Bernie Sanders | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 21
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Bernie Sanders Tag

Bernie Sanders' "Democrat socialist" policies sound good and have a lot of popular support among certain demographics, but when pressed on how he would pay for all the free stuff he's promising, he's a bit nonplussed.  Pesky details like that just don't interest him; it's all about the utopian ideal in his dreamy little head, not about reality. For example, although he pledged to release his plan for paying for his health care plan before the Iowa caucuses, he's now decided that might be a mistake and is considering breaking that particular pledge. CNN reports:

Bernie Sanders could break his pledge to release details on how he would pay for his health care plan before the Iowa caucuses, according to a top aide.

In what would be a dream ticket for some and a nightmare to others, Bernie Sanders has been dropping some not-so-subtle hints that he would select Elizabeth Warren as his running mate. This would be a smart move on Bernie's part. He has been functioning as a stand-in for Warren and derives support from her wing of the Democratic Party. The left would be electrified. The rest of the country would be horrified as these two Neo-Marxists traveled the land promising to take wealth from some and give to others. Mohit Priyadarshi reports at The Inquistr:
Feel the Bern? Bernie Sanders Leads Hillary Clinton in New Poll, Tips Elizabeth Warren for Vice President Bernie Sanders’ supporters may finally have something to cheer about. The Vermont senator seems to be establishing a significant lead against fellow Democratic Party presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, with Fox News January polls tipping Sanders to be ahead of Clinton by a 50-37 percent margin among New Hampshire Democratic primary voters.

After years of claiming to be pro-Second Amendment, Hillary Clinton has changed her tune and is now attacking Bernie Sanders on his one weakness with progressives / socialists: guns. ABCNews reports:
Following a week in which the president outlined his planned gun control actions, Hillary Clinton is hitting her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, on his record -- and Sanders and his campaign are responding in full force, portraying the former Secretary of State as a flip-flopper. “When it really mattered, Senator Sanders voted with the gun lobby and I voted against the gun lobby,” Clinton told Chris Matthews on “Hardball” tonight.

As we discussed last weekend, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' is wooing supporters of Republican presidential contender, Donald Trump. Not uncommon in a general election, reaching across party lines to glad-hand during primary season should be bizarre. But in this particular election cycle, both Trump and Sanders' strongest support comes from two strikingly similar groups of disenchanted Americans. Back to last weekend's post exploring this phenomenon:
Sound impossible? Data suggests otherwise. Though Trump has successfully syphoned off some traditional Republican supporters, the majority of his support base is comprised of a very particular kind of Democrat.

Donald Trump has attracted a somewhat unorthodox foe -- Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders. Because the 2016 election cycle hasn't been bizarre enough, we now have a self-professed Democratic-socialist candidate actively attempting to woo supporters away from the Republican frontrunner during primary season.

In early October 2015 we wrote about an academic study showing Democrats Moving Left Faster Than Republicans Moving Right:
The meme we’ve been hearing for years is that radical right-wing “hard liners” are hijacking the Republican party and forcing it to the right; however, an interesting new study argues that Democrats are moving more quickly to the left than Republicans are moving to the right. It also indicates that the Democrats’ move leftward has had the unintended consequence of moving state legislatures to the right.
A Gallup survey released today confirms that Democrats are moving left
Democrats' desire for a "liberal" or "very liberal" candidate has grown, from 30% in 2007 to 36% now. However, the largest share of Democrats and Democratic leaners -- 40% -- still mostly prefer a moderate candidate. This desire has shrunk somewhat from 48% in 2007. Because of these shifts, Democrats are now about as likely to say they prefer a liberal nominee (36%) as a moderate nominee (40%), while in 2007, they had a clearer preference for a moderate (48%) than for a liberal (30%)....

There is not enough popcorn in the world for this one. This is going to be one heckuva show. Politico reported this evening:
Bernie Sanders' campaign on Friday sued the Democratic National Committee for suspending its access to the national voter database, saying the move threatens to undermine the Vermont senator's presidential run. Even as the campaign admitted its staffers had inappropriately reviewed and saved Hillary Clinton campaign data made available as a result of a software error, it emphatically accused the DNC of sabotage and of blatantly favoring Clinton.
This afternoon, Sanders' campaign threatened to sue. Shortly thereafter, they made good on that threat:

It's safe to say foreign policy and national security aren't Bernie Sanders' strong points. He doesn't want to talk about ISIS and terrorism, he wants to tell you how millionaires and billionaires are stealing money from the poor. As liberal Washington Post writer Chris Cillizza notes, that's a big problem:
Bernie Sanders doesn’t want to take questions about ISIS. That’s not good. Right on cue, a Sanders spokeswoman on Tuesday morning informed reporters that they shouldn't even ask questions about the Islamic State. We are re-upping this post from Monday, as it is now even more apropos.

