Ben Jealous, former head of the NAACP, officially endorsed Bernie Sanders on Friday, drawing parallels between the ideals of the Vermont senator and those of Martin Luther King Jr.
“I recall the words of the late great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus,” Jealous said in a press call organized by the Sanders’ campaign. “And that brings me to why I'm here today. Bernie Sanders has been a principled, courageous, insistent fighter against the evils that Dr. King referred to as the giant triplets of racism, militarism and greed.”
Jealous said Sanders meets King’s definition of a great leader and cited that as the reason he has the best chance to beat the Republican nominee in a general election. “Bernie Sanders is running a positive, principled, people-powered campaign and steadily molded consensus across our nation at such a high level that the polls now say he's hands down the candidate for beating any of the potential Republican nominees at the polls next fall,” he said.
Jealous, now a partner at the venture capital firm Kapor Capital and a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, hailed Sanders as a lifelong champion for equality and the candidate with the best plan to end mass incarceration and improve community policing.
A day after a hard-fought debate in New Hampshire, a more combative Bernie Sanders called on Hillary Clinton on Friday afternoon to pledge to expand Social Security benefits, challenging his opponent on a top issue for progressives.
Sanders has made expanding Social Security payouts to seniors a central part of his campaign. “I ask Secretary Hillary Clinton to join me in making it very clear that, number one, she will not support any cuts to Social Security,” Sanders said at a town hall in Exeter, N.H. on a snowy Friday.
“And number two, that she will join me in saying it is imperative that we increase and expand benefits for senior citizens and disabled veterans on Social Security,” Sanders continued.
Clinton has pledged to expand Social Security for widows and has also said she is open to increasing taxes on the wealthy to put more funding into the program, but she has not committed to expanding the program as Sanders has, something grassroots progressive groups have called for.
When Sanders tweeted later on Friday at Clinton and repeated his pledge asking her not to cut Social Security, the former secretary of state shot back, saying “I’ll expand it” and adding “enough false innuendos.”
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to hold a wide lead over Hillary Clinton among likely New Hampshire primary voters, according to a new CNN/WMUR tracking poll conducted entirely after the Iowa caucuses.
Sanders stands at 61% support, up slightly from the 57% he held in a late January CNN/WMUR poll conducted before he and Clinton divided Iowa caucusgoers almost evenly on Monday night. Clinton holds 30%, down a tick from the 34% she held before the caucuses. Both changes are within the poll's margin of sampling error.
The results reflect interviews conducted during the first two and a half days of a tracking poll that will ultimately wrap together three nights worth of interviews, but give the first look at how the race is shaping up following Monday night's caucuses in Iowa.
The Vermont senator is also widely expected to win the primary set to be held on February 9 in New Hampshire, with 61% of likely voters saying they think he'll win, while 25% expect a Clinton victory. Clinton won the state's primary during her bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination after polls ahead of the contest showed her trailing then-Senator Barack Obama.
The latest polls in New Hampshire place Bernie Sanders ahead of Hillary Clinton by as much as 31 percent. And that prompts a technical question from political scientists: WTF?
That is, why is Sanders, the democratic socialist senator from neighboring Vermont, who only months ago joined the Democratic Party after decades as an independent, clobbering the front-runner? The facile answers tossed about are that Sanders is from a next-door state and, thus, has a home-field advantage, and that many of those flinty New Hampshire residents like to vote as contrarians and don't mind sticking a sharp maple tree branch into the eye of the establishment. Here's the problem: These explanations for Bernie-mania don't make complete sense and are at odds with the voting history of the Granite State.
First, the neighbor thing. Candidates from nearby states often have an advantage in a primary because they start with high name recognition. Primary voters will usually know something about a senator or governor—or maybe a House member—from across the state line because media often crosses borders or simply because proximity does lead to familiarity. And there can be a sense a solidarity and regional pride (perhaps tempered with elements of rivalry) between the citizens of neighboring states. Yet folks I know in New Hampshire do say there's no deep or special bond between them and those who live on the western side of the Connecticut River. Sanders may not pick up many points in New Hampshire for having long ago relocated from Brooklyn to the Green Mountain State.
