Monday, February 1, 2016

Democratic Primary Campaign Coverage Has Been Disgusting

To begin, I had intended to bring you this entire article and debate; however, then I thought to myself, the Democrats had their chance to take care of all this back in 2009-2010 and didn't do it:

"STAT-Harvard poll: Dismayed by drug prices, public supports Democrats’ ideas" by David Nather, December 1, 2015.

I'm tired of the same issues being "debated" every two and four years, and then going back to bu$ine$$ as u$ual after the $elections. 

Besides, who believes the polls anymore?

You are better off ignoring them completely.

Hillary Clinton explains her brief absence during Saturday’s debate

Apparently, O'Malley's wife beat her to the lone toilet(?).

What I would like to point out is that this was a created story. The pre$$ did not have to focus on this, they could have kept playing commercials. This was planned diversion (or else Hillary is constipated from antidepressants)!

Trump’s crude remarks anger Clinton backers

Hillary Clinton can’t back up claim about Donald Trump

 It's a lie, but just wait.

"Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster who heads a super PAC supporting Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, said she saw advantages in Clinton’s failure to back up her assertion about militants using Trump’s comments as a recruitment tool. “Polls show a majority of Americans believe that Mrs. Clinton is not trustworthy,” Conway said. “Telling a lie feeds the fire and opens a new front in the character wars.” She added, “Swing voters won’t care that she took a bathroom break, but they will care that she seems willing to say anything to get elected.” 

 It was something I didn't need to know.


Chelsea Clinton to address conference

Trump takes aim at Hillary’s Bill problem

What, that president Clinton famously misplaced the nuclear codes for several months, during his time in the White House?

Bill Clinton, Donald Trump to make dueling appearances next week

Donald Trump, Bill Clinton avoid spat in nearby stops

 Bill endorsed the Soros-sponsored Black Lives Matter campaign of division.

Bill Clinton campaigns in Iowa, brushes off Trump criticism 

 Brings back bad memories for me -- and for her.

 Fire at Bill Clinton’s childhood home being investigated as arson

 Who would bother to waste the time, energy, and effort?

‘Comeback Kid’ shifts to elder sage in N.H.

 Now that is disgusting!

"Donald Trump exploits Bill Clinton’s sex scandals" by Annie Linskey Globe Staff  January 09, 2016

WASHINGTON — The blue dress is in the news again, and its owner, Monica Lewinsky. So is Juanita Broaddrick. Paula Jones. And Kathleen Willey. And Gennifer Flowers.

 And those are only the ones we know about.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump roared into the new year talking about the sex scandals that clouded Bill Clinton’s presidency. He kept the conversation going this week by posting a campaign video on social media that links Hillary Clinton to her husband’s sordid past with other women.

The line of attack provides a vivid reminder of the worst parts of the Clinton White House years — the seemingly nonstop personal drama surrounding the president, a drama that Trump is using to keep his name in the press and energize his base of supporters.

Already the strategy is setting off jitters in both parties, with Republicans worried about it backfiring and Democrats worried it won’t.

At the very least, it’s a preview of what’s to come between now and November: A relitigation of the Clinton marriage — and the Clinton scandals — for the generation of voters too young (or too shielded) to live through them the first time. Trump is banking on a hope that these well-worn tales of Bill Clinton’s sexual recklessness will be viewed more negatively in today’s context then they were two decades ago.

Linking old scandals with new, Trump sought to connect Bill Clinton to Bill Cosby: In a video that he posted on his Instagram account Thursday, he drew a parallel between Bill Clinton’s behavior and allegations against Cosby, once “America’s father” on television but now sullied by a womanizing past that has taken on an even darker shade with a recent rape charge.

OMG! 

 Is the choice of terminology there subtle racism, or is she just ignorant?

Hillary Clinton typically wears the victim’s cape when discussion of her husband’s Other Women returns to the public’s consciousness. But Trump charges her with enabling her husband’s behavior by helping to discredit the women who made accusations against him.

Team Clinton, which typically takes offense at even the scent of an affront, isn’t engaging so far — evidence that Clinton, like every GOP presidential candidate this year, is struggling to determine how to deal with the Trump phenomenon.

“I don’t have any response,” Bill Clinton said when reporters asked him about Trump’s comments on Thursday during a campaign stop at a market in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “If he wins the Republican nomination, we’ll have plenty of time to talk. . . . I have no interest in getting involved in their politics or doing anything except trying to help Hillary.”

 Then he is going to disappear from the campaign trail?

The Clintons didn’t need to deal with this issue in 2008, when Democratic opponent Barack Obama never dredged up the couple’s marriage. Her current Democratic opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, has forsworn negative attacks — and appears equally uninterested in pushing a public discussion about Bill Clinton’s sex life.

Failing to respond incurs risks, as John Kerry can attest. During his presidential campaign, Republicans took one of his great strengths, decorations for his heroic war record in Vietnam, and turned it against him. They did so by trotting out fellow veterans who called themselves the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” and disputed Kerry’s battleground accounts. The allegations weren’t true, but Kerry didn’t want to sully himself by responding.