The Bernie Sanders campaign has launched a pointless attack on Hillary Clinton by calling her tax plans Republican Lite. This brings two thoughts to mind. First, the Sanders camp should have thought of this before he surrendered the nomination to Hillary by saying no one cares about her damn emails. Second, if you're so far left that Bernie Sanders seems reasonable, everyone is going to look like a Republican to you. John Wagner reported at the Washington Post:
Sanders camp calls Clinton tax proposals ‘Republican lite’ SAVANNAH, Ga. — A senior aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday characterized Hillary Clinton’s latest tax plans as “tentative half-steps that sound Republican-lite,” escalating the sparring between the Democratic presidential campaigns over their respective commitments to helping the middle class.

Bernie Sanders handed the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton on a silver platter when he said people were sick of hearing about her "damn" emails at the first Democratic Party debate. Hillary knew it then but Bernie is just figuring it out now. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published yesterday, Bernie got tough with Hillary Clinton, four weeks too late. Peter Nicholas reports:
Bernie Sanders Takes Gloves Off Against Hillary Clinton in Interview Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is drawing sharper distinctions with front-runner Hillary Clinton, casting her policy reversals over the years as a character issue that voters should take into account when they evaluate the Democratic field. Sen. Sanders of Vermont, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, also said the federal investigation of the security surrounding Mrs. Clinton’s private email account is appropriate.

Watching Bernie Sanders declare that he's about to say something that "may not be great politics" and then announce that "people are sick of hearing about Clinton emails," many people wondered why on earth Sanders would hand such a major victory to Hillary during the first (and so far only) Democrat debate.  It made no sense. She'd had a horrible horrible spring and summer, and her campaign was looking like it was about to implode—so much so that Joe Biden gave serious consideration to jumping into the race.  Sanders handed her a life-line that helped not only jump-start her campaign but set the stage for a cool, confident, cackling Hillary to face the Benghazi committee.   Not great politics?  Understatement of the year. Watch as the significance of the moment slowly dawns on a bobble-headed Hillary:
She's grim-faced and readying herself for battle as Sanders begins speaking, but by the end, she's positively giddy as what he has said—and done—sinks in, and she breaks debate protocol by spontaneously reaching out to Sanders and shaking his hand in unconcealed euphoria.  Poor Sanders didn't get it at the time.  But she did.

According to a new CNN/ORC poll, most Democrats who tuned in for the first Democratic primary debate thought Hillary Clinton won the night---but that "win" didn't translate into boosted poll numbers. Clinton has remained steady at 45%; Bernie Sanders is still in at a respectable 29%...and Joe Biden rounds out the top three with 18%---and he hasn't even declared yet. Clinton hasn't moved the needle much since before this month's debate, but Sanders has managed to gain 5 points since mid-September---the only candidate to do so. More from CNN:
Overall, 31% of registered Democrats say they watched all or most of the CNN/Facebook debate, held October 13 in Las Vegas. More than 6-in-10 Democrats who watched say Clinton did the best job, almost doubling the 35% who thought Sanders had the best performance. On the other side of the coin, 43% of those who watched said Chafee had the worst night, 31% thought Webb did, 12% O'Malley.

Every once in a while, Bill Maher tip toes out of the progressive box and makes statements or asks questions that stun his audience and the media. Reacting to Bernie Sanders' agenda and its estimated $18 trillion price tag, Maher challenged him by asking how America will pay for his radical agenda. Watch:
After beginning the interview by stating that he doesn't think "most Americans realize that they’re already socialists," Maher challenges Sanders' the top 1% can pay for everything under the sun premise.

How about a little disco inferno to kick off the weekend? Forget primaries. Those are long, boring, and costly. We're proposing a new means of DNC candidate selection -- a dance off. First, Bernie (well, sort of):

The challengers to Hillary Clinton in the debate last night made Republican undercard competitors seem downright impressive. Martin O'Malley has the vocal quality of elevator music. It reminds me of another voice, I just can't place it. But there's not much there there. Jim Webb seemed off-kilter, complaining endlessly about not getting enough time, and not really scoring any points with Democrats by invoking concepts like love of country and a strong military -- that will not fly in today's Democratic Party. What can we say about Linc Chafee? I thought he had the potential to be aggressive. Those of us who know him from Rhode Island know that while he comes across as a doofus, he can be quite nasty and acerbic. I thought we might get that from him when his opening statement emphasized that he's never had a scandal and is honest -- but he didn't take the shot directly at Hillary and seemed lost on stage. In short, none of the three lower-tiered Democrats scored any points and all seemed afraid to confront Hillary. Hillary was, as Mark Steyn puts it, The Alpha Female of a Beta-Male Debate:

Despite the crowds of devoted followers who show up at his campaign events, not everyone on the left is convinced that Bernie Sanders could close the deal with America, should he somehow beat the Clinton machine. Bernie's biggest problem, according to Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post, is the way Sanders describes himself in political terms:
Why Bernie Sanders isn’t going to be president, in five words Here's an exchange from Bernie Sanders's appearance on "Meet the Press" on Sunday: And, in those five words, Sanders showed why — no matter how much energy there is for him on the liberal left — he isn't getting elected president.