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Scala had a few possible explanations. He pointed out that for months last year, Sanders was promoting "a very positive, issue-based message without much pushback from the Clinton campaign." This allowed the fiery populist to make a good impression on liberal and moderate Democrats in the state. "He's a progressive insurgent," Scala says, "but he's doing very well among moderate Democrats." Scala also observes that Sanders—especially when compared with past insurgent-y candidates, such as Obama, Bradley, and Hart—is winning over working-class male voters in the state. "This is out of the ordinary," he comments, "especially for a progressive insurgent." In 2008, Hillary Clinton's core support in the primary was white, working-class voters. Their votes fueled her victory over Obama. (And in 1992, Bill Clinton did better with this group than Tsongas.) Scala speculates that in the wake of the Bush-Cheney recession, "this class of voters feels left behind"—and Sanders is addressing their worries and desires more so than Clinton.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called on New Hampshire voters to join his "political revolution" Friday, saying it's the only way America can achieve the change that working families and the middle class desire.
The Vermont senator urged people who have become disenfranchised with elections to turn out to the polls for New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary during a speech at the McIntrye-Shaheen 100 Club Celebration dinner at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester.
Sanders laid out a laundry list of policy proposals he would push for if elected president in November, including: tuition-free college, equal pay for women, a single-payer health care system and campaign finance reform -- measures which received loud applause from thousands of supporters who attended the event.
The senator, who has been criticized over the feasibility of achieving such policies, acknowledged that many of them would likely fail to gain traction in the current political environment. That, he said, is why there needs to be a "political revolution" so the government can reflect the will of the people and not wealthy campaign contributors.
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The dinner, which more than 6,000 Democrats and activists attended, came one day after the two Democratic candidates debated for the final time before New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary election.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) closed a 30-point gap with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to virtually tie her in a new national survey published Friday.
The poll, from Quinnipiac University, found Clinton leading Sanders among national Democratic primary voters, 44% to 42%.
That was a wild swing from a mid-December Quinnipiac poll that found Clinton leading 61% to 30% nationally over Sanders.
"Democrats nationwide are feeling the Bern as Sen. Bernie Sanders closes a 31-point gap to tie Secretary Hillary Clinton," said Tim Malloy, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll.
The Quinnipiac survey is the most bullish for Sanders on a national scale recently. Clinton remained ahead of Sanders in a Real Clear Politics average of recent national surveys by about 13 points.
Outspoken Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has already expressed his frustration with some of the Republican presidential candidates. But as the musician noted on Twitter, "I'm happier and more productive when I stay positive." The Chili Peppers have been longtime supporters of Bernie Sanders, going so far as to headline a benefit show Friday night in Los Angeles to raise money for his campaign.
In an exclusive essay for Rolling Stone, Flea outlines why, despite having "absolutely no interest" in politics, he was drawn to the candidate and his ideas.
I first learned about Bernie Sanders through a teacher of mine who lived in Vermont. He was telling me that the state, in most categories, has the highest standard of life in the United States in terms of employment, education, health care and all the things that you measure a standard of life by. He told me about Bernie and how much he admired him, so he's been on my radar for a while.
When we first started hearing about the Democratic [presidential] hopefuls, I saw that he was running and I just started paying attention. When I heard that he wasn't taking money from any corporations, didn't have any Super PACs and was doing it with a lot of small donations, I was amazed. The concept of a president in this country who is not beholden to corporate lobbyists is such a beautiful idea.
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The bottom line is that everybody deserves to get a good education. This country is completely capable economically of providing a high-grade education for everybody regardless of their economic class. And everybody deserves to have a high grade of health care regardless of their economic class. That is what's going to help [reduce] crime and poverty. That is what's going to make this country a beautiful, vibrant place.
People can still get rich, but it's just giving everybody a chance that everybody deserves. I'm for Bernie Sanders all the way. I believe in him; I believe in what he says. I relate to people who realize that we're all connected, and who realize that we have to look out for each other and love each other. And that's what Bernie's about.
Senator Bernie Sanders volunteered on an Israeli kibbutz in the 1960s, but he has always been vague about the specific location. Now, the mystery about the Democratic presidential candidate’s past appears to have been solved, in the archives of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Yossi Melman, a longtime Haaretz writer, remembers an interview he did with Mr. Sanders in 1990, the year he was elected to represent Vermont in the House. Haaretz dug up that clip, in which Mr. Sanders said he had spent several months in 1963 working on Kibbutz Sha’ar Ha’amakim, near Haifa in northern Israel, as a guest of the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement.