Bill Clinton is staying on the campaign trail, which provides Trump and other Republicans the opportunity to revisit his past with women.

Some of the Clinton women appear to be staying in the public eye too.

 The question is will the ma$$ media keep them there?

For Washington insiders, the shocking aspect about Trump’s attacks is his willingness to upend GOP conventional wisdom that using the Bill Clinton affairs against Hillary Clinton will backfire.

 That is how he is winning the nomination.

The reasons for keeping quiet on the Clinton marriage are many: It’s old news. Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers were never higher than when she was seen as the victim standing by her man during the Monica Lewinsky affair. 

 Some people mysteriously end up dead.

GOP pollsters are worried that such attacks elicit sympathy for Hillary Clinton among a slice of the electorate they need to do well with in 2016: Married women.

Trump’s own behavior also leaves him vulnerable. His first wife, Ivana Trump, accused him of raping her while she was married to him. She later said she didn’t mean it in a “literal or criminal” way.

 She was trying to get a better settlement and alimony payment.

Trump struck up a relationship with his second wife, Marla Maples, at the church where he married Ivana Trump. That union didn’t last, and now he’s with wife number three, former model Melania Trump.

 Yeah, okay. I'm not basing my vote on that.

--more--"

Related:

 "It’s an awkward question to ask and no doubt an uncomfortable one to answer. But in response to Hillary Clinton’s accusation that he has shown a penchant for sexism, Donald Trump has made an issue of Bill Clinton’s actual or alleged past sexual misconduct. And so, when Hillary Clinton sat down with the Globe editorial board on Sunday, I asked what I see as the relevant question here:"

Gotta play that down and change (as in chump) the subject:

"The roughly hourlong interview with Clinton touched on a range of topics. In the coming days, Clinton said, she plans to propose a series of tax reforms, including a policy that would address the so-called Buffett Rule: a principle backed by billionaire Warren Buffett that says no top-income families should pay a lower tax rate than middle-class workers. Clinton reiterated her support for increasing the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour, backing a proposal that has the support of many Democrats in Congress. On foreign policy, Clinton said she wants to see the United States doing more to help the Ukrainian government fend off additional territorial incursions from the Russians. “We need to help them defend the borders they now have,” she said. Also, she said, European allies need to be more willing to stand up to aggression: “Part of what we have to do in the next administration is get some backbone back into Europe.” On prescription drug policy, Clinton said that more should be done to lower the cost of such drugs. One company, which Clinton did not name, provided its drug to Egyptian patients for a much lower cost, she said. “They sold it at rock-bottom prices,” Clinton said. “What about us? Come on. Really?” Clinton faces an unexpectedly difficult primary challenge in the early contests from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is beating her in many New Hampshire polls and is closing a gap in Iowa with his message of ending income inequality. The Hawkeye State holds its caucuses on Feb. 1. Earlier Sunday, Clinton accepted an endorsement from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. She also praised Globe reporters who delivered the newspaper again on Sunday. “That’s the kind of spirit I want to bring back to the US,” she said." 

 HA!

 It's not as fun as it used to be, let me tell you! 

 Some even quit rather than deliver papers!

Related: Clinton vows to go beyond ‘Buffett rule’ on higher tax rates for wealthy

‘‘He’s one of the few highly respected business people who average people view as one of them.’’ 

 Do we?

As a senator, Hillary Clinton was hands-off on Wall Street

Still took records amounts of campaign $$$!

 "Hillary Clinton will offer plan on corporate inversions; Overseas merger deals, hoarding of profits targeted" by Lisa Lerer Associated Press  December 08, 2015

Related:

 "The Obama administration has repeatedly attempted to stem the practice, but failed to make a significant dent. After the Treasury Department announced new measures last year that make it less financially attractive for a US company to move its headquarters to a country where it does little business, companies simply structured the deals differently."

It's all a big $how!

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton’s proposals are part of the economic agenda her campaign has been rolling out this month.

Her new jobs plans come amid charges that her fortunes are far too intertwined with Wall Street’s.

Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, made at least $35 million by giving speeches to financial services, real estate, and insurance companies after leaving the White House in 2001, an Associated Press analysis shows.

 Kind of $hatters the whole image everyperson they have tried to build, doe$n't it? 

 So how much in taxes did they pay?

In a New York Times op-ed article published Monday, Clinton pledged to take a tough approach on financial regulation, saying she’d impose a new risk fee on big banks, strengthen oversight, and impose tougher penalties on executives and institutions that break the rules.

‘‘Republicans may have decided to forget about the financial crisis that caused so much devastation — but I haven’t,’’ she wrote. ‘‘The proper role of Wall Street is to help Main Street grow and prosper.’’

Since when?

Her proposal got the crucial support of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a progressive leader on fiscal issues who has remained neutral in the Democratic primary race.

‘‘Secretary Clinton is right to fight back against Republicans trying to sneak Wall Street giveaways into the must-pass government funding bill,’’ wrote Warren on her Facebook page.

