Texas: Clinton 59% Sanders 10% O'Malley 3% Undecided 28%

[riversedge]

12. The Sanders Brain Trust's Plan to Beat Hillary Clinton

ha --I had just run across this article and I recognized words--I was going to post it. It fits here.


http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-10-28/bernie-sanders-brain-trust-says-he-can-beat-hillary-clinton


The Sanders Brain Trust's Plan to Beat Hillary Clinton
Top aides Tad Devine and Jeff Weaver lay out his path to victory. Step one: Take the gloves off.


John Heilemann

October 28, 2015 — 5:19 AM CDT



Hillary Clinton Brings Tough Wall Street Talk to Stephen Colbert's Show
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton chats with Stephen Colbert on Oct. 27, 2015.
On Colbert, Hints of Hillary’s Comic Gift
Is Hillary Clinton Playing the Victim Card vs. Bernie Sanders?

The pizzas ordered in by the Bernie Sanders brain trust had just been delivered to the DoubleTree hotel near the Des Moines airport when the talk turned to Hillary Clinton. It was after midnight this past Saturday, a few hours after Sanders, at the Iowa Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, had used his speech to launch his most sustained and systematic critique of Clinton thus far. Without once mentioning her by name, Sanders indicted the front-runner by implication as an ideological shape-shifter, inconstant in her fealty to progressive principles, often and conveniently arriving late at liberal positions—on campaign finance reform, gay rights, the Iraq War, and Wall Street regulation—that Sanders had held consistently for many years, even when they were broadly unpopular.

Now, at the DoubleTree, three members of the Sanders high command—campaign manager Jeff Weaver, communications director Michael Briggs, and field director Phil Fiermonte—were reflecting on what Clinton's record might say about her character. All agreed that Sanders and his staff believed that Clinton had moved to the left on numerous issues, from the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the Keystone pipeline, for purely political reasons: to foreclose daylight between her and Sanders. I asked Weaver if he thought that made her, as some longtime Clinton critics argue, a craven hypocrite and opportunist?

“A craven hypocrite?” Weaver replied, grinning slyly. “That's a little bit harsh, don't you think?” Then he added, with a chuckle, “Look, she'd make a great vice president. We're willing to give her more credit than Obama did. We're willing to consider her for vice president. We'll give her serious consideration. We'll even interview her.”

“Look, she'd make a great vice president.”


Weaver was at least half-joking, or so it seemed to me. But even in jest, his comments were telling: about both the darkening assessment of Clinton among Sanders's people and their heady confidence that they can beat her. ...................


In a series of interviews last weekend in Iowa and since, Sanders's lieutenants provided me with a wide-ranging and at times detailed account of their strategy for the three-month sprint to the first two must-win contests. That strategy is premised on the notion that their campaign has shifted into a new gear, moving from what Weaver calls “the introductory phase” into “the persuasion phase.” This new phase will be more aggressive, hard-edged, and focused on driving home contrasts between Sanders and Clinton. In other words, it will be more negative. J................