Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumClinton camp sharpens attack on Sanders
Hillary Clintons supporters are attacking liberal rival Bernie Sanders more forcefully than ever before.
Its a tactic that has some Democrats shaking their heads, while allies of Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, cite it as evidence that their candidate is gaining traction.
When your opponents and people who represent them wade into the conversation with attacks against you, for us its a recognition of the fact that something must be working, said Tad Devine, a senior adviser to Sanders. Its a basic rule in politics that you dont attack somebody if they are not doing well.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a Clinton backer, launched the sharpest attack yet on Sanders on Thursday morning. Appearing on MSNBCs Morning Joe, McCaskill assailed him for having an extreme message and being unrealistic.
The Missouri senator also complained that the media were not giving the same scrutiny to Bernie Sanders that they are giving to certainly Hillary Clinton and the other candidates.
Earlier this month, another Clinton supporter, Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), took the fight to Sanders on the issue of immigration.
I dont know if he likes immigrants, because he doesn't seem to talk about immigrants, Gutiérrez told Larry King on his show PoliticKING.
Recent opinion polls have shown support for Sanders building, especially in Iowa and New Hampshire, the states that hold the first contests in the primary process.
The best result yet for Sanders came on Thursday evening, when a CNN/WMUR poll showed him closing to within 8 points of Clinton in New Hampshire.
But that result was not an outlier.
A Suffolk University poll put Sanders within 10 points of the former secretary of State in New Hampshire, drawing 31 percent backing to her 41 percent. A survey from Morning Consult put the deficit in the Granite State at 12 points. Polling from Bloomberg in Iowa gave Sanders 24 percent in that state to Clintons 50 percent.
None of those findings changes the fact that Clinton is considered an overwhelming favorite to win the Democratic nomination.
But they do point to a rapid advance for Sanders, whose support has more than doubled in New Hampshire since he launched his campaign a month ago. The Vermont senator has also drawn large crowds on the campaign trail. Almost 5,000 people showed up to hear him speak at the University of Denver last Saturday.
Even some Democrats who are broadly supportive of Clinton fear that attacking Sanders will only burnish his appeal.
As candidates rise in the polls, there ... are ways to encourage scrutiny [of them], said Chris Lehane, who worked in former President Clintons White House and on then-Vice President Al Gores 2000 presidential campaign. But he added that Clinton backers needed to be very wary of creating more conflict conflict that translates into more energy for him.
Another Democrat strategist, speaking anonymously for fear of repercussions from the Clinton camp, put it more strongly.
Its kinda perplexing that Claire McCaskill would go after him in a pointed way, the strategist said. It makes no strategic sense. The best response to Sanders is silence. You are going to end up motivating his supporters to become more active, become more vocal and that is not a good thing for the Clinton campaign.
The extent to which the jabs from McCaskill had the imprimatur of the official Clinton campaign has become the subject of speculation among Democrats.
The anonymous strategist suggested that she might have been issuing her vigorous criticisms unprompted, perhaps as part of an effort to prove her loyalty to Team Clinton. McCaskill backed then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) against Clinton in the bitter 2008 campaign for the White House.
But Devine asserted that normally those people dont go on those shows without getting a briefing and being directed in a certain way. He sought to draw a contrast between such tactics and the Sanders campaign. We have got to play a different game altogether, with direct contact with voters, a rejection of negative politics, a commitment to issues and substance, he said.
A Clinton spokesman declined to comment for this story.
The 2016 Clinton campaign is widely seen, by supporters and detractors alike, as being desperate to avoid the errors of 2008, when Obama wrested the nomination away.
Looking back at the earlier campaign, some Clinton loyalists argue she should have gone negative on Obama earlier. But even in 2007, Obama was in a much more competitive position than Sanders is now. This time around, could Clintons team use too much force against Sanders, with counterproductive consequences?
I think the Clinton people would have to say hes not really a threat, but hes starting to get a little traction, said Tobe Berkovitz, a Boston University professor who specializes in political communications. I dont think going after Bernie is the best strategy because what youre doing is giving him bundles of oxygen. On the other hand, if they ignore him, he can generate more and more buzz.
The other dynamic that complicates Team Clintons pushback against Sanders is the degree to which the Democratic primary electorate has moved leftward. A few election cycles ago, establishment candidates such as Gore in 2000 or then-Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004 could assail their left-wing rivals as beyond the mainstream.
