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Bernie Sanders Talks To Bill Maher:
Democratic candidate and perpetual underdog Bernie Sanders just earned a huge win, and it couldn't have come at a better time. On Friday night, Real Time host Bill Maher unofficially endorsed Sanders for president during Sanders' visit to the HBO set, prompting the audience and a good portion of the social media sphere to chime in enthusiastically. After a successful showing at Tuesday's first Democratic primary debate, Maher's endorsement was the perfect way to cap off a big week — and for a self-proclaimed democratic socialist like Sanders, who often struggles to convey his message without scaring off more mainstream voters, support from big names like Maher are vital.
Within minutes of sitting down with Sanders, Maher had already begun digging for serious answers. "My question for you is the word 'socialist' — I want to get right to this," said Maher. "Because I want to help your campaign, I want to see you get the nomination, [so] we have to teach Americans what this is ... I don't think most Americans realize that they're already socialists."
Sanders then replied that Americans needed to fundamentally understand the things that democratic socialists like himself hoped to achieve. "We want to deal with grotesque level of income inequality in America," Sanders said, citing one example. "Very few people think that [this] is acceptable [...]."
Sanders Gets Things Done:
While Sanders was an amendment king who was able to bring bipartisan coalitions together to make serious changes to laws, he also knew how to be a thorn in the side of the establishment until it offered up something in return. Sanders was able to get the first-ever audit of funds given out by the Federal Reserve, which made transparent over $2 trillion of funds handed out by the secretive organization. This was a cause that Republican congressman Ron Paul (TX) had been pursuing for decades, but Sanders was able to get the votes to do it by forging a compromise that required an audit for the bailout period alone.
When the Affordable Care Act was in danger of not having the votes to pass, Sanders used his leverage to win enough funding for free health treatment for 10 million Americans through Community Health Centers. This gutsy move—holding out until the funds were put into the bill—has even Republican members of Congress requesting the funds, which have helped millions of Americans who otherwise would not have access.
Another moment came when Sanders, who was then chair of the Veterans committee, worked with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), to overhaul the Veterans Administration. McCain praised Sanders' work on the bill in an interview with National Journal. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) even went so far as to say the bill would never have passed without Sanders' ability to bring the parties to a deal.
A Major Post Debate Boost:
Bernie Sanders is seeing a major post-debate boost, with a surge in donations that has netted him more than $3 million in just a few days and set him up for what political experts say could be a long battle for the Democratic nomination.
Sanders has been steadily building his support in the past few months, growing from a fringe candidate into now what is considered a major threat to Hillary Clinton. Now he has the fundraising to add, nearly matching Clinton’s total over the last three months.
The Sanders campaign reported more than $3 million in the days after the first presidential debate and noted that Sanders is doing it with a grassroots approach.
“Other campaigns are bankrolled by big donors who have given so much even under our current corrupt political system they can’t legally give any more,” campaign manager Jeff Weaver said. “Bernie’s big base of small donors may give again and again. What is clear now is that this campaign to transform America will have the resources to fight all the way to the convention.”
No The 'Damn Emails' Line Was Not Scripted:
The five Democrats on the debate stage were not overly nice: there was of shouting, attacks by name, and interrupting. And Sanders was not exempt — he's even did a bit of that classic Sanders finger wag at his opponents. But, the most resonating moments of the debate weren't moments of conflict, but when Sanders went out of his way to praise his fellow Democrats.
According to the campaign, the "damn emails" line was entirely off-the-cuff. "When you don't script somebody, they're not canned, you get lines like that that come right from the heart," Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager said after the debate. And, Weaver says, it's a good moment for both candidates.
"What it really showed is this: what he wants to do is talk about the real political issues facing the American people," Weaver said, speaking to reporters. "He would much rather have a debate with Hillary Clinton about real issues rather than... well, he said it better than I can say it."
Cooper Wishes He Had Done That Differently However (Warning.. this links to Breitbart):
While the Democrat crowd in the debate studio applauded Sanders’ exclamation, and Hillary thanked the Senator for his support, liberal Twitter exploded in appreciation.
But on Friday, CNN’s debate host, Anderson Cooper, said that the exchange was one of his regrets about how he conducted the night’s event.
Cooper told New York Times reporter Bill Carter that he wished he had handled the question differently. “I wish I had brought in one other candidate before I went to Sanders on the email thing because I knew Sanders would try to shut it down,” he said.
Congrats Bernie, republicans Are Now Attacking You:
Donald Trump called Sanders a “maniac,” telling a Virginia crowd that the Vermont senator would “tax you people at 90 percent” and “take everything,” according to a CBS News report.
“Nobody heard the term communist, but you know what, I call him a socialist/communist, okay? ‘Cause that’s what he is,” Trump said, in apparent disregard to Sanders’ platform and just one day after he put out a brief anti-Sanders ad about ISIS on his Instagram account.
Meanwhile in New Hampshire, Jeb Bush told a town hall that Sanders was “just warming up” when it came to tax and spending proposals. Bush also linked Clinton and Sanders on the issue of healthcare, coining the phrase “Berniecare,” in a tweet Tuesday.