Poor little Liz Warren trapped in the cul-de-$ac that is politics!

--more--"

Also see:

Clinton, Sanders try to win Warren’s heart
Warren’s support could be a game-changer

Time to move on:

"Warren’s chief of staff moving on" by Annie Linskey Globe Staff  December 03, 2015

WASHINGTON — Mindy Myers, the chief of staff to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, will move to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee next month, where she’s going to help the party’s efforts to regain Senate control.

“Mindy has been wonderful and I can’t overstate the positive influence she’s had over the last four years,” said Warren in an interview with the Globe. “I’m incredibly grateful to Mindy — for helping me win the Senate seat and for working every day to help me use this seat to level the playing field for hard-working families.”

Warren said Myers still will be “part of the team” and continue advising her as a consultant.

In her new role, Myers will oversee tens of millions of dollars the campaign committee spends on Senate races. Democrats hope they can take back the majority in the Senate in 2016 when 34 seats are up for election, including seven held by the GOP in states President Obama won in 2012. Democrats need a net gain of five seats to retake the chamber.

--more--"

Time to read through the tea leaves, so to speak:

"Seven months before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left office, a top aide suggested to her that she still had “plenty of time” to “run up the score on total countries” and set a globe-trotting goal of 110 countries, according to an e-mail released Monday. The e-mail, sent by Clinton press aide Philippe Reines three years ago, casts a political light on one of Clinton’s core talking points as a candidate for president: that she was a nonpolitical and hard-working secretary of state, who, as she frequently notes, visited 112 countries. The e-mail was sent to Clinton’s private account, and also to her top political aides including chief of staff Cheryl Mills, deputy chiefs of staff Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan, and scheduler Lona Valmoro."

 That is what the Globe deemed most important today as they labor away for her campaign. 

 So what was the carbon footprint on all that travel anyway?

"Deadline missed on Clinton e-mails" Globe Wire Services  January 01, 2016

WASHINGTON — The State Department fell short of a court order requiring the release of the vast bulk of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s e-mails by the end of 2015 but promised on Thursday to catch up early in the new year.

 Then that is a crime, isn't it? Violating a court order?

 Oh, but they promise to do better and that always excuse incompetent if not outright collaborative and criminal government.

Just hours before the year ended, the department disclosed another 5,500 pages of Clinton’s messages in its latest monthly release. But it acknowledged that it would not meet the target set by a federal judge of producing 82 percent of her e-mails by the end of December. 

 It's called a document dump and it came at a time when almost no one was watching. 

“We have worked diligently to come as close to the goal as possible, but with the large number of documents involved and the holiday schedule, we have not met the goal this month,” the department said in a statement. “To narrow that gap, the State Department will make another production of former Secretary Clinton’s email sometime next week.”

 OMG! They were using the holiday as a damn excuse?

Last May, Judge Rudolph Contreras of US District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the State Department to release Clinton’s e-mails on a rolling basis each month in response to a lawsuit filed by Vice News under the Freedom of Information Act. The department has since released thousands of pages on the last day of each month and is supposed to complete the disclosure by Jan. 29.

Clinton’s presidential campaign was sensitive to the perception that the batch posted online Friday was deliberately released on New Year’s Eve, a time when attention would be low. The campaign made a point of reminding the public that the release date was set according to the court schedule.

 You see? 

 The game's up!

“To preempt any snark abt tomorrow’s penultimate email release on #NYE: the end-of-month timing is not set by the campaign or State Dept,” Brian Fallon, her spokesman, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.... 

 Her future administration already showing inklings of preemptive tendencies. Great.

--more--"

Related: State Department under Clinton faulted on compliance with public records law

The Globe back paged it!

AG Lynch needs to act on Clinton e-mails

 The concerns are regarding Benghazi.

Some emails on Clinton's server were beyond top secret

That's when they were cut off, but Bernie apologized Hillary so everything's cool.

Government finds ‘top secret’ info in Clinton e-mails

 Important because it confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton’s unsecured home server contained closely guarded government secrets.

"The timing of it could be, if not cataclysmic, pretty bad for Secretary Clinton, especially if Bernie Sanders is still alive,” Halperin concluded." -- whatreallyhappened

 Yeah, that is an odd thing to say in light of the past.

US declares 22 Clinton e-mails 'top secret'" by Steven Lee Myers New York Times  January 29, 2016

Well, my printed Globe gave me this:

"APNewsBreak: US declares 22 Clinton emails 'top secret'" by BRADLEY KLAPPER. Jan. 29, 2016

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton's home server contained closely guarded government secrets, censoring 22 emails that contained material requiring one of the highest levels of classification. The revelation comes three days before Clinton competes in the Iowa presidential caucuses.

State Department officials also said the agency's Diplomatic Security and Intelligence and Research bureaus are investigating if any of the information was classified at the time of transmission, going to the heart of Clinton's defense of her email practices. The department published its latest batch of emails from her time as secretary of state Friday evening.

 Trying to bury the bad news?