The movement, whose Hebrew name translates to “The Young Guard,” was a socialist, Zionist secular Jewish youth group founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, and shared the name of a workers’ party in pre-1948 Palestine. The original 1990 article was titled “The First Socialist” and said that after spending time on the kibbutz with his wife at that time, Mr. Sanders seems to have lost his connection “to Israel, Zionism and Judaism,” Haaretz reported this week. Mr. Sanders has long described himself as a democratic socialist.
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Mr. Ely said that on Sha’ar Ha’amakim, “you care about your brother or your neighbor or whoever it is.”
“I know that we left an imprint on those people,” Mr. Ely said. “The imprint was believe in people, and be responsible for them. Not only for yourself.”
American actor and political activist Danny Glover threw his support behind U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a move that could enhance the Vermont senator’s support among black voters.
Glover, who is also best known for his role in the “Lethal Weapon movies,” wrote in The Huffington Post on Thursday that Sanders’ “campaign is a mass justice movement” and his “presidency could serve the policy interests of the Black community.”
“Sanders has put forth the most coherent policy changes to achieve full employment,” said Glover. “His economic class-based proposals for change could have great benefits for unemployed and underemployed Americans — especially African-Americans because most Black people in this country are working class and a disproportionate number are poor.”
He emphasized that the senator’s proposals, including free tuition at public universities, expanding Social Security benefits, raising the minimum wage to $15, universal health care and a youth jobs program, “are not only feasible but needed and popular.”
In an era when politicians must master Snapchat and mimic the lingo of Broad City on Twitter, it was only a matter of time before grassroots campaigning seeped into a digital platform built purely for sex. Now, Tinder users who “feel the Bern” are maxing out their right swipes to canvass their matches on the upcoming presidential election and get them to sign up for text updates on the Bernie Sanders campaign.
Buzzfeed reports that Tinder has blocked one New Jersey 23-year-old, Robyn Gedrich, from using the app after several users reported her for spamming them with the same request: “Do you feel the bern? Please text WORK to 82623 for me. Thanks!” She sent that message to dozens of matches each day for two weeks straight. Gedrich started her tack after becoming disillusioned by the men she matched with on the app. She decided, without any directive from the Sanders campaign, to try her hand at political persuasion instead. “These guys are disgusting. They’re just looking for sex and that’s it,” she told Buzzfeed. “So if they’re going to swipe right, they might as well do some good and donate to the man, the myth, the legend: Bernie.”
Tinder locked another young woman, married Iowan Haley Lent, out of the app for using it as a campaigning tool. Lent told Reuters she paid for Tinder’s premium privileges so she could change her location to New Hampshire and match with potential voters there. One man from California told the BBC that the tactic stemmed from a feeling that Sanders wasn’t getting enough mainstream press to reach young voters.
These renegade Sanders swipers have gathered in a Facebook group, Bernie Sanders’ Dank Tinder Convos, to share screenshots of their text conversations with matches. With encouraging comments and plenty of ridicule for Tinder matches who respond to Berners with Trump talking points, it’s become a kind of support group for people who use the dating app to canvass singles in their area.
Before he was a presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders was barely known beyond his Vermont constituents and a contingent of liberal activists who dreamed of a political revolution.
The same could be said for the senator's once-obscure spoken word folk album, "We Shall Overcome."
Originally released in 1987, when Sanders was mayor of Burlington, the album has provided fodder for late night comedians after re-surfacing during the presidential campaign.
It features Sanders, speaking in his unmistakable accent, delivering messages of hope and unity while about 30 Vermont artists provide musical accompaniment.
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Charitable reviewers have placed "We Shall Overcome" in the "so bad it's good" category. But despite all the ridicule -- or perhaps because of it -- people are actually buying it.
According to Nielsen Music, the album has sold 1,500 copies since Sanders entered the presidential race at the end of April. As of this writing, it's the 62nd most downloaded album on Amazon.
Nielsen's data found that New York City, Los Angeles and Portland are the top three markets for the album.
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