"Forceful debater Sanders nears test" by Annie Linskey Globe Staff September 24, 2015
WASHINGTON — He can get defensive. Insults lodge under his skin. He turns bright red and can display a flaring temper.
It's "classic Sanders."
As Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders tries to capitalize on his large crowds and leading position in some early state polls, his next big test will be in the upcoming Democratic debates, where the candidate who rose to prominence via small town exchanges before a handful of people will be up against one of the Democratic Party’s most seasoned debaters.
I predict he will turn people off and those poll numbers will drop, with droves deserting back to Hillary.
A review of Sanders’ past debates provides some window into the risks that Clinton faces in these showdowns. What he lacks in polish he makes up for with authenticity and energy, and former opponents of Sanders warned that Clinton should not underestimate him.
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The first debate is in Las Vegas next month, before what’s expected to be the largest televised audience Sanders has ever experienced.
Yet Sanders’ campaign says that at this point, the candidate is doing little to prepare for the moment. The man who prides himself in having no pollster is showing little appetite for the traditional debate preparations, elaborate productions that can include briefing books and mock debates. Instead, Sanders seems to be willing to let his signature style — and his years on debate stages in Vermont — be the main conditioning for next month’s showdown.
“It’s not like Bernie is going to change his message after three decades,” said campaign spokesman Michael Briggs, who allowed that Sanders might travel to Nevada a few days early to get used to the setting.
Indeed, the setup for a presidential primary debate will be a far cry from the exchanges Sanders is accustomed to in Vermont, where the candidates sit behind folding tables in veterans halls or across from each other at radio stations. And there will probably be fewer distractions: In one of Sanders’ more raucous Vermont debates, a fringe candidate was hauled off stage by a sheriff after using expletives when addressing a student questioning him. The fringe candidate was then arrested.
I didn't realize politics was so rough up in Vermont.
Those who have clashed with Sanders expect him to hew to many of the same talking points that he’s been pushing since his earliest days in office: Blame the wealthy, note the disparities between the rich and the poor, deliver with passion....
How to beat him? Get him to “lose his cool.”
Bernie Sanders spoke in Seabrook, N.H. on Sunday (Keith Bedford/Globe staff/globe photo illustration).
That ought to do it. Nice touch, Globe.
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Related: Disdainful of fundraising, Sanders raises big sums for 2016
Oh, now you are just being in$ulting.
"Sanders draws big crowds in Mass. campaign swing" by James Pindell Globe Staff October 03, 2015
Now leading in presidential polls among Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders drew huge crowds in Massachusetts on Saturday as he sought to attract donors and build a political infrastructure that will boost his campaign a month after the first two states vote.
But this is Clinton country.
Sanders addressed a near-capacity crowd of 20,000 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, with a few thousand more watching a feed of his address while on Lawn on D. Hoping to secure a good spot at the event, people formed a line that stretched a half-mile down Summer Street, nearly reaching South Station two hours before the event began.
Good thing none of them vote.
It was the third-largest rally Sanders has held this year, smaller only than events in Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles in August. To put it in context, the number of people who showed up to see Sanders at the convention center was nearly three times the population of Montpelier, the capital of the US senator’s home state of Vermont.
It is also the largest rally for a presidential primary candidate in recent Massachusetts history, topping 10,000 people drawn to Boston Common eight years ago by Barack Obama. In 1968, the Globe reported that Democratic presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy addressed 45,000 in Fenway Park.
That didn't make my Boston Sunday Globe print.
Earlier Saturday, Sanders addressed a rally in Springfield, where 6,000 showed up to hear him, according the operations manager at the MassMutual Center.
On the way from Vermont to Massachusetts, he also spoke to about 120 people involved with New Hampshire State Employees Association in Manchester.
For 75 minutes Saturday evening, Sanders addressed progressive domestic causes ranging from same-sex marriage to income inequality to health care and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Related:
"Sanders Staffer Tells Pro-Palestine Activists: Put Your Sign Away Or Leave" "Dissent On Israel Not Permitted At Bernie Sanders Event" "Citing 'overreaction', Sanders apologizes to Palestinian activists"-- source
I suppose no one is perfect, right?
