Rep. Joe Salazar, who calls himself one of the state's leading progressive voices, announced Saturday he's endorsing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to be the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. Salazar, D-Thornton, said he feels Sanders is the best choice for Colorado.

Susan Sarandon ?@SusanSarandon 53m53 minutes ago
Link to the entire vid. The translation ask starts at 53:30 & mod says English Only at 55:18. NO CHANTING. https://www.ustream.tv/embed/recorded/83452078?html5ui …

Senator Bernie Sanders is the candidate for a stronger America of enhanced global influence. He is a sober, clear-eyed, foreign-policy realist. Yet few recognize this, mainly because of his impassioned focus on broad domestic reforms. Most view Sanders as anything but a realist—more like a utopian idealist—and concede the foreign-policy advantage to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton or any of the tough-talking Republican candidates. But they are wrong, and the liberal Sanders is paradoxically the only foreign-policy realist in the presidential field.

This comes as a surprise because realism in the popular mind has grown synonymous with overweening might and unilateral assertion of US objectives; think “shock and awe” and “regime change.” Sanders is none of those, and most equate him instead with foreign-policy idealism: allergic to the use of force, and naively trusting in multilateral diplomacy. But these are not Sanders either. Moreover, such simplistic definitions have diverged very far from their original, nuanced meanings, which it behooves us to recall at this most troubled time in international affairs.

I was highly interested to see your letter of yesterday's date to Senator Sanders and Professor Gerald
Friedman. I respond here as a former Executive Director of the Joint Economic Committee – the
congressional counterpart to the CEA.

You write that you have applied rigor to your analyses of economic proposals by Democrats and Republicans. On reading this sentence I looked to the bottom of the page, to find a reference or link to your rigorous review of Professor Friedman's study. I found nothing there.

It is not fair or honest to claim that Professor Friedman's methods are extreme. On the contrary, with
respect to forecasting method, they are largely mainstream. Nor is it fair or honest to imply that you have given Professor Friedman's paper a rigorous review. You have not.

What you have done, is to light a fire under Paul Krugman, who is now using his high perch to airily dismiss the Friedman paper as “nonsense.” Paul is an immensely powerful figure, and many people rely on him for careful assessments. It seems clear that he has made no such assessment in this case. Instead, Paul relies on you to impugn an economist with far less reach, whose work is far more careful, in point of fact, than your casual dismissal of it. He and you also imply that Professor Friedman did his
work for an unprofessional motive. But let me point out, in case you missed it, that Professor Friedman is a political supporter of Secretary Clinton. His motives are, on the face of it, not political.

For the record, in case you're curious, I'm not tied to Professor Friedman in any way. But the powerful – such as Paul and yourselves – should be careful where you step.

When you dare to do big things, big results should be expected. The Sanders program is big, and when you run it through a standard model, you get a big result.

That, by the way, is the lesson of the Reagan era – like it or not. It is a lesson that, among today's political leaders, only Senator Sanders has learned.

U.S. Rep. Peter Welch says he'll support Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign as a voter and as a Democratic superdelegate.

The announcement Friday ended months of speculation over whether Welch would endorse Sanders, a fellow Vermonter, or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"I’m supporting Bernie because I think he can win, and I believe in what he stands for," Welch said in an interview after announcing his support on Vermont Public Radio.

Welch said he made his final decision Friday while preparing to drop off his absentee ballot for Vermont's March 1 presidential primary in the town of Norwich.

“Let’s give Bernie a shot," Welch said, noting that Sanders' economic policies and campaign finance reform goals have resonated with voters, especially young voters.

Sanders responded with gratitude.

"I very much appreciate Congressman Welch's support," Sanders said through a campaign spokesman. "We have been friends for years and have worked together on issues of great importance to Vermont. His support means a great deal to me."

“I’m a strong supporter of immigration reform,” Hillary Clinton stated during last Thursday’s debate in Milwaukee. “And I have been ever since I was in the Senate. I was one of the original sponsors of the DREAM Act. I voted for comprehensive immigration reform in 2007; Senator Sanders voted against it at that time.” This is where my partner Rocio looks over at me from the opposite end of the couch. “Is that true?” she says, her voice tinged with a sense of betrayal and disappointment. How could Bernie Sanders, the people’s candidate, have voted against an effort to end one of the United States’ major injustices?

Hoping to maintain her lead in the polls among Latino voters, Clinton is trying to present herself as a more consistent advocate of immigration reform than Bernie Sanders, and in this her most effective attack is pointing out that Sanders voted against a bipartisan comprehensive immigration bill in 2007. The Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007, introduced by Senate majority leader Harry Reid on the heels of the Democrats’ retaking control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, was largely a compromise between earlier legislation proposed by Senators Ted Kennedy, John McCain, Jon Kyl and John Cornyn. It was also a last ditch effort by George W. Bush and the Republicans to stem the flow of immigration, while eliminating issue from the Democratic Party’s platform. Containing all of the DREAM Act, which would’ve provided a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as minors who graduated from high school and met other requirements, the 2007 bill also included provisions for increased border security, a guest worker program, and restrictions on future immigration.

The bill called for 20,000 more Border Patrol agents and 370 miles of additional fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. It removed four of the five family-based categories under which an immigrant could apply for permanent residency, keeping only the preference for spouses and children of U.S. citizens. The guest worker program would’ve allowed 200,000 Latin Americans to work in the United States for two years, after which they would have to return to their home countries for a full year before they could reapply for temporary work.

Bernie Sanders supported the DREAM Act part of the bill, but opposed the guest worker bit and the downgrading of family reunification. So did one of the United States’ most venerated Latino civil rights organization, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the country’s largest trade union, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.