All the Bernie Sanders news for the week ending in 10/25/15
Bernie Sanders speech in Iowa
https://youtu.be/rQKeRghITZo
Part II
https://youtu.be/XVzluL14mIQ
My own piece in criticism of Sam Stein’s latest piece on Bernie Sanders.
October 25, 2015, 12:37 am
Sanders comes out swinging in Iowa
By Ben Kamisar, The Hill
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took Hillary Clinton head on as the Democratic presidential field shared the stage Saturday night for a major Iowa state party fundraiser, making clear that he won’t back down despite a slew of big wins this week for her campaign.
Sanders gave his strongest critique of the former secretary of State yet with a round of implicit contrasts on issues where Clinton has shifted her position.
Read the rest of Sanders Comes Out Swinging in Iowa at The Hill
Sanders tears into Clinton’s ambitions and record at Iowa Democrat fundraiser
Vermont senator echoes Obama’s criticisms rival over leadership ambitions, trade deals, the Keystone XL pipeline and gay rights
Ben Jacobs in Des Moines, Iowa
Saturday 24 October 2015, The Guardian
Bernie Sanders gave his sharpest criticism yet of Hillary Clinton on Saturday night at the Jefferson Jackson dinner, the Iowa Democratic fundraiser that is one of the most important events of the Democratic primary season.
Echoing Barack Obama’s subtle criticism of Clinton in his speech at the 2007 Jefferson Jackson dinner, the Vermont senator pledged in his prepared remarks: “I promise you tonight as your president I will govern based on principle not poll numbers.” Sanders received a rapturous reception from a raucous crowd, including Sanders supporters who spent his entire speech cheering and applauding the self-described democratic socialist.
Sanders explicitly compared himself to Obama in his speech. He said “Eight years ago the experts talked about how another Democratic candidate for president, Barack Obama, couldn’t win. How he was unelectable. Well Iowa, I think we’re going to prove the pundits wrong again. I believe we will make history.”
The Vermont senator went on to implicitly call out Clinton, noting she had long lagged behind him on a number of progressive causes. In particular, Sanders cited issues such as gay rights, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Iraq war as “the difficult choices” – a subtle reference to Clinton’s memoir Hard Choices – that he has made.
“I am not in this race to fulfill some long-held ambitions or because I believe it’s somehow owed to me. I never expected to be here.” And he argued Democrats have “always made the biggest difference in the lives of the American people when we led, not by polls, but by principle; not by calculation, but by conviction.”
Read the rest at TheGuardian.
The day after the first Democratic presidential debate, Donald Trump called Bernie Sanders a maniac.
“This socialist-slash-communist,” Trump said to raucous cheers. “I call him a socialist-slash-communist, because that’s what he is.”
Well, no. The terms “socialist” and “communist” are often confused, thanks in large part to the Cold War. Layer on top of that the nuance of the term “democratic socialist,” which is how Sanders describes himself, and it’s easy to see why people might generally be confused. (Even if they aren’t intentionally blurring that line, as it’s safe to assume Mr. Trump might have been doing.) As our Dave Weigel and David Farenthold reported this week, voters are not clear on the difference, either.
Read the rest on WashingtonPost.com
June 19, 2015, 12:25 pm
Ready for Warren endorses Sanders
By Ben Kamisar
Two top officials with Ready for Warren, the group that attempted to nudge Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) into a presidential bid, are throwing their support behind Sen. Bernie Sanders, who appears to be Hillary Clinton’s progressive foil.
“While Warren is the champion who inspired this movement, the draft effort was never just about her — it’s about her message and the values she represents,” Erica Sagrans and Charles Lenchner write in an opinion piece on CNN released Friday morning.
“Bernie Sanders has caught fire in a way that’s reminiscent of the draft Warren movement itself — from the Internet to town halls in Iowa, Sanders has captured the imagination and support of people looking for a real progressive challenger in the 2016 Democratic primary.”
Read the rest on TheHill.com
Hillary Clinton’s Take on Banks Won’t Hold Up
The Democratic frontrunner seems to be counting on America’s ignorance about the 2008 crash
The inaugural Democratic debate Tuesday night was a strange show. It felt like two different programs.
One was a screwball comedy starring red-faced ex-Marine Jim Webb and retired Keebler elf Lincoln Chafee, whose Rhode Island roots highlighted the Farrelly brothers feel of his performance. The latter’s “I voted to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act because it was my first day at school” moment was the closest thing I’ve seen to a politician dissolving into his component elements on live television.
The other drama was serious and highly charged argument between two extremes on the political campaigning spectrum, pitting the unapologetic idealist Bernie Sanders against the master strategist Hillary Clinton. (Martin O’Malley seemed like an irrelevant spectator to both narratives.)
One of the most revealing exchanges in the Clinton-Sanders tilt involved the question of Wall Street corruption. Sanders has always been a passionate crusader against Wall Street perfidy, but Hillary’s take on the subject was fascinating.
Asked about it Tuesday night, she gave an answer that to me sums up her candidacy and the conundrum of the modern Democratic Party in general. She seemed to hit a lot of correct notes, while at the same time over-thinking and over-nuancing a question where a few simple unequivocal answers would probably have won everyone over.
Read the rest at Rolling Stone
Election 2016: Your money, your vote
Wall Street has made Hillary Clinton a millionaire
October 13, 2015, CNN
Clinton made $3.15 million in 2013 alone from speaking to firms like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and UBS, according to the list her campaign released of her speaking fees.
“Her closeness with big banks on Wall Street is sincere, it’s heart-felt, long-established and well known,” former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has said on the campaign trail.
Read the rest on CNN.com
Multi-Millionaire Little TV-Twit Cooper Hates Sanders’ Politics: Wow, What a Surprise
— October 22, 2015, Ring of Fire Radio
Who was the richest person at the CNN debate? The host, Anderson Cooper. Cooper’s wealth is estimated at $100,000,000. It was Cooper’s entitled status that led him to look down on a candidate like Bernie Sanders – a candidate who professes to represent working Americans over the billionaire class.
As Reader Supported News explained:
What does yellow journalism red-baiting sound like? Cooper started with the lurking horror of every unjustifiably rich person:
“Senator Sanders. A Gallup poll says half the country would not put a socialist in the White House. You call yourself a democratic socialist. How can any kind of socialist win a general election in the United States?”
Read the rest of this article on RingOfFireRadio
Bernie Sanders dodges question on whether he believes in God
Read the rest on RawStory.com
Black Lives Matter to host Democratic presidential town hall
Major groups associated with the Black Lives Matter movement will host Democratic presidential candidates for a town hall focusing on social and racial justice.
The Democratic National Committee approved the extra forum for 2016 hopefuls on Wednesday, but remained steadfast against adding another candidate debate to the schedule, according to letters first obtained by the Washington Post.
The letters, sent from the DNC to prominent activist groups the BlackLivesMatter network and Campaign Zero, affirm the party’s support of the growing social movement and heed their request to hold a forum that explicitly addresses issues of race and social justice.
“We believe that your organization would be an ideal host for a presidential candidate forum — where all of the Democratic candidates can showcase their ideas and policy positions that will expand opportunity for all, strengthen the middle class and address racism in America,” Amy K. Dacey, chief executive officer of the DNC, wrote in the letters obtained by the Post. “The DNC would be happy to help promote the event.”
Read the rest on MSNBC.com
Bernie Sanders explains why socialism isn’t scary
https://youtu.be/BFAq-4Vv5c0
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