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Bernies Rallies Across USA Paying Off In Iowa:
The first person Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont met when he climbed out of a Dodge Journey here on a recent Saturday morning was Caleb Humphrey. It was for good reason.
“Senator, this week alone Caleb made 2,016 calls,” a campaign organizer said, introducing Mr. Humphrey.
“Oh, my God,” Mr. Sanders said, looking genuinely shocked. “Thank you very much for that.”
As Mr. Sanders walked into the hall for another packed rally, Mr. Humphrey, a 30-year-old Army veteran, explained why he had made so many calls urging Iowans to come to the event.
“I haven’t felt anything like this in the three years I have been out of the Army,” he said of Mr. Sanders’s unlikely and rising campaign for the Democratic nomination. “I feel a part of something.”
Support for Mr. Sanders has surged around the country, and he has drawn crowds that are the envy of other candidates. But it is Mr. Sanders’s footprint in Iowa, that most critical of early states, where that expansion matters most.
Sanders Rejects Comparisons To Trump::
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Monday rejected the suggestion his campaign is tapping into the same voter frustration as GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
"No, I don't accept that for one moment," the Independent Vermont senator said on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" when asked if he was tapping into the same "anger" against Washington that is fueling Trump's campaign.
"We are not engaged here in demagoguery. We’re not engaged in racist attacks, outrageous attacks against Mexicans. What we are trying to do is talk about the reality facing the American people and come up with real concrete solutions," Sanders continued.
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"Donald Trump is a very strong TV personality. He's very good at what he does. He's funny. He's articulate," Sanders said on MSNBC.
"But I think, at the end of the day, when people focus on the kinds of programs we need, the fact that we need a mass political movement, we don't need one person at the top, we need millions of people — young people, working people, seniors — coming together to reclaim our government. I think when that happens I think you'll find that Bernie Sanders does increasingly well."
Alabama Dems Have A Tough Choice Ahead:
The great thing about the roster of candidates currently vying for the Democratic presidential nod, is not the quantity of contenders. But the caliber. Yes, there are a handful of capable, strong contenders. But there are really only two players leading the pack nationally: Hillary and Bernie. Both have what it takes. In spades.
Background: Unlike most of the GOP frontrunners, neither Hillary Clinton nor Bernie Sanders was born to privilege. She is one of three children born to strict, middle-class parents in the Midwest. Sanders was the child of struggling, working-class immigrants from Poland. Both candidates are self-made. As one would expect from such individuals, both are strong-willed, smart and incredibly hard workers. Advantage: Tie
Accomplishments: Sanders began his political career as mayor of the largest city in Vermont, Burlington. Under his leadership, the city saw vast economic revitalization. Even the business community grew to respect and work with him. As U.S. Senator, he was a vocal opponent of the invasion of Iraq, for moral as well as economic reasons. He achieved the unimaginable, when in 2012 he was able to work with GOP members to pass a $2 billion spending bill to repair the Veterans Administration.
On Sanders Socialism:
Political writers have spent untold words in recent months trying to define Sanders’ socialist leanings.
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In a July interview with The Nation, he was asked about the evolution of the word and why he talks about socialism in “positive, detailed terms.”
“I happen to believe that, if the American people understood the significant accomplishments that have taken place under social-democratic governments, democratic-socialist governments, labor governments throughout Europe, they would be shocked to know about those accomplishments,” Sanders said.
“One of the goals of this campaign is to advance that understanding.”
Sanders has been trying to explain his brand of socialism for years.
“Well, I think it means the government has got to play a very important role in making sure that as a right of citizenship, all of our people have healthcare; that as a right, all of our kids, regardless of income, have quality childcare, are able to go to college without going deeply into debt; that it means we do not allow large corporations and moneyed interests to destroy our environment; that we create a government in which it is not dominated by big money interest,” he told Democracy Now! in 2006 when he was elected to the Senate.
“I mean, to me, it means democracy, frankly. That’s all it means. And we are living in an increasingly undemocratic society in which decisions are made by people who have huge sums of money. And that’s the goal that we have to achieve.”
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/...
Guess Who Is Going To Be On Colberts New Show:
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o will appear on the second week of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” CBS announced Monday.
Other guests for week two will include “House of Cards” star Kevin Spacey, “Everest” star Jake Gyllenhaal, and Oscar nominee Naomi Watts. Colbert will also speak with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
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Colbert takes over the desk previously occupied by David Letterman on Sept. 8.
Yes Sanders Was A Conscientious Objector:
Bernie Sanders applied for conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War, his campaign confirmed to ABC News.
"As a college student in the 1960s he was a pacifist," Michael Briggs, campaign spokesman added in an email. "[He] isn't now."
