize you left your job to take a position with the campaign. These TV events are hardly to relay news, they are just chop shops these days for campaigns, this time for Hillary. I get your job...but to take the mantle of 'socialist' and pin it on Sanders is a lie. Again, I just lost all respect for you. It's great that several in your family know better, and have more integrity.
Is this a job you really need? It's awful, for a woman with your credentials in her own right. It's obvious that you are not there for your credentials, you were there to go along with a media slam against another candidate instead of talking up your own. You should go back to teaching, and include teaching the difference between socialism and democratic socialism.
We have much democratic socialism here....in all of the things Jennifer ran on when she went to office. What a shame to see her stoop so low. Again, some in her family support Bernie Sanders. Take that Hillary!
Chuck Todd just lied on MTP saying Bernie Sanders has zero endorsements!
That is a lie. He has endorsements from those holding office. Of course not the establishment, but to say he has "ZERO" is a boldface lie......once again from the Toad.
Bernie is right....just said on earlier show, the MSM is part of the establishment too!
FUCK CHUCK TODD!
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Name: Kevin FoxeGender: Male
Hometown: Detroit/Michigan/Midwest
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Current location: Florida
Member since: Wed Oct 14, 2015, 09:59 PM
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