Welcome back to Bernie News Roundup. The BNR is a compilation of Bernie related news, media & other information. For full disclosure I do this because I like Bernie and I am not part of his campaign staff. As I only believe in taking from the rich, I could never accept money from Bernie anyways. Leave a message if you would like added to the BNR group.
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Bernie on THIS WEEK:
Transcript:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, so you said right at the top of this interview, you're going to be the next president of the United States. If that's true, you'll be the oldest president ever elected, 75 years old on Election Day, I believe. What do you say to people who might be concerned about your age?
SANDERS: Well, why don't you follow me around this weekend in New Hampshire where we're doing seven separate events and understand that thank God I -- I am blessed with -- with very good health. I don't think I've taken a day off because of sickness in -- in several years. So I believe as somebody who has -- when he was a kid, a long distance runner, I'm blessed with endurance, I'm blessed with health, and we are going to do everything that we can, A, to win this campaign, and, B, as good a president as I possibly can be.
More on Bernie with Stephanopoulos:
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who has risen quickly in the polls for the 2016 Democratic nomination, predicted with confidence Sunday that he’ll secure the nomination and be elected president next year.
“We are going to win New Hampshire. We’re going to win Iowa, and I think we’re going to win the Democratic nomination, and I think we’re going to win the presidency,” Sanders told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”
Sanders said his economic message targeting the middle class would help him secure the nomination.
“The American people are sick and tired of seeing the disappearance of the great middle class of this country,” he said. "They're sick and tired of working longer hours for low wages while at the same time 99 percent of all new income generated is going to the top one percent."
Its one thing to watch MSM coverage of candidates, it is another to see the local coverage:
John Wagner and Anne Gearan team up at the Washington Post for
In Bernie Sanders, an unlikely — but real — threat to Hillary Clinton:
During his hour-long stump speech here, Sanders railed against the “billionaire class” and pledged to make large corporations pay their fair share of taxes if he becomes president. But much of his message focused on improving the lot of the lower and middle classes — by providing free college; guaranteeing workers vacation time, sick leave and family leave; and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
“I don’t believe it is a terribly radical idea to say that someone who works 40 hours a week should not be living in poverty,” Sanders told a crowd of about 300 people.
For all the excitement surrounding his grass-roots effort, Sanders still faces significant skepticism from party elites — and even from some of his supporters — about whether he can advance beyond being a summer sensation. Some suggest he could fade as voters think more seriously about whom they want as their nominee, and even Sanders acknowledges that money could become an issue once the contest moves to bigger states, where television advertising is more essential.
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“It is one thing now for every politician in the world, at least on the Democratic side, to be wildly enthusiastic about gay rights,” Sanders said. “That wasn’t the case back in 1996. . . . You can come up with any position you want today, but people have a right to know: Have you been consistent?”
Zaid Jilani at Alternet spoke to Sanders about the prison industry back in May:
Bernie Sanders Intends to Strike at Heart of Prison Industrial Complex
QUESTION:– then he's voting against his own comprehensive immigration reform bill. I would like to know would you help us shut down the for-profit prisons, would you you shift money away from detaining people to other more humane methods, immigration judges for examples […] and would you work for comprehensive immigration reform?
SANDERS: The answer is, yes, yes ,yes. Clearly one of the crises we face in our nation is that we have more people behind bars than any other country on earth […] China is a nation that is 3 or 4 times larger than us population wise, it is an authoritarian country Communist country, and we have far more people behind bars than does China. And what we do in our jails is we run a great educational system, we educate people how to be even better criminals. So it seems to me that rather than spending huge amounts of money on jails and on private corporations who are incentivized to keep people in jail, it might make a lot more sense to spend money on job training and education so that people do not end up in jail in the first place. And yes I'm certainly in favor of comprehensive education reform.
Politico writes about Bernie's disregard for chasing money:
Bernie Sanders has an unusual approach to fundraising: Do as little of it as possible.
It’s a point of distinction for the independent senator from Vermont. But it could be a serious limitation to his surging presidential campaign.
Working almost exclusively from his website, Sanders has raised about $8 million so far with an average donation of around $40 — impressive enough, given how little effort he’s made. But Sanders, who has been rising fast in recent early-state polls, is missing an opportunity to capitalize on his momentum with a restive progressive base that’s been without a standard-bearer since liberal icon Elizabeth Warren declined to run.
“I frankly don’t get the restraint. I don’t believe in unilateral disarmament,” said Harvard University professor Lawrence Lessig, who said that some progressives and campaign finance reform advocates think Sanders is ruining his presidential chances by not having a super PAC. (Lessig famously founded a super PAC aimed at ending super PACs.)
S.V Date @ The National Journal on how
Bernie Sanders Is the Best Challenger Hillary Clinton Could've Hoped For:
Bernie Sanders says a lot of things his fans love, what with his views on big banks, Republicans who deny climate change and the billionaire Koch brothers.
And he says one big thing that Hillary Clinton's campaign can also love: "I have never run a negative political ad in my life, and I don't intend to."
In other words, the independent Vermont senator and Clinton's top challenger at the moment for the Democratic presidential nomination is about the best kind of top challenger a front-runner can have: one who focuses on issues that pretty much every primary voter in their party can agree upon, while doing nothing to challenge her character or competence for office.
"If I'm a Hillary Clinton person, this is what I want. I want someone like Bernie Sanders in the race," says Mo Elleithee, a former top staffer at the Democratic National Committee who now runs Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service. "It gives her the opportunity to address the issues that he and his supporters want to hear about."
Laurel Sweet @ The Boston Herald with:
Sanders Storms Into NH On Populist Wave:
Democrat Bernie Sanders — riding high on rising poll numbers — brought his thundering left-leaning populism to cheering throngs that packed town halls yesterday in a barnstorming tour designed to capitalize on his newfound star quality.
“The Republicans get away with murder. Nobody knows what they stand for,” the Vermont senator, a 73-year-old grandfather, told the capacity crowd at Oyster River High School yesterday.
“We are going to sweep this election. I’m asking you to join me in creating a political revolution in this country,” Sanders said, to shouts of “Go get ’em, Bernie!”
“We’re going to win this campaign,” Sanders vowed, “because from coast to coast, people understand that when we stand together as Americans, there is nothing, nothing, nothing that we can’t accomplish.”
Earlier yesterday, the Democratic Party’s unlikely white-haired rock star filled a hall at the historic Governor’s Inn in Rochester with whistling, cheering believers despite torrential wind-whipped downpours.
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When asked by the Herald yesterday why he wasn’t talking up the polls, Sanders said, “Let the reality speak for itself. We had six or seven events here in New Hampshire this weekend. You saw the turnout. We had 500 people in Nashua yesterday. I think we’re doing pretty well.”
A
letter to the editor:
Last Sunday, June 20, senator and declared candidate for president, Bernie Sanders, held a town hall meeting at the University of Denver in Denver. Over 5,500 Coloradans thought it important enough to crowd the halls on a sunny evening to hear what lifelong independent Bernie Sanders was all about.
The Associated Press covered this story and most local stations just used the AP story. This was the largest political rally in the entire nation by any declared candidate, and one that grew organically from social media, and our press covered it like it was a story about hay prices in Kansas. It's downright deplorable what passes for journalism these days. Walter Cronkite, God bless him, must be rolling in his grave.