But The Associated Press learned ahead of the release that seven email chains would be withheld in full for containing "top secret" information. The 37 pages include messages a key intelligence official recently said concerned "special access programs" —highly restricted, classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs like drone strikes.

"The documents are being upgraded at the request of the intelligence community because they contain a category of top secret information," State Department spokesman John Kirby told the AP, calling the withholding of documents in full "not unusual." That means they won't be published online with others being released, even with blacked-out boxes. Department officials wouldn't describe the substance of the emails, or say if Clinton sent any herself.

 It must not be good and I suspect it has much to do with Libya; however, I would hand you over to an authority on such a matter.

Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, insists she never sent or received information on her personal email account that was classified at the time. No emails released so far were marked classified, but reviewers previously designated more than 1,000 messages at lower classification levels. Friday's will be the first at top secret level.

Even if Clinton didn't write or forward the messages, she still would have been required to report any classification slippages she recognized in emails she received. But without classification markings, that may have been difficult, especially if the information was publicly available. 

 Still, even if is never a good thing.

"We firmly oppose the complete blocking of the release of these emails," Clinton campaign spokesman Brain Fallon said. "Since first providing her emails to the State Department more than one year ago, Hillary Clinton has urged that they be made available to the public.

 We feel no differently today." Sets her up to look like the victim knowing they will protect certain secrets at all costs. American people are fed up enough.

Fallon accused the "loudest and leakiest participants" in a process of bureaucratic infighting for withholding the exchanges. The documents, he said, originated in the State Department's unclassified system before they ever reached Clinton, and "in at least one case, the emails appear to involve information from a published news article."

"This appears to be overclassification run amok," Fallon said. 

 Is that the excuse they are trying to use? Really?

Kirby said the State Department was focused, as part of a Freedom of Information Act review of Clinton's emails, on "whether they need to be classified today." 

 ??????? 

 If they weren't then....

Past classification questions, he said, "are being, and will be, handled separately by the State Department." It is the first indication of such a probe.

 Another offshoot probe?

Department responses for classification infractions could include counseling, warnings or other action, officials said. They wouldn't say if Clinton or senior aides who've since left government could face penalties. The officials weren't authorized to speak on the matter and demanded anonymity.

Separately, Kirby said the department withheld eight email chains, totaling 18 messages, between President Barack Obama and Clinton. These are remaining confidential "to protect the president's ability to receive unvarnished advice and counsel," and will be released eventually like other presidential records.

 First WHIFF of SCANDAL! 

 That's what they trot out when they are covering something up.

The emails have been a Clinton campaign issue since 10 months ago, when the AP discovered her exclusive use while in office of a homebrew email server in the basement of her family's New York home. Doing so wasn't expressly forbidden. Clinton first called the decision a matter of convenience, then a mistake.

 It was also being run through some closet server in New Jersey that was nothing more than a spy scoop for Israel.

Last March, Clinton and the State Department said no business conducted in the emails included top-secret matters. Both said her account was never hacked or compromised, which security experts assess as unlikely.

 Why would they need to?

Clinton and the State Department also claimed the vast majority of her emails were preserved properly for archiving because she corresponded mainly with government accounts. They've backtracked from that claim in recent months.

The special access programs emails surfaced last week, when Charles I. McCullough, lead auditor for U.S. intelligence agencies, told Congress he found some in Clinton's account.

Kirby confirmed the "denied-in-full emails" are among those McCullough recently cited. He said one was among those McCullough identified last summer as possibly containing top secret information.

The AP reported last August that one focused on a forwarded news article about the CIA's classified U.S. drone program. Such operations are widely discussed publicly, including by top U.S. officials, and State Department officials debated McCullough's claim. The other concerned North Korean nuclear weapons programs, according to officials.

 At the time, several officials from different agencies suggested the disagreement over the drone emails reflected a tendency to overclassify material, and a lack of consistent classification policies across government.

The FBI also is looking into Clinton's email setup, but has said nothing about the nature of its probe. Independent experts say it's unlikely Clinton will be charged with wrongdoing, based on details that have surfaced so far and the lack of indications she intended to break laws.

"What I would hope comes out of all of this is a bit of humility" and Clinton's acknowledgement that "I made some serious mistakes," said Bradley Moss, a Washington lawyer specializing in security clearance matters.

Legal questions aside, it's the potential political costs that probably more concern Clinton. She has struggled in surveys measuring perceived trustworthiness and any investigation, buoyed by evidence of top secret material coursing through her account, could negate a main selling point for her becoming commander in chief: her national security resume.

--more--"

 Let's get back to those:

ON to IOWA

Clinton boosts lead over Sanders, Iowa poll says

"Sanders almost certainly needs a victory in Iowa for his candidacy to remain viable. For Clinton, the stakes are also high, though different: A loss here, or a squeaker victory, would revive memories of her devastating third-place finish in the 2008 Iowa caucuses won by Barack Obama. A demoralizing result for Clinton would leave her hobbling into the New Hampshire primary, where Sanders leads in most polls, and raise questions about her ability to corral the liberal wing of the party and generate excitement about her candidacy."