Sanders's political and anti-war activism in the 1960s and '70s has been well-documented. While at the University of Chicago, he was a member of several progressive peace organizations, including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Student Peace Union.
As a congressman and later senator, Sanders has rarely voted to authorize the use of force.
More On War/Peace:
International rivals would be mistaken to assume he wouldn't be prepared to use military force if that's what circumstances required, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said in an interview that aired on Sunday.
The Vermont senator says the United States should have the strongest military in the world. The U.S. should be prepared to act when it or its allies are threatened or in response to genocide.
"Yes, there are times when you have to use force. No question about it," Sanders said. "But that should be a last resort."
Bernie In Iowa:
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, whose campaign got a big boost with a new poll in Iowa over the weekend, will be in Iowa this week for a handful of rallies, as well as an invitation-only event on Friday morning in Muscatine.
Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, will be in Grinnell for a 2 p.m. town hall meeting at the Grinnell Community Center on Thursday, with doors to open at 1:30 p.m. After that, he'll be at a campaign headquarters opening at 5 p.m. in Ottumwa.
That evening, at 7:30 p.m., he'll be in Burlington for a town hall meeting at the livestock arena at the Des Moines County Fairgrounds. The doors to the event open at 6:30 p.m.
On Friday, Sanders will begin the day with an invitation-only roundtable at the Muscatine County Boxing Club, 417 Grandview Ave. That will be at 9:30 a.m.
This is a unique way to support Sanders:
Just weeks after a New Jersey woman used her obituary to urge mourners not to support Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, a Florida woman used hers to rally support for Clinton's challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Nancy Dearr of Miami, who died last week at the age of 62, made one final request in her obituary: "In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign."
According to her obituary, Dearr met her husband through politics -- both worked on Sen. George McGovern's Democratic presidential campaign in 1972. She spent her early career in advertising and public relations and was active as a parent volunteer at her children's schools.
Bernie & The Third Rail:
Regardless of whether or not Bernie Sanders wins any states in the presidential race, he has already made a more meaningful contribution to our contemporary political conversation than all the other candidates put together.
After all, we all know what Hillary thinks about most social and political issues given the longevity and high profile of her career.
While its true that Trump makes headlines and a lot of people are talking about him, they aren’t talking about any great ideas he has about how to address America’s economic and political future. Or any new ideas about how to address the social problems of racism and poverty that shape people’s lives today. Trump is no politician, he is a cult of personality, a megalomaniac whose obsession with power and attention is unparalleled in our contemporary political scene.
And then there’s Bernie.
Bernie Sanders is an unassuming, old, white guy who is a career politician. Born in Brooklyn, he spent nearly the last 50 years in Vermont where he served several terms as mayor of Burlington and then moved on to the Vermont state house, the US House of Representatives, and now the US Senate.
This, in and of itself, is not remarkable. It’s a typical sort of bio for an American politician.
Except for one thing.
Sanders identifies himself as a democratic socialist. By running as a socialist candidate, Bernie has grabbed the third rail of American politics and is riding it for all he’s worth.
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Bernie Sanders represents exactly what democracy ought to be about – the healthy and unfettered exchange of ideas about the welfare of our country. He is also showing us that democratic socialism is more viable than most politicians or capitalists have been willing to admit.
9 Examples of Bernie taking on the media:
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has made it clear that he has no love for the "corporate media."
The independent senator from Vermont, whose poll numbers keep creeping up on those of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, frequently criticizes reporters for being interested in him only if he personally attacks Clinton or other candidates. He reiterated this point to MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Monday, saying that his campaign isn't "against" anybody but for the middle class.
Sanders argues that the media have a responsibility to stop pushing "soap opera" politics and start focusing on the major issues facing the country, like income and wealth inequality, the influence of money in politics, climate change and racial justice.
Check out some of Sanders' best media criticisms below.
The Sanders Surge
Hillary Clinton has far more money, name recognition, endorsements and political experience than any of her Democratic rivals. Her legion of high-profile supporters have made the case that she will inevitably win the Democratic nomination for president.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the coronation: It's not time (yet) for all-out political panic, but Clinton and her team have very good reasons to be worried about the sharp and steady rise in support for presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Sanders is the top choice of 30% of Iowa Democratic voters likely to attend the first-in-the-nation caucuses next year -- only 7 points behind Clinton, who is favored by 37% -- according to the latest Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll. That's a big change from late May, when Clinton was crushing Sanders 57% to 16% among likely caucus-goers.
Even more troubling for Clinton, the Sanders surge in Iowa echoes a big move in New Hampshire, where Sanders was 39 points behind in March but has opened up a lead and now stands 7 points ahead of Clinton, according to a Boston Herald/Franklin Pierce University poll.
Sanders is winning hearts and minds by loudly decrying the large and growing gap between rich and poor in America, a message that resonates strongly in Iowa