But criticisms of Sanders for backing, say, universal healthcare or a new Wall Street tax to pay for vast increases in education spending, would likely backfire, and undo Clintons efforts to energize progressives for the general election campaign ahead.
Insisting that the recent attacks are not going to go anywhere, Devine said, Bernie Sanders hasnt hid from his political identity. His ideas like universal healthcare, for example? We are happy to debate those.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/246220-clinton-camp-sharpens-attack-on-sanders
randys1
(16,286 posts)Autumn
(45,109 posts)quite good.
Snotcicles
(9,089 posts)Autumn
(45,109 posts)azmom
(5,208 posts)swilton
(5,069 posts)Bring it On!
Reading the article further, it seems the author is writing from the Clinton camp...Further - comparison to Obama's campaign...???
Although I can't cite references, I've seen comparisons to Obama's 08 campaign that have been all over the board - arguing that Sanders is ahead of where Obama was (size of crowds) and behind where this article seems to be coming from.
Cheese Sandwich
(9,086 posts)Before the campaign is through there will be an ad about that 50 year old essay where Bernie was critiquing rape culture, or whatever that was.
Bookmarking thread so when it happens I can get prediction credit.
Autumn
(45,109 posts)They should be.
virtualobserver
(8,760 posts)and Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders are really different dudes.
Autumn
(45,109 posts)arcane1
(38,613 posts)I suspect they'e trying to fully discredit him before the first primary vote
Autumn
(45,109 posts)virtualobserver
(8,760 posts)Don't attack, he strengthens.....Ignore him, he strengthens.
Ii is clear that Bernie can handle these attacks, and he has a superior message.
CanadaexPat
(496 posts)Calling names, casting aspersions. They'd be better off talking mostly about Hillary and at the end drawing a slight distinction with Sanders. Sort of ignoring him, but dealing with him on substance, but sort of downplaying it. But they don't have the skills for that, that campaign couldn't pull it off. That's why I think she'll lose.
Edited for spelling.
virtualobserver
(8,760 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 26, 2015, 05:38 PM - Edit history (1)
with their 1990's campaign style.
Bernie's message resonates better, but the notion that he can't win causes some people to support Hillary anyway.
In the WMUR poll in NH Hillary leads 43-35
but in that same poll asking them
who best represents what they believe
Bernie led 41-30
Hillary can't afford to lose the aura of inevitability.
fredamae
(4,458 posts)is touched and that nerve is Touched by Us...We, who "they" may well have taken for granted, will have our say and choice!
I like that they are arriving at this stage of denial..because Now the corporatist Dems ugly heads will rise for all to see...
Bring it.
Autumn
(45,109 posts)fredamae
(4,458 posts)for a really long time.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)This is the primaries; if Clinton advocates like these want to play hardball they are delusional if they think they are likely to win. I think they know how to spot a trend and have correctly figured out that they won't win by selling their agenda to the primary voters, and caucus attendees.
Most of the primary voters that are on the fence are nursing some admiration/affection for Sanders. These voters are much more aware than the average general election voters. The tactics by the Clinton camp will be noted, and I don't see these voters as lending much benefit of the doubt to this type of campaigning against a progressive like Sanders.
On the contrary, they will want to see the Sanders camp deliver an effective response, somewhat in kind. They'll be impressed by the Sanders campaign effectively retaliating against the kind of junk we all know the Republicans will launch against our party in the general elections.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)I am not going to start a Super PAC. I am not going to go around the country talking to millionaires and billionaires begging for contributions.
But those millionaires and billionaires are talking about us.
Just yesterday, a Super PAC supporting one of our primary opponents started running ads attacking our campaign.
Let me be very clear: the disastrous Citizens United decision that gave rise to the Super PACs embraced by our opponents undermines American democracy and moves us towards an oligarchy in which the economic and political life of the country is increasingly controlled by a handful of billionaire families.
Candidly, I did not think their attacks would happen so soon.
But know that their early involvement is a testament to the movement and momentum we're building together.
And we can also make them pay a price.
I was waiting to make another small donation but the opportunity to put a donation in the face of these types of corporate sponsored attacks spurred me to send five bucks.
And I saw this: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/26/1396847/-BERNIE-Make-them-pay-Bernie-is-really-not-to-be-trifled-with-He-s-got-a-mean-left-hook