"While she has locked up the vast majority of support from party leaders and large donors, Sanders has captured the hearts of many in the Democratic base with his unapologetically liberal economic message. An NBC/The Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Sunday found Clinton with 48 percent and Sanders with 45 percent of likely caucusgoers, representing a closer margin than past polls have indicated. Sanders has maintained an edge in New Hampshire, which borders his home state of Vermont, making Iowa even more important for Clinton. The NBC/ Wall Street Journal/Marist poll showed Sanders with 50 percent and Clinton with 46 percent in that primary. Clinton still holds a strong advantage among black and Latino voters who play a bigger role in the primaries in late February and March. But even if Clinton pulls out a win in Iowa, a narrow victory could set off alarms among Democrats about her strength against Sanders, who started the campaign as an obscure senator polling in the single digits. Until now, Clinton has rarely mentioned Sanders by name, but on Monday, she told voters, ‘‘It’s time for us to have the kind of spirited debate that you deserve us to have.’’ 

 That smacks of desperation because....

"Missteps helped Bernie Sanders gain ground in Iowa, N.H." by Patrick Healy New York Times  January 16, 2016

Advisers to Hillary Clinton, including former President Bill Clinton, believe that her campaign made serious miscalculations by forgoing early attacks on Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and failing to undercut his archliberal message before it grew into a political movement that has now put him within striking distance of beating Hillary Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire.

According to Democrats close to the Clintons and involved with her campaign, the Clintons are also unnerved by the possibility that Sanders will foment a large wave of first-time voters and liberals that will derail her in Iowa, not unlike Barack Obama’s success in 2008, which consigned Hillary Clinton to a third-place finish. They have asked her advisers about the strength of the campaign’s data modeling and turnout assumptions in Iowa, given that her 2008 campaign’s predictions were so inaccurate.

As the Democratic rivals prepare for what is likely to be a contentious televised debate Sunday night, the Clintons are particularly concerned that her “rational message,” in the words of an aide, is not a fit with a restless Democratic primary electorate. Allies and advisers of the Clintons say Sanders is clearly connecting with voters through his emotional, inspiring rallying cry that the US economic and political systems are rigged for the wealthy and powerful. By contrast, Hillary Clinton has been stressing her electability and questioning the costs of Sanders’ ideas.

Most Clinton advisers and allies would only speak anonymously to candidly assess her vulnerabilities and the Clintons’ outlook on the race. This article is based on interviews with 11 people — campaign advisers, outside allies, friends, and donors — who have spoken to the Clintons about the race.

“Hillary is a pragmatic progressive — she’s not an advocate,” said Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont, who last week campaigned in Iowa for Clinton. “She quietly pulls people together and gets things done. Even though that’s not in vogue right now, I think that’s what voters will want in the end.”

But Clinton’s problems are broader than just her message: Opinion polls show that some Democrats and other voters continue to question her trustworthiness and whether she cares about their problems. Recent polls show that her once-formidable lead over Sanders in Iowa has all but vanished, while he is holding on to a slight lead over her in New Hampshire.

Clinton and her team say they always anticipated the race would tighten, yet they were not prepared for Sanders to become so popular with young people and independents, especially women, whom Clinton views as a key part of her base.

 Gee, what do you think could account for that?

Given her many advantages, like rich donors and widespread support from Democratic Party elites, she is also surprised Sanders’ fund-raising has rivaled hers and that her experience — along with her potential to make history as the first woman president — has not galvanized more voters.

Several Clinton advisers are also regretting that they did not push for more debates, where Hillary Clinton excels, to more skillfully marginalize Sanders over his Senate votes in support of the gun industry and over the enormous costs and likely tax increases tied to his big-government agenda.

Instead Clinton, who entered the race as the prohibitive favorite, played it safe, opting for as few debates as possible, scheduled at times when viewership was likely to be low — like this Sunday at 9 p.m. on a long holiday weekend.

 But now that she's in trouble it's time to have way more debates like we all deserve!

The Clintons believe she can still win the Feb. 1 caucuses in Iowa and the Feb. 9 primary in New Hampshire despite Sanders’ now being virtually tied with her in many polls. But they also believe she can survive losses in both places because of the strength of her political organization and support in the Feb. 27 primary in South Carolina and in many March 1 Super Tuesday states and other big states to follow....

 Even as her base deserts here, but I suppose you have to be delusional when in a campaign.

--more--"

Related: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders spar on guns, health care

It helped Bernie in New Hampshire so they have scheduled four more debates.

 Iowa poll finds Sanders, Clinton down to wire

 So they trotted out Chelsea again?

 Sanders hands microphone to Iowa crowd in an effort to get personal

 "Sanders vows to break up banks during first year in office in a fiery speech delivered in front of a raucous crowd just a few subway stops from Wall Street. “The reality is that fraud is the business model on Wall Street,” he said."

He nailed that one!

Bernie Sanders eager to take on billionaire opponents

Making some people eager to take on him!

