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Sandrs Is Closing In On Clinton:
Liberal revolutionary Bernie Sanders, riding an updraft of insurgent passion in Iowa, has closed to within 7 points of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential race.
She's the first choice of 37 percent of likely Democratic caucusgoers; he's the pick for 30 percent, according to a new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll.
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In this cycle, Sanders is attracting more first-time caucusgoers than Clinton. He claims 43 percent of their vote compared to 31 percent for Clinton. He also leads by 23 percentage points with the under-45 crowd and by 21 points among independent voters.
Sanders, a Vermont U.S. senator, has become a liberal Pied Piper in Iowa not as a vote against Clinton, but because caucusgoers genuinely like him, the poll shows. An overwhelming 96 percent of his backers say they support him and his ideas. Just 2 percent say they're motivated by opposition to Clinton.
Back in January, half of likely Democratic caucusgoers were unfamiliar with Sanders, who has been elected to Congress for 25 years as an independent. He has jumped from 5 percent support in January to 30 percent. Clinton, a famous public figure for decades, has dropped in that period from 56 percent to 37 percent.
"These numbers would suggest that she can be beaten," said Steve McMahon, a Virginia-based Democratic strategist who has worked on presidential campaigns dating to 1980.
More From Politico:
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is rapidly closing the gap with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but she still maintains a solid lead in Iowa's Democratic caucuses, according to a poll released Saturday.
Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner and establishment favorite, is drawing 37 percent of the vote. Sanders earns 30 percent of the vote. Vice President Joe Biden, who is still wavering on making a run, earns 14 percent. This is the first time Clinton has fallen short of a majority in the Iowa poll, conducted by pollster Ann Selzer for the Des Moines Register and Bloomberg, this year.
"This feels like 2008 all over again," Selzer told the paper, referring to then-Sen. Barack Obama's remarkable victory over Clinton in the caucuses then. In January, Clinton led Sanders by more than 50 percentage points and he drew just 5 percent of the vote.
Without Biden in the contest, Clinton's support jumps to 43 percent and Sanders' climbs to 35 percent. The three other Democrats running for the presidency -- former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee -- all fail to earn even five percent of the vote.
Bernie Agrees With O'Malley:
“I do,” Sanders reportedly responded when asked Friday whether he agrees with former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s assertion that the debate system is “rigged.”
The two Democratic presidential candidates were speaking at the summer meeting of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in Minneapolis on Friday.
“This sort of rigged process has never been attempted before,” O’Malley said in his speech earlier Friday.
The DNC has drawn criticism for scheduling only four debates before the early-primary states cast their votes, and six total throughout the election cycle.
DNC spokeswoman Holly Shulman defended the schedule, saying it will “give plenty of opportunity for the candidates to be seen side-by-side.”
“I’m sure there will be lots of other forums for the candidates to make their case to voters, and that they will make the most out of every opportunity,” Shulman said in a statement, according to The Washington Post.
Why Bernie Is Best On Womens Issues:
ernie Sanders has consistently fought against Republican attacks on reproductive rights. If elected president, he would increase funding for Planned Parenthood. He's vowed to only nominate Supreme Court justices who uphold Roe v. Wade, and plans to expand women's health programs, and access to safe and legal abortions. Clinton has also been out front on reproductive rights, but her historic refrain that abortion be "safe, legal, and rare" has only served to stigmatize it and justify conservative efforts to impose legal restrictions.
On the issue of families, Sanders has often pointed out that of 178 countries worldwide, the U.S. is one of three that does not provide new mothers with paid leave. He argues for a Scandinavia-like model, where family leave is part of a robust system of social safety nets. As president, he would provide workers with up 12 weeks of family and medical leave, funded with a small payroll contribution -- so that parents can bond with their newborns, and family members care for sick relatives. He would also free millions of women from the struggle to secure childcare by making high-quality services and pre-K available to all Americans, regardless of income.
The Clinton campaign has made family leave a centerpiece of its platform, but the candidate's level of enthusiasm is not encouraging. Just last year she openly admitted to CNN, "I don't think, politically, we could get it now."
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In the end, it looks like the Senator from Vermont is outdoing the woman candidate on pro-woman policy. That shouldn't come as a surprise. A recent survey by the Ms. Foundation for Women found that "Women do not lead single-issue lives... birth control and abortion is impacted by income level, racial and cultural bias, gender discrimination and immigrant status."
Bernie has long-understood that women's struggles can't be compartmentalized into issue-silos. That's why he's long-eschewed counterfeit gestures of "gender diversity" -- in favor of genuine social equality.
A letter to the editor:
Bernie Sanders is a rare, principled politician. Clear on what needs to be done to fix America. Seriously committed to doing that. A smart realist who knows what he is up against, and who has told us the challenges will not be met without our active help, by the millions. A very courageous man who also knows that he will be politically savaged by the right and by the Hillary "liberals," and has nonetheless stepped into the breech.
