The case for Bernie Sanders (in Iowa)

By James Downie January 31 at 4:49 PM

Bernie Sanders wasn’t supposed to be here, at least not like this. The Vermont senator wasn’t supposed to be poised to win New Hampshire, especially by double digits. He wasn’t supposed to be able to raise tens of millions of dollars to be even competitive with Hillary Clinton’s money-flush campaign. And he definitely wasn’t supposed to be within 30 points of Clinton in Iowa, let alone three.

Yet here we are. Clinton has not closed the sale with Democratic voters. Her campaign knows this — though they once wanted the Democratic National Committee to hold fewer debates, they’ve now flip-flopped and decided that more debates will provide the former secretary the best venue to keep making her case. Meanwhile, the past few months have seen an explosion in fruitful debates among liberals: how to build on Obamacare, how to address income inequality, how to approach foreign policy after Obama, how to fix the criminal justice system and how to break the partisan gridlock in Washington.

In short, this race is just getting good, and yet if Clinton wins Iowa, it could effectively end Monday. Sanders likely will still win New Hampshire, but Clinton will romp through other states. Voters and the media will pull back from treating the race as a real debate. This essential discussion for the future of liberalism will get cut short in its prime.

Iowa voters must make sure this necessary debate continues.

Clinton has not closed the sale because she hasn’t answered key questions about her candidacy. As of Saturday, Sanders polls better nationally than her against Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. (Some say this is just because the GOP hasn’t demonized Sanders as a “socialist.” Swap Sanders and “socialist” with Obama and “inexperienced” and you have what people said in early 2008.) Even Clinton supporters admit that she will likely struggle to turn out the younger voters essential to replicating Obama’s two victories. The email scandal looks set to hang over her candidacy for the rest of the election. Whether or not she is legally vulnerable does not affect the political liability; that she, in explaining her use of a private email server, put her own “convenience” as a higher priority than transparency and national security is inexcusable — a decision that voters are quite right to be concerned about.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/01/31/the-case-for-bernie-sanders-in-iowa/