“It’s great news for the Sanders campaign,” Wayne Lesperance, a political science professor at New England College, told Boston.com. “The more they’re talking about them, the more we’re all talking about them.”
Along with the free publicity, Lesperance said, the attacks from his Republican counterparts let Sanders say “look how serious they’re taking me.”
A Post Debate Poll:
The first scientific poll conducted after the Democratic debate shows that Hillary Clinton received a one percent bump. According to the NBC online poll, released Friday, Secretary Clinton maintains her lead with 45 percent, up three percent from September. Bernie Sanders has 31 percent, up two percent in the same period. This equates to a one percent bump, well within the margin of error. Most of Clinton’s gain comes from Vice-president Joe Biden, who lost five percent since September. Biden has not announced that he is running. The poll was conducted by Survey Monkey.
Pundits, the Clinton campaign, and NBC’s Today Show were spinning these results saying Clinton received a “big” bump as a result of her “crushing” and “dominant” victory in the presidential debate. The poll does seem to back up the claims of the Washington press corps that Clinton won the debate. The NBC poll found that 56 percent of Democrats thought Clinton won versus thirty three percent who felt that Sanders won.
In a normal year, one could take this to the bank. This year, however, nothing is certain. On the night of the debate, focus groups of uncommitted voters conducted by CNN, Fusion, and FOX News all said that Bernie Sanders nailed it. A real-time survey on CNN’s Facebook site indicated that Bernie Sanders won by a 75 percent to 15 percent margin. This poll was taken before pundits in the spin room proclaimed Clinton the winner, saying things like she “crushed” Sanders.
Winning The Internet:
What does it take to win a political debate? There are questions of substance, style and sass, with the winner likely possessing a perfect combination of all three. Pundits already proclaimed who won (former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton), lost (Vice President Joe Biden) and broke even (former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley), but InsideGov takes a different tack, looking at who cleaned up on the Internet the night of the debate.
As the above graph indicates, Sen. Bernie Sanders is the far-and-away winner of the Twitter battle. The Vermont Democrat collected about 34,610 new followers during the two-and-a-half-hour debate, while Clinton acquired just shy of 13,000 followers.
When taking into account an overall snapshot of these two candidates' Twitter followers, Sanders' post-debate haul looks even more impressive. At the beginning of the debate on Oct. 13, Sanders had 653,851 followers. In the days since, his follower count has climbed to 850,708, meaning that since the debate started, Sanders has gained almost 200,000 new followers. As the graph below shows, the last few days saw his biggest increase yet.
Bernie Is Changing How We Conduct Politics:
The jury is still out on whether Bernie Sanders can win the Democratic presidential nomination, but the “clean” campaign tactics and passion of the Vermont senator have shown other politicians — and American voters — that there is an alternative to the politics-as-usual negativity of smear campaigns and scandals, whether real or manufactured. Is Bernie Sanders helping redefine American politics and how candidates conduct their campaigns?
The New York Times noted the stark contrast between the Democratic presidential debate last Tuesday and the squabbling among Republican candidates, saying that the “grown-ups” took the stage that night, and calling “civility” the big winner. How big of a role is Sanders playing in this shift in politics, at least on one side of the political fence?
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The Democratic presidential candidates did talk about real issues in the debate, and numerous media polls showed Americans responded favorably to this different tone, with the Nation calling for many more debates given the refreshingly positive and focused tone of this first one. Was it influenced by the grassroots campaign of Sanders who has been picking up tremendous steam — and voters — with his novel approach?
Another breaking story involving Bernie Sanders this week didn’t come from conventional big media but from a blog, although HuffPost then picked up the story. Sanders happened to be dining at Union Station in Washington at the same time as Sandra Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, when Rev. Hannah Bonner invited Sanders to join them.
After A Great Debate, We Need More:
What happened in Vegas should not stay in Vegas.
The reviews are in from the first debate among the Democratic presidential candidates, and they’re positive.
Viewership topped 15 million, a record for debating Democrats.
As Martin O’Malley noted, this was a debate that actually presented an appealing message (or set of messages) to the American people–as opposed to the highly viewed but not highly evolved Republican debates. “On this stage, you didn’t hear anyone denigrate women, you didn’t hear anyone make racist comments about new American immigrants, you didn’t hear anyone speak ill of another American because of their religious belief,” said the former governor of Maryland, whose earnest campaign gained deserved exposure Tuesday night. “What you heard instead on this stage tonight was an honest search for the answers that will move our country forward, to move us to a 100 percent clean electric energy grid by 2050, to take the actions that we have always taken as Americans so that we can actually attack injustice in our country, employ more of our people, rebuild our cities and towns, educate our children at higher and better levels, and include more of our people in the economic, social, and political life of our country.”
“More and more people on the ground from states all across the country are calling for more debates.” —Tulsi Gabbard
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the front-runner in the race, got a boost, as did her chief challenger, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who illustrated a little of what he means when he talks about forging “a political revolution” by eschewing attacks and steering the discussion back again and again toward vital economic and social issues.