Sanders’ outrage — his greatest strength and weakness 

 Because voters are emotional with unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky expectations:

Bernie Sanders and big-government urbanism

It's a chilling thought, isn't it?

"Bernie Sanders becomes unlikely leader of a youth movement" by Michael Levenson Globe Staff  January 19, 2016

 I know it's all a $how; however, one could say Occupy has arisen 5 years later?

HANOVER, N.H. —That a crusty 74-year-old Vermonter given to meandering, impassioned speeches about millionaires and billionaires would exude a magnetic power over millennials one-fourth his age was hardly a given when Bernie Sanders launched his campaign 8½ months ago. Unlike Barack Obama, who could name-drop Kanye West and drew massive support from young voters, Sanders appears to lack any fluency with youth culture.

But as he has steadily climbed into contention with Hillary Clinton in Iowa and into a narrow lead over her in New Hampshire, polls show Sanders’ strongest support comes from younger voters, who favor him by a 2-to-1 ratio. The challenge for his campaign is to ensure those voters, who are less likely than older ones to cast ballots, show up on Election Day.

 That's what the narrative of electoral fraud will be: kids didn't show. Uh-huh.

At Dartmouth on Thursday, where Sanders packed a 900-seat concert hall, he sparked loud whoops and applause during a fiery, hour-long speech that barreled through issue after issue, from climate change and institutional racism to campaign finance reform and abortion rights.

“He’s another old white guy, but he’s got the passion,” said Ried Sanborn, an 18-year-old registered independent from Lebanon who works at Subway and wants to join the Marines and who asked Sanders about his plan to raise the federal minimum wage to $15. “His passion isn’t fake.”

Sanborn said many of his friends also support Sanders’ bid for the Democratic nomination. But some of his older relatives do not, including his uncle, Andy Sanborn, a Republican state senator who has endorsed Rand Paul for president.

“I actually invited him to come with me,” Ried Sanborn said, “and he has since told me never to text him again.”

Sanborn and other young voters said that while they agree with most of Sanders’ platform, no single issue has led them to rally around his campaign.

Instead, many said they see the white-haired socialist with the briny Brooklyn accent as an appealingly consistent crusader for the causes he believes in.

Some said they believe that bedrock authenticity is lacking in Clinton, whom they called more of a shape-shifting politician.

 They got that right.

“I think Bernie is relatable, he’s cozy; he’s like your grandfather who tells the truth,” said John Anderson, a 32-year-old architect who was working on his laptop at Dirt Cowboy Café, a coffee shop near campus that doubles as an unofficial clubhouse for Sanders’ organizers.

“Your grandfather can be a little bigoted and a little off the cuff, but at least he’s honest,’’ Anderson said. “I don’t think Bernie is bigoted, but he comes across as being the most genuine of the candidates.”

 Talk about damning someone with faint praise! 

His peers apparently agree. Among New Hampshire voters under age 45, Sanders crushes Clinton 58 percent to 30 percent, according to a Monmouth University poll recently released. In a University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll released last month, the gap was even wider: 74 percent to 18 percent among voters under 35.

“That’s a phenomenally high number, and that’s certainly where his core support is,” said Andrew E. Smith, director of the survey center and associate professor of political science. “But those people are the least likely to get out on Election Day, and getting them out to the polls” will require a major organizational effort.

 No, they only took the time and effort to go see him. I vote and I don't even do that. C'mon!

Diana VanderClute, 22, who works at Dirt Cowboy Café, said she does not trust Clinton but would still vote for her, if she were the nominee, because “I do not want Donald Trump.”

 I don't want any of them, but if I had to make one.... (gimme a minute, I'm thinking).

But she jumped in the air when she heard Sanders was speaking on campus.

“Even if I don’t agree with everything he says, he seems genuine, and he cares about social justice issues,” VanderClute said, praising Sanders’ support for gay rights and the Black Lives Matter movement. “He just says what’s on his mind.” 

It's okay to be a little bigoted(?) if you are Jewish!

--more--"

 Stupid kids. Right?

For surging Sanders, familiar turf in Iowa

 I'm told “if he can’t win Iowa, he can’t win anywhere,” -- even as he leads in New Hampshire.

 Sigh.

"Sanders seeks to capitalize on strong finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire to propel him in the two remaining contests in February: Nevada and South Carolina. Polls show Clinton with a big lead in South Carolina, helped by black voters, but the state’s electorate has shifted in the past based on the outcome in the early voting."

I will be getting those primaries a little later in this slog of a month.

Will Iowa and N.H. thwart Clinton?

"Hillary Clinton rips into Bernie Sanders as her Iowa lead vanishes" by Philip Rucker Washington Post  January 12, 2016

AMES, Iowa — Hillary Clinton’s speech to a few hundred supporters on the campus of Iowa State University was striking in its sharp tone and the breadth of her attacks against insurgent rival Bernie Sanders. Her intensified assault came as a new Quinnipiac poll Tuesday showed Sanders overtaking her in Iowa, 49 percent to 44 percent.

 I didn't know Bernie was laying IED and blowing up U.S. troops, did you?

