Sorry, Hillary supporters.

[karynnj]

95. Bernie has accomplished a significant amount in his career - even though his early career

was way less public than hers.

His first office was mayor of Burlington. I have lived in this wonderful town for 2 and a half years. Obviously everything I know of his tenure here is either from the comments of the many new friends I have made or from reading. I have heard no one counter the fact that he was a very significant and effective mayor.

In fact, everyone should watch whatever coverage there will be of his event next Tuesday. It is very significant that it is being held at the gorgeous Waterfront Park. Why is it significant? That park is a major legacy of the Sanders administration. He ran his first time on the "Waterfront is not for sale". With different leadership, it is easy to speculate that wonderful park could have been sold for near town expensive condos or private homes.

Now, I KNOW it was Bill who was governor of Arkansas, not Hillary -- but I think Bernie can easily make the case that Burlington was a better place when he left office than it was when he entered. (One non subjective measure of this was that he won in a landslide the last time he ran against a person who had BOTH the Democratic and Republican lines.) At least on the environment, Bernie easily wins this one -- google Tyson chicken Clinton.

Bernie has been a Senator since 2006 - 9 years. This is very near the 8 years that Hillary Clinton was Senator. Two major accomplishments that he had were that it is his provision of ACA that gave money to the community health care centers - something Teresa Kerry noted as something good from ACA noting it was Sander's contribution. The other was that the bill on health care for Vets was Sanders and after the scandal with the VA, it passed. These are two issues where Sanders really did lead. I challenge anyone to list two things Clinton did AS Senator that equalled these accomplishments.

Bernie Sanders is an accomplished Senator, with a very high approval rating from a state where politicians really DO have to answer to the people. In 2 and a half years, I have seen more Sanders town halls than I saw of ANY Democrat in 30 years in NJ -- and there were others, I could have gone to.

Now, Hillary Clinton is a candidate with a resume that extends back to the 1970s. She worked on children's issues before she married Bill Clinton, worked on education for Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas (mixed results due to Arkansas continuing to be near the bottom on any objective measure), then worked on healthcare as First Lady. In 2008, Obama gave her the position of SoS, where she helped restore relations shattered under Bush.

She is almost certainly going to be the nominee and there are many things to argue that she had a hand in over her long career. That is why I am surprised that many of her supporters here (not directed to the person I am responding to) are not taking the obvious high road - praising Sanders, for what he has done. There is absolutely no reason to try to tear him down.

I am also appalled by the almost militant nature of some supporters considering that ANY discussion of anything less than 100% positive about Clinton is unacceptable. I suggest that they look back at how THEY supported candidates in the past. Even after the nominee was selected, there was not the rejection of even discussing issues of disagreement. It seems obvious to me that ONLY through discussing any possible negatives will we hone any arguments that could defend HRC. Simply labelling everything as right wing - or even swiftboating as Peter Doar just did - will not be an answer that will help persuade anyone on the fence.