Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumSanders gets the frontrunner treatment
Leading in most Iowa polls, Sanders is suddenly faced with the dilemma of how to respond to attack ads from all sides.
By HOLLY OTTERBEIN
01/30/2020 05:00 AM EST
DES MOINES, Iowa Bernie Sanders is the frontrunner in Iowa and now hes being treated like it.
The Vermont senator is being pounded on television in the first-in-the-nation caucus state from both sides, with attack ads airing by a pro-Israel Democratic super PAC and a conservative dark-money group.
Faced with the dilemma of how to respond in the face of bombs dropped on him days away from the Iowa caucuses, the Sanders campaign is mostly sticking to pocketbook issues for now.
Sanders TV ads in the state remain centered on Medicare for All, a major focus of his campaign, as well as womens rights and his movement. Thats a different approach than that of Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, who are making more explicit appeals to electability in the final sprint before Iowa.
snip
more great reporting at link
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Apollo Zeus
(251 posts)in on the dark money attacks on Sanders.
DMFI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Majority_for_Israel#Board_of_Directors
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
BannonsLiver
(16,369 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
ritapria
(1,812 posts)I have nothing against the man However, he should not continue in his role as political pundit .He has become a political player in this campaign .. You can't have it both ways , Paul ..It is unethical for him to continue in his role as political commentator .CNN , do the right thing - for a change
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Apollo Zeus
(251 posts)They also had a "reality" show which paid a con artist to pretend to be a competent business man.
Doubt that CNN will mention Begala's role but they should do so when Begala is discussing the current race. His role in the Clinton presidency is well known and long past, as is his role in Hillary's 2008 campaign but since he has an active role in an organization targeting one of the candidates it should be disclosed.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
DanTex
(20,709 posts)Let everyone else complain about his heart attack, or what video someone posted on twitter, or what Third Way thinks an acceptable nominee would be.
Just keep driving home the issues. He can't be beat on policy.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
msongs
(67,394 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Gothmog
(145,129 posts)The real democrats in this race have not started to go negative on him yet but trump has a ton to work with and will bury and destroy such a weak candidate like sanders
Link to tweet
Democrats face a classic collective-action problem. The party has a strong interest in publicly vetting Sanders before he becomes its nominee, but no candidate wants to be the one to go negative on him. Instead, as with Donald Trumps Republican opponents in 2016, other Democratic candidates are seemingly hoping to pick off Sanders voters during the primary season, or at least attract their support in November, without doing the dirty work of criticizing his record. Attacks that appear to echo potential Republican talking points are especially likely to go unsaid. As a result, large numbers of voters may not learn about Sanderss vulnerabilities and how they might be exploited in a general election until much later in the race.
The lack of scrutiny of Sanders dates back to 2016. Despite his long career in politics, Sanders was a little-known outsider before his presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton. His unexpectedly strong showing in that race made him a national figure with an unusually positive public image. Why? Few politicians ever criticized him. Sanders never seriously threatened Clintons hold on the nomination, so she mostly held her fire, preferring to try to keep his voters in the fold for November. Republicans largely withheld criticism as well, presumably appreciating his refusal to withdraw from the race and hoping to run against him rather than Clinton in the general election.
These attacks will come, however, if Sanders is the Democratic nominee. Any candidate will face attacks, of course, but for contenders like Sanders who have been insulated from previous criticism, the potential for damage is especially great.,,,,
Moreover, though Democratic candidates dont want to make this point in the primary race, attacks on Sanderss praise of socialist and communist governments are likely to be especially damaging when paired with criticism of his policy proposals as big-government socialism. Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who once assiduously sought to prevent Sanders from getting to her left, has realized the risks of Sanderss plan to move all health care to a single-payer system and has started to edge away from the idea. Only 20 percent of voters and just 37 percent of Democrats say they would be enthusiastic about voting for a socialist for president.
Labels like socialist are abstract and poorly understood by most voters, of course; some of Sanderss policies are indeed popular. But the penalty for extremism is real. When ideologically extreme candidates narrowly defeat moderates for a party nomination, the political scientists Andrew Hall and Daniel Thompson find, they perform more poorly in the general election, in part because they inspire the other partys base more than their own. For instance, former Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, a hard-right conservative, barely beat the Republican governor in the 2018 gubernatorial primary before losing the general election to a Democrat by five percentage points.
Trump might seem to be a counterexample, but Sanders will struggle to replicate his success. Its true that Trump won the White House despite having unusually high unfavorable ratings and a personal background that many voters considered disqualifying. Like Trump, Sanders would surely benefit from the strong pull of party loyalty, which can help counter the doubts of some potential supporters. But Trump had a key advantage: Voters in 2016 saw him as unusually moderate, which helped him overcome those record unfavorable numbers. Though the public now sees Trump as more conservative than in the last election, it views Sanders as even more distant from the center.
Besides his socialist positions, Sanders also has a long paper trail of writings and statements about sex, gender and race that have received relatively little attention but are likely to provoke far more controversy if he wins the nomination. In one 1969 essay, for instance, Sanders wrote that the manner in which you bring up your daughter with regard to sexual attitudes may very well determine whether or not she will develop breast cancer, among other things. And does his diverse coalition of young supporters know he once compared workers in Vermont to slaves?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden