Clad in a black "Bernie for President" T-shirt, Tommy Chong sat on a stool inside a small studio tucked away behind an aikido dojo in Los Angeles' Chinatown, cleared his throat and squinted at the teleprompter a few feet in front of him.
The comedian and advocate of legalized marijuana, best known for the "Cheech and Chong" films, was there with a small crew of volunteers to cut a political Web video to promote Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign — and not just because the Vermont senator has called for an end to the federal government's prohibition on marijuana.
Chong starts off the video — to be seen on a laptop near you in the coming weeks — comparing the slate of presidential candidates to marijuana plants ready to be harvested, noting that only Sanders is "mature" enough to picked. Calling Sanders the "commander in Kush," referring to a type of marijuana, Chong ticks off his reasons for support. Then comes the money line.
"Only one candidate this year has said things I truly believe in, like supporting the legalization of ...," he said, pausing for dramatic effect, "a fair and humane immigration policy." Also on the list? Legalization of "a real living wage."
Chong may not be the kind of A-lister that campaigns roll out in swing states, but he does have millions of followers on Twitter and Facebook, where the video will be shared. Chong's tongue-in-cheek Web short is likely to be a hit with the vast grassroots army of volunteers and small donors Sanders is relying on to fuel his campaign — especially as he seeks to bring out progressive voters.
Hillary Clinton holds a three-point edge over Senator Bernie Sanders in Iowa, a tightening of the race with roughly three weeks until voting begins, according to a new set of surveys of likely voters from NBC/The Wall Street Journal/Marist.
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In Iowa, Mrs. Clinton has 48 percent of support and Mr. Sanders has 45 percent as the competition between the two has become more contentious. Martin O’Malley, the third Democratic presidential candidate, has 5 percent in Iowa, meaning he will most likely qualify for the next presidential debate.
But in New Hampshire, the survey also found Mr. Sanders at 50 percent, to 46 percent for Mrs. Clinton.
That margin is smaller than a recent Fox News survey, in which Mr. Sanders led Mrs. Clinton by 13 points. An NBC survey last month showed Mr. Sanders ahead by nine points in New Hampshire.
The surveys also found Mr. Sanders, buoyed by the support of independent voters, outperforms Mrs. Clinton in hypothetical general-election matchups in both states among registered voters.
In New Hampshire, Mr. Sanders, who is from neighboring Vermont, beats all three, while in Iowa he tops Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz and is tied with Mr. Rubio.
“If people are concerned about electability -- and Democrats should be very concerned because we certainly don’t want to see some right-wing extremist in the White House -- Bernie Sanders is the candidate,” Sanders told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” Sunday.
Sanders cited a Quinnipiac Poll released last month showing he fares better than his main Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton against Republican front-runner Donald Trump. The poll shows Sanders beating Trump by 13 points, compared to Clinton’s smaller margin of 7 points.
“If people are concerned about electability -- and Democrats should be very concerned because we certainly don’t want to see some right-wing extremist in the White House -- Bernie Sanders is the candidate,” Sanders told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” Sunday.
Sanders cited a Quinnipiac Poll released last month showing he fares better than his main Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton against Republican front-runner Donald Trump. The poll shows Sanders beating Trump by 13 points, compared to Clinton’s smaller margin of 7 points.
President Barack Obama has met privately with Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton several times in recent months, but his chief of staff said Sunday that he's powwowed with her chief rival, Bernie Sanders, too.
"He has seen Senator Sanders, both with the Senate Democratic Caucus and privately," Denis McDonough said on NBC's Meet the Press. "And so, we'll continue to do that. He's obviously a leading senator in our caucus and we'll continue to do just that."
McDonough said Obama won't endorse in the presidential primary, despite his recent signal that he'll weigh in on down-ballot races over gun control issues.
"That's not our job. That's the job of the party to make those decisions and then they'll take a look at the agendas and the positions of those candidates," he said. "Then we'll make some final decisions. ... Well, we'll do exactly what has been done in the past, which is when the nominee will be set, then the President will be out there."