Clinton accepted the endorsement here of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and used the occasion to tear into Sanders for his 2005 Senate vote that gave immunity to gun manufacturers. That bill was a major priority for the National Rifle Association.

Clinton mocked Sanders for claiming that he was voting in line with the interests of his rural state with a deep hunting tradition.

‘‘He says, ‘Well, I’m from Vermont,’’’ Clinton said. ‘‘Pat Leahy, the other senator from Vermont, voted against immunity for the gun lobby. So, no, that’s not an explanation.’’

 She thinks that is winning her support in rural Iowa?

Sanders has vowed to break up the big banks, but Clinton asserted here that she has stood up to special interests throughout her career, including on Wall Street. She said she went after derivatives and corporate executive compensation, and that she helped influence the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, which passed after she left the Senate to become secretary of state.

‘‘Don’t talk to me about standing up to corporate interests and big powers,’’ Clinton said. ‘‘I’ve got the scars to show for it, and I’m proud of every single one of them.’’

 I don't need to see them, thanks.

Speaking more broadly about the challenges of the presidency, Clinton said she was the only candidate prepared to do all the duties of the office. She spoke movingly about her role in the White House Situation Room during the Osama bin Laden raid, calling it ‘‘one of the most tense days of my life.’’

Then she must be a good actor.

Without mentioning Sanders by name, Clinton implicitly suggested he was naïve to think he would be able to implement his ideas, especially with a Republican-controlled Congress.

‘‘This is hard work,’’ she said. ‘‘I wish we could have a Democratic president who could wave a magic wand and say, ‘We shall do this, and we shall do that.’ That ain’t the real world we’re living in!’’

Actually, I don't wish that for any president, we kind of do have it anyway, and the Democrats had filibuster-proof control (or so I was told) from 2008 to 2010 and all we got was a crappy corporate health bill.

Clinton appeared to relish laying into Sanders. ‘‘We’re getting into that period before the caucus that I kind of call the ‘Let’s get real period,’’’ she said. ‘‘Everybody’s been out there, lots of good energy, I love it. I love the spirited debate on our side.’’

OMG! 

 Stop it with the hypocrisy, will ya?

In recent days, Clinton has been highlighting her perceived electability, something her campaign is trumpeting in a television advertisement airing here. Pointing to her longevity in the public eye, she suggested that she was the only Democratic candidate who could withstand the Republican attacks in a general election.

‘‘You’ve got to know what you stand for, you’ve got to be able to defend it, and you have to withstand the barrage of attacks that will come against our Democratic nominee,’’ she said. ‘‘I am still standing.’’

 Would you mind taking a seat?

--more--"

Also see:

 "The white-haired 74-year-old comes across more like a philosophy professor than a modern politician, but “Bernie Sanders’ political skills were deeply underrated in the beginning of this process,” said Tad Devine, his longtime campaign adviser. That includes the Clinton campaign, which has always said the race in early primary states would be close, but didn’t finger Sanders as the likely stalking horse. Now with just four days before Iowans pick the Democratic nominee, polls show the race is a tossup in the Iowa caucuses and Sanders leading in New Hampshire. Sanders top campaign aides are weighing whether to rachet up attacks on Clinton’s Wall Street record in the finals days of the contest."

 Yes, she may have underestimated him.

Rival targets Sanders’ voting record

She better be careful:

"Ever-cautious Hillary Clinton counting on a win in Iowa" by Annie Linskey Globe Staff  January 31, 2016

ADEL, Iowa — In recent days, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has bolstered its case by trotting out the heads of major Democratic interest groups. Gun control advocate Gabrielle Giffords popped up in Ames, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards preached in North Liberty, and Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin stirred up supporters in West Des Moines.

Former president Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea joined Clinton in the state to make the case that the family should have another turn in the White House.

 (Blog editor frowns; that's old school politics that isn't working this year)

Her opponent? Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been joined by rapper Killer Mike, ice cream moguls Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, and activist Cornel West. And he’s got the crowds.

He also picked up another endorsement, and it's also a liability!

“With Bernie Sanders you are hearing something new, and with Hillary Clinton you are hearing the same thing you heard eight years ago,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster who watched Clinton stump in Des Moines.

“She doesn’t show her emotions. Iowa isn’t just about policy, it’s also about people and who you are as a person,” Luntz said. “So, all you have to do is look around. Did you see anyone screaming? Or so excited to be there? I didn’t.”

 Bill does.

On the flip side, she has one very apparent advantage: experienced worker bees, many of them women, on whom the campaign is relying to identify Clinton supporters and pester them repeatedly so they show up Monday night at caucuses and stay for hours.

 And she's their queen!

Sanders is calling for a leftist uprising. Clinton’s pitch is milder and more familiar, sympathizing with the frustrations of middle-class life. Her remarks can, however, veer into complicated policy matters.

She regularly criticizes the recent merger between Wisconsin-based Johnson Controls and Ireland-based Tyco International. The deal, known as an inversion, will move Johnson’s corporate headquarters overseas, allowing the new company to pay lower corporate taxes.

