An old friend writes “I’m so disappointed in you for supporting Bernie Sanders.” Another says “Glad you feel the bern. Hillary Clinton is the most corrupt politician in recent American history.”
Can we all please get a grip? Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are both excellent candidates. Hillary is the most qualified to the lead the political system we have today, and Bernie is the most qualified a transform it into the system we need. Both are a thousand times better than either of the leading Republican candidates, and far better than Paul Ryan (who I still believe is going to be the Republican nominee, after they duke it out at a brokered convention).
Look, I understand feelings are running high right now. Many Bernie supporters are furious with Hillary (and her supporters), and vice versa. But I urge you to keep things in perspective, and lower the temperature. We’re going to need each other.
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Or to be exact, the wording was slightly more contemptuous of the old creature:
[QUOTE=Robert Reich]
“I’ve known Hillary Clinton since she was 19 years old, and have nothing but respect for her. In my view, she’s the most qualified candidate for president of the political system we now have,” Reich said. “But Bernie Sanders is the most qualified candidate to create the political system we should have, because he’s leading a political movement for change.”
[/QUOTE]
Reich referenced a Princeton survey that included analysis of 1,799 policy issues from 1981 to 2002, and which ultimately concluded that “The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically insignificant impact upon public policy.” Reich added that since 2002, the Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions have only “opened the floodgates to big money” even more.
[QUOTE=Robert Reich]
“This election is about changing the parameters of what’s feasible and ending the choke hold of big money on our political system… The upcoming election isn’t about detailed policy proposals. It’s about power – whether those who have it will keep it, or whether average Americans will get some as well.”
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Couldn’t have anything to do with Bernie coming off TOTALLY unprepared, could it? Naaaaaaah. And spare me the BS about the transcript, been there, done that.
Contrast it with Hillary’s interview, if you can bring yourself to read it.
The Sanders campaign seems to be trying a new tack – building a coalition of allied candidates for Congress. In the past few days I gotten several emails from the campaign endorsing about a half dozen candidates and even suggesting I slit my Bernie contributions with one or more of them. It seems a little late for this approach, but better late than never.
Not a little late at all. At least here in Florida, the Congressional primaries are not until August 30 and the campaigning is just getting started. Any sooner would have been too soon.
Kate McKinnon as Hillary: “See, New Yorkers, I’m just like all of you. I never sleep, I’m in a hurry to get to work, and when I’m running I really hate it when a slow old Jew gets in my way.”
Sanders supporters aren’t willing to pay for Sanders’ plans:
Given this reality, someone should ask Sanders what his single top priority will be, since he’ll probably only be able to get one given how much his own supporters are willing to open their wallets.
Likely it will end up neither helping or hurting, in NY, or past it. Pretty dense polling now within the last week and all show him double digits down and if anything slightly dropping. It would take a lot to move that needle.
Yes there are a lot of Catholics, and even a lot of liberal Democratic Catholics with particular affection for this particular Pope, and not only for his social-economic justice messaging (Hispanics have some ethnocentric pride I’d suspect). But polishing his apple with a drop of Holy water won’t impact their choices much. Those that view him more positively for it will be offset by similar to larger numbers who see it as a transparent cynical pandering attempt to manipulate them.
OTOH being there is not moving numbers up (the most recent NBC 4 New York/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll is at 17 down 3 points more in the hole than the one a few days previous) so it likely won’t cause much harm either. He’s got nothing to lose. Ten down is no less buried than eighteen when you need to be winning the state by large margins.
Rather embarrassing for Sanders, who no doubt would have liked to have a bit of video with a smiling Francis, for use in his campaign spots. Sanders’ trip won’t do much to ‘boost his foreign policy credentials’ (as the saying goes), absent that footage.
You could say the same about Ted Cruz or one of the other normie shill Republicans who got steamrolled by TRUMP this year. How many of their voters would have been willing to give up spending for defence contracts, infrastructure, and so forth to fatten the parasitic caste with tax cuts deliberately tailored towards them?