Of course, were Bernie to speak of such things and call out the Zionist faction (of which he is a part) his poll numbers would collapse and his campaign would implode like Dean's.
“In America today, we are living in a country that has more income inequality than any other country on earth, and it is worse today that it has been at any point since 1928,” Sanders said.
And it just got a bit wider as I'm typing this.
The self-described socialist said it was not a “left-wing idea” to call for the federal minimum wage to be raised to $15 an hour from $7.25.
“Wages in America are just too damn low,” he said.
These ideas, he told the overflow crowd after his main address, are achievable and not some “liberal utopia.”
Sanders also touched on issues that have dominated headlines in recent days, such as the mass shooting at an Oregon community college, the deteriorating situation in Syria, and foreign policy in general.
“We know the world in which we are living in is getting crazier and crazier by the day,” Sanders said.
It sure is:
Oregon Shooting Hoax
Where is the next one going to be?
Btw, Bernie is actually a supporter of gun rights, being from Vermont and all.
“What I believe is that the United States of America has got to use all of its clout in every way so we can create a world in which we remove war as a means to solve problems.”
He's asking to remove the only way we have to solve problems. The United States government foments wars to accomplish its goals.
Hope that doesn't make him lose his cool.
While most Democratic and Republican candidates are focusing their campaigns on Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, which kick off the presidential nomination season early next year, some campaigns are looking ahead to the 11 states, including Massachusetts, that will hold Democratic contests on March 1.
Indeed, Sanders’s visit to Massachusetts came just after Hillary Clinton’s trip to the state on Thursday, when she held a policy event in Boston on drug abuse and addiction, in addition to big-money fund-raisers in Holyoke, Boston, and Belmont.
I wonder if she picked up any TPPs.
In 2008, Clinton secured a strong victory in the Massachusetts primary, even though then-US senator John Kerry and then-governor Deval Patrick had endorsed Obama in that contest.
“Clinton is certainly the heavy favorite for the nomination as a whole, but Massachusetts is the kind of state where Sanders could run strongly,” said Boston College political science professor Dave Hopkins. “His base of support within the party is centered among well-educated white ideological liberals, who constitute a significant share of the Democratic primary electorate in Massachusetts.”
Maybe I will decide once I get in the booth.
Hester Murray, 59, of Belmont, said she wanted to see Sanders because she feels “unenthusiastic” about Clinton.
“There is something limiting around her as she expects to be the nominee,” said Murray, who is uncommitted in the presidential race and said she would attend a Clinton rally to hear her out.
Demographically, the crowd in Boston skewed toward the younger side, such as 25-year-old Haley Houseman of Medford.
Houseman said her friends got her interested in Sanders, so she decided to check him out.
“I heard a lot of great things about him, and how often do you get to see a presidential candidate 30 minutes from your home?” Houseman said.
Good thing youth don't vote.
But Jose Santos, a 52-year-old IT specialist from Everett, said he simply trusts Sanders more than Clinton regarding the issues he cares about the most: climate change, banking regulation, and immigration reform.
You see which issues I care about, which is probably why there really is no one for whom to vote.
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A look at the latest polls:
"Clinton, once the prohibitive front-runner, is now the top choice of 33 percent of registered Democrats and those who lean Democrat, the poll shows. Biden places second with 25 percent and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is at 24 percent. The other three Democratic candidates combined are the top choice for less than 4 percent of that base."
Related: Poll shows O’Malley still struggling in home state
Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, leads in the Goucher Poll, with 43 percent, followed by Vice President Joe Biden, with 23 percent, and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, with 17 percent. Only 2 percent of Maryland Democratic voters would support the former governor.
Also the former mayor of Baltimore who brought tough love policing to the city.
Now I'm starting to get mad.
If he doesn't win, will Bernie look for part-time work?
