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Bernie Sanders Tag

As Hillary tries to assure the progressive-socialist base of her party that she is not beholden to corporate or Wall Street money, super PACs supporting her campaign are purposefully wooing these same deep-pocketed donors. The Washington Post reports:
Two powerful organizations within the Democratic establishment announced steps Friday that have the potential to provide substantial financial firepower to presidential contender Hillary Clinton by drawing on the support of wealthy donors and corporate interests. . . . .  Priorities USA Action, the main super PAC supporting Clinton, unleashed a $5 million infusion of spending on her behalf, upending plans to hold its fire until the general election. The move calls attention to growing concern within the party’s leadership that her campaign may be in trouble, and it underscores how crucial several upcoming contests have become in Clinton’s battle with Sanders, a senator from Vermont.

Bernie Sanders is Jewish and worked on a kibbutz in Israel in the 1960s. Bernie supports Israel's right to exist, though he's decidedly more into the "balanced" approach compared to other candidates, and has questionable Middle East advisors. Bernie doesn't wear either his Judaism or Zionism on his sleeve, unlike his socialism. To the contrary, when given the perfect opportunity at the last Democratic PBS debate Thursday night, February, 2016. Gwen Ifill asked Bernie if his candidacy would "thwart" history by denying the opportunity for Hillary to become the first female president. It was a perfect opportunity for Bernie to make the point that he also would be a first -- the first Jewish president. But Bernie didn't go there, instead he danced around the issue and said that it would be historic for "someone of my background and views" to be president:

For months now, we've been told that the black community of South Carolina is Hillary Clinton's firewall to retain her front runner status but after Sanders' sizable New Hampshire win, she's not taking any chances.

Funny: conservative commentator Monica Crowley recently called Bernie Sanders Lenin of Brooklyn. I don't think Bernie has Lenin's cunning and brutality.  Vladimir Lenin managed to seize the day in 1917, leading his extreme minority party to overthrow the very tenuous government of the largest country on Earth and then held on to the power, consolidating the majority of the crumbling empire. Clown-haired Bernie doesn't leave an impression of an individual capable of such feat. The way I see Sanders, the reason I think he's popular among the college campuses or those under 30 in general, is very similar to the reasons why Ralph Nader was popular sixteen years ago.  Both men leave a similar impression on the impressionable.  They're very much alike in appearance: Nader, like Sanders, had rather imperfect hair; his suits were ill-fitted, his face -- asymmetrical.  This was all part of his appeal.  Although Nader received loads of favorable attention from the media, his imperfections lent him an aura of authenticity. After eight years of Clinton, a candidate who didn't seem overly media-produced was refreshing.

Welcome to our live debate coverage! Watch the debate live: [debate over, clips below] https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/697990980398546944 https://twitter.com/whpresscorps/status/697991185768574976

I will admit I have a taste for sweet schadenfreude. After nearly a year of the elite media's reporting breathlessly on the war among Republicans, social media is now covering veritable insurrection occurring among the Democrats because of primary system shenanigans. Last week, we covered the Iowa Caucus coin flips that garnered Hillary Clinton more delegates than Bernie Sanders (despite the veritable tie). Now after trouncing Clinton in New Hampshire by a straight-up popular vote total difference over 20% points, Sanders will be leaving the state with an equal number of delegates.
...Sanders had won 13 delegates with his 20-point victory on Tuesday and is expected to raise that total to 15 by the time all of the votes are counted.

It is too bad for the Clintons that the Internet can travel back nearly 20 years! Feminist icons spent the weekend shaming women into voting for Hillary Clinton. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, even smeared supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders as sexist trolls. But video taken 20 years ago show that Vermont's socialist representative was made an "honorary woman" by feminist luminary Gloria Steinem herself. (Jump ahead to 15:44)
[I]n 1996 the famous feminist traveled to Burlington, VT to endorse him (OVER his female opponent) in what was a tough re-election fight against Republican Susan Sweetser.

During the MSNBC Democratic debate, Chuck Todd asked if Hillary would release the transcripts of her paid speeches, particularly the three Goldman Sachs speeches for which she was paid $675,000 total. As the question was being asked, you could see Hillary's mental wheels spinning until she came up with the response she needed: I'll think about it. Hillary then quickly moved on to her robotic stump speech: After that awkward moment, Hillary deflected in classic Clintonian fashion, by setting preconditions she knew no one could or would meet -- everyone who ever gave a speech had to release all transcripts for all speeches. Hence, Hillary deflects from her massive Wall Street speaking fees:

Bernie Sanders gave a glimpse at his potential foreign policy on Sunday, and his choices of BDS supporter James Zogby and left-wing J Street raise serious questions. Sanders, the Jewish Senator from Vermont, is infamous for his avowed socialism.  On foreign policy, he is more or less a blank slate, making his choice of foreign policy advisers a valuable window into his mindsight and the least-worst predictor of a President Sanders's policy. On Sunday, two of the three advisers Sanders chose to identify were vehemently anti-Israel.  Sanders told Meet The Press he met recently with Larry Korb, Jim Zogby and J Street.

Do you believe a wild-haired socialist is our only hope for a better America? Would you like a permanent reminder of the 2016 dumpster fire of an election cycle? Then this little ink shop in Vermont has got you covered. You too can be like dozens of others who have opted to feel the bern forever.

There is an old adage that bad things come in threes. Today, there are three omens showing that Hillary Clinton's campaign may be floundering worse than previously imagined. We have covered two of those signs already: Donors wanting to Draft Vice President Joe Biden for the party's nomination and Gloria Steinem indicating women who vote for Senator Bernie Sanders are actually after men. Unexpectedly, that last bit is not playing too terribly well among progressive women.

Thursday, The Des Moines Register's Editorial Board called for an audit of Iowa's Democratic Caucus results.
...too many questions have been raised. Too many accounts have arisen of inconsistent counts, untrained and overwhelmed volunteers, confused voters, cramped precinct locations, a lack of voter registration forms and other problems. Too many of us, including members of the Register editorial board who were observing caucuses, saw opportunities for error amid Monday night’s chaos.
Hillary Clinton was declared the winner with a minuscule two-tenths of 1% victory over Bernie Sanders and some incredibly lucky coin tossing. Because Iowa's Democratic Party chair has refused to audit the caucus results. Bernie Sanders' campaign is doing their part to recount the ballots. Friday, Ben Jacobs of The Guardian reports that the Iowa Democratic Party changed the altered a precinct's caucus results, giving a Sanders delegate to Clinton.

Welcome to our live coverage of tonight's Democratic presidential debate. The debate begins at 9:00 PM ET on MSNBC and will be moderated by NBC's Chuck Todd and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. With Martin O'Malley out of the race, the Democratic presidential primary is officially a showdown. Just saying'...

How to watch the debate:

Something is rotten in Iowa and it's the results of Monday night's Democratic Caucus. Hillary won by the skin of her teeth and with the help of some incredible luck in a half-dozen coin tosses. Thursday, the editorial board of the Des Moines Register called for an audit of Monday night's Democratic Caucus results. It's worth noting the DMR's endorsed Hillary Clinton as their Democratic candidate of choice. "Something smells in the Democratic Party," they wrote.
Once again the world is laughing at Iowa. Late-night comedians and social media mavens are having a field day with jokes about missing caucusgoers and coin flips. That’s fine. We can take ribbing over our quirky process. But what we can’t stomach is even the whiff of impropriety or error.

Bernie Sanders supporters are very enthusiastic, but seem a little short on political philosophy. A reporter from CNN recently asked attendees at a Sanders town hall event to describe socialism. Josh Feldman reported at Mediaite:
CNN’s Baldwin Asks Sanders Supporters to Define the Word ‘Socialist’ At a recent Bernie Sanders rally, CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin asked some of his supporters to define the word socialism. And, well, some of them didn’t exactly know…

Back at the first Democrat debate, Bernie famously said people were sick of hearing about Hillary's "damn emails" but now he's acknowledging that it's a serious issue. When CNN's Jake Tapper asked about it, Bernie also insisted that he's not politicizing the issue. David Rutz of the Washington Free Beacon:
Sanders on Clinton Emails: ‘I Think This Is a Very Serious Issue’ Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said he considered Hillary Clinton’s private email server investigation to be “a very serious issue” Sunday on CNN, while also adding there was a legal process taking place that he did not want to politicize. At the conclusion of their interview, State of the Union host Jake Tapper reminded Sanders of his famous remarks at the first Democratic debate in October, when he told Clinton the American people were “sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”

With her poll numbers cratering, Hillary Clinton and her team have evidently caved to the reality that the thin debate schedule designed to hide her from the public eye and let her coast to the Democrat nomination is actually, as Kemberlee noted earlier this month, hurting her and her campaign. As a result, the Clinton team and the Sanders team have agreed to four more debates this campaign season, a decision the DNC still has to approve (and likely will). Politico reports:
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders’ campaigns have agreed in principle to attend four more debates, starting with a proposed New Hampshire event next week, a Clinton campaign aide confirmed Saturday.