Bernie Sanders loves to talk about the fact that he doesn’t have a super-PAC backing his campaign. But the true state of his fundraising strategy is even more astonishing than that: The Sanders campaign doesn’t have a finance team.
And that’s a big deal.
Every competitive presidential campaign in recent election cycles has had team of people exclusively dedicated to finances: figuring out how much money the campaign needs, putting together a plan to get that money, and then making it all come together.
It’s considered a fundamental part of a modern presidential campaign, right up there with having a team to deal with the press. But Sanders may be changing that.
Call it a reinvention of campaign funding, but the Vermont senator has shown so far that a campaign can operate just fine without a fleet of green-visors counting the cash.
“I’ve never heard of a presidential campaign, even a minor party presidential campaign, that didn’t have a fundraising team,” said one campaign finance attorney. “But, ok if it’s working.”
And, judging by Sanders’ latest fundraising numbers, it is.
Tavis Smiley isn't the only one that's sick and tired of hearing the media continually lump Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Talking Yam, fearmongering, racist demagogue who is ahead in all the polls for the Republican presidential nomination.
I'm sick and tired of it as well, so I was very happy to see him stop Matthew Dowd in his tracks on ABC's This Week when Dowd played his usual game of "both sides" with Sanders and Trump.
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Our corporate media loves to play this little game where they pretend that both men are just tapping into some of the anger over jobs and economic factors among working class voters, while ignoring the fact that Trump is playing directly to the worst instincts and racist tendencies of the Republican base.
I've got my issues with Smiley as well, but he was spot on with his criticism here:
SMILEY: I hear your point, Matthew. And I am tickled by the fact that the establishment candidates are not running (INAUDIBLE) issues as strong as they have in the past. I'm OK with seeing somebody from the outside do well.
But I get tired of, respectfully, of us lumping Trump and Sanders in the same group. I take your point. They are two different kinds of candidates. You're right. They're appealing for different reasons.
But one of these guys is being covered, but he's not being condemned. I'm talking, of course, about Donald Trump. That is not the message that Bernie Sanders is putting out. They're two different candidates...
All American political candidates speak long and loud about their commitments to helping our veterans after they return home from war; is there anything less politically uncontroversial or a more universally popular issue? But while candidates are very good at talking the talk, they unfortunately are less devoted to walking the walk, especially on the Republican side, whose members feel that veterans
healthcare is “just too expensive” and that the best solution is to
privatize it and let Wall Street play financial blackjack with that money.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), on the other hand, has sponsored more bills fighting for the well-being of our veterans than any other legislator in the last thirty years. One of his most recent high-profile veterans’ bills include last year’s Veterans CHOICE Act in the wake of the VA scandal, a comprehensive reform bill that worked to rectify the VA’s bureaucratic inefficiencies, expand healthcare and dental access for veterans, create education and employment opportunities for their post-military lives, and expanded desperately needed reproductive health access for veterans and their spouses.
Here is a full list of the bills sponsored or co-sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders,
courtesy of VetsForBernie.org:
A co-founder of the Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream is taking his political views to the next level.
Holding a Bernie Sanders sign outside the Donald Trump rally in Burlington, Vt. last week, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen told MSNBC that he’s already thought up a flavor for the former Burlington mayor.
“I’ve been flavor developer for many years, and I came up with one,” Cohen said, adding that he would call the flavor “Bernie’s Yearning.”
He went on to describe how he would craft a pint of the ice cream:
“When you open up the pint, there’s this big disc of chocolate covering the entire top, and below it is just plain mint ice cream,” Cohen said. “The disc of chocolate represents the 90 percent of the wealth that has gone to the top 10 percent over the last 10 years.
“The way you eat it, you take your spoon, you whack that big chocolate disc into a bunch of little pieces, you mix it around, and there you have it: Bernie’s Yearning.”
The Bernie News Roundup is a voluntary, non-campaign associated roundup of news, media, & other information related to Bernie Sanders' run for President.
More information about Bernie & The Issues @ feelthebern.org
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