I believe he is doing it because he has an abiding faith in the American people. He believes we have what it takes to close in around him and carry him and his (our) program forward to save ourselves and our country. Do we?
Bernie is no egoist. He doesn't seek power or fame. He is a humble and practical man — a problem solver, not an ideologue. He identifies problems, recognizes solutions already in place elsewhere and seeks to suitably implement them in our situations.
I can see him shaking his head in regard to our serious American problems: poverty, unemployment, millions without health insurance, infant mortality, and so on. Thinking how foolish we are for not reaching for the obvious, available solutions. Here's a nail, there's a hammer. Pick it up!
Berie Gains More Labor Support:
The South Carolina AFL-CIO executive board passed a resolution supporting U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ candidacy for the Democratic Party presidential nomination and recommending his endorsement by the state and national labor organization.
“We call on the AFL-CIO, union members and working people everywhere to unite behind Bernie Sanders and elect the president Americas’ workers desperately need,” the resolution said. The resolution “strongly urges” the national AFL-CIO to endorse Sanders.
Erin McKee, president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO, said the executive board member who recommended Sanders said “nobody in a very long time has stood up for working people and labor like Bernie Sanders has.”
South Carolina is among the first four states in the nation to hold primaries or caucuses to begin the process of selecting the Democratic Party presidential nominee. The action by the South Carolina executive board made it the second state, after Vermont, to back Sanders.
Do We Really Need PolitiFact To tell Us This?
.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, is trying to attract black voters to his presidential campaign, despite some opposition from activists in the Black Lives Matter movement.
The website for Sanders’ campaign for the Democratic nomination devotes an entire section to "Racial Justice." It kicks off by reciting the names of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and other individuals who have died during encounters with police.
"We know their names," it says. "Each of them died unarmed at the hands of police officers or in police custody… We should not fool ourselves into thinking that this violence only affects those whose names have appeared on TV or in the newspaper."
Then it says this: "African Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police."
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Our ruling
Blacks are twice as likely to be arrested as whites based on a criminologist’s analysis of the 2013 data.
But, based on the latest numbers that the federal statisticians could provide regarding use of force, blacks are about three times as likely to experience force during encounters with police.
Three times is not "almost four times," but Sanders was 75 percent correct, which is more than a passing score and the rate was close to four times in an older study.
For this reason, we rate the statement Mostly True.
Sanders Is Scary:
I saw Bernie Sanders recently in Greenville, S.C. The guy really scares me.
Not in the way so many candidates do when I think of them being the leader of the free world, but in the way that he laid out the frightening real issues facing our country, issues so complex and daunting that we want to quickly avert our eyes and revert to the same pre-packaged fears that polled so well in the last dozen election cycles.
Sanders scares me with his authenticity, his honesty and consistency. In these days of politicians market-researching every speech and begging billionaires for money (with the only promises most “normal” candidates intend to keep), Sanders is speaking the same truths he has spoken for 25 years. It is frightening that this is so unusual.
Sanders, Vermont’s Independent U.S. senator, voted against the Iraq war, saying Iraq was not an imminent threat to the United States, that such action would destabilize the region, and that we should address our economy at home. It scares me to remember that this was a minority opinion, based upon facts, not fears — and one that time proved correct.
Bernie Will Be On 'This Week' Today:
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders and Republican presidential candidate Gov. Bobby Jindal come to “This Week” Sunday.
Plus, Sen. Amy Klobuchar discusses her new book “The Senator Next Door.”
Sanders Shakes Up Vermont Progressives:
Vermont has been a launchpad for an independent, self-described socialist's run for the Democratic presidential nomination. But Bernie Sanders is only the best-known story in what's shaping up to be a weird, wild year in Vermont politics.
The state's 2016 governor's race could be one of the most fluid in the country. Though Vermont has elected Sanders for decades, it could also elect a Republican governor next year. But there's really no telling what will happen in a race that could feature four major general-election candidates, including one from a local political party with ties to Sanders, whose presidential momentum has emboldened the group.
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But both Democrats and Republicans could face complications in the form of candidates from other parties. Vermont's ultraliberal Progressive Party, which has deep ties to Sanders dating back to his Burlington mayoral campaigns, is hoping to field a candidate, and wealthy businessman Bruce Lisman is pondering his own run for governor as an independent, potentially creating a chaotic four-way contest.
The Progressive Party is a standing third party that traditionally runs candidates to the left of Democrats and is itching to make its mark on the 2016 gubernatorial race. "Given that Bernie's gaining so much traction, which we're so excited about here in Vermont," said party chair Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, "I'm hopeful that will energize progressives and progressive-leaning liberals to open up their minds" to supporting the party's candidate.