“It’s not an inversion; it should be called a perversion,” Clinton says.

 Back to Bill then.

Left unmentioned were Clinton’s family ties to the firm.

 Oh, no!

Since 2009, Johnson Controls has been a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, which is led by Bill Clinton, and the firm has donated as much as $250,000 to the charity in membership dues. 

 OMG!!!! 

 The hypocri$y!

But overall, critics and supporters agree that she sounds more relaxed and confident on the trail.

US Representative David Loebsack, a Clinton supporter and Iowa’s sole Democratic elected official in the federal government, noticed a difference in tone when Clinton appeared on a CNN forum.

“We all know that movie ‘Spinal Tap,’ right? Turning it up to 11?” he said, referring to the 1984 cult spoof about a heavy metal band....

 Sigh. 

 This isn't a movie.... or is it?

--more--"

I can see why centrist voters in Iowa are dismayed.

 Okay, time to vote:

Early-voting states are white, old, and rural

Well, you gotta start somewhere!

"Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders play to strengths in final Iowa push" by Annie Linskey Globe Staff  February 01, 2016

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The race is a statistical dead heat, according to a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll released Saturday evening. It showed Clinton with support from 45 percent of likely caucusgoers and Sanders with support from 42 percent. Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor who is also seeking the nomination, trailed with 3 percent.

To boost enthusiasm Sanders swung through the college towns where his candidacy has caught fire and was greeted by thousands. On Saturday night in Iowa City — home to the University of Iowa — Sanders climbed on stage with the band Vampire Weekend and swayed back and forth to the music as he joined in singing, “This Land is Your Land.”

For the Vermont senator, the stakes in Iowa are high. A victory here would shatter the sense of inevitability around Clinton’s campaign and give him a big burst of momentum heading to next week’s primary vote in New Hampshire, which is friendly territory for him.

Though only 44 delegates are up for grabs in the Democratic contest on Monday — or 1.09 percent of the total — Iowa will be the first test of whether student-filled crowds and sheer enthusiasm will translate into votes.

It will also be a test of organization, where Clinton appears to have the edge. At least a dozen volunteers who came to see her Sunday at a high school in Council Bluffs will be caucus captains for her on Monday. Chelsea Clinton introduced her mother at the event.

Clinton spoke at the top of her voice, which sounded hoarse from leading a slew of rallies over the weekend. Before hitting the campaign trail Sunday, both candidates appeared on the morning political TV shows. Clinton faced questions about whether she jeopardized sensitive information when she used a private e-mail account to conduct government business.

The State Department, complying with a court order, released another batch of Clinton’s e-mails on Friday, and 22 of them were excluded because they contained information now deemed top secret.

 Except they violated the court order.

The Sanders campaign boasted that it raised $20 million in the month of January. The campaign pulled in $33.6 million in the last three months of 2015.

That kind of cash means Sanders will be able to compete with Clinton well after the first few primary states, no matter how well he performs Monday.

 And it will take up a lot of media time, diverting our attention form other things.

Sanders told supporters packed into a field office on Marshalltown Sunday, “If there is a low voter turnout we’ll probably lose.”

--more--"

 The also ran might get a few delegates, but it is hard to defend the legitimacy of the candidacy when he fails to get on Ohio ballot.

As for the other side of the aisle:

"Republicans chase after Iowa’s evangelical voters" by Matt Viser and Tracy Jan Globe Staff  February 01, 2016

IOWA CITY — Real estate mogul Donald Trump remained the narrow front-runner, but Monday night’s caucus will test whether he can transform his ability to draw big crowds — a combination of committed followers and curious tire-kickers — into actual votes.

 If they screw him like they did Ron Paul, he isn't going to take it meekly like Ron.

On Sunday morning Trump went to services at a church, and Jerry Falwell Jr., the evangelical leader and head of Liberty University, lavished praise on Trump — who, in his unique way, asked for Iowans’ support. 

 That endorsement doesn't help him with me.

“You have a lousy record — 16 years and you haven’t picked a winner. Please pick a winner this time, OK?” Trump told a crowd here. “You’ve got to just get it done.”

The last poll before the Iowa caucuses, released on Saturday night by the Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics, showed Trump with a narrow lead over  Senator Ted Cruz, 28 percent to 23 percent. Senator Marco Rubio was in third at 15 percent, followed by Ben Carson with 10 percent. No one else cracked into double digits.

He wings in for the weekend and is now in third?

Monday will be a test of organizations. Cruz, too, attended a church service.

Cruz’s wife, Heidi, attested to his character and devotion to family. His father, Rafael, a pastor who has been stumping for him all over Iowa churches for the last year, highlighted his devotion to God. Then there was conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck screaming that “Islamists need to be killed,” prompting someone in the audience to shout, “Islam’s a cult.”

 God help us all.

Parents hoisted their children onto their shoulders, instructing them to snap photos when Cruz took the stage.

“Jesus loves you, Ted,” someone yelled out.

“And God is good,” Cruz said.

“All of the time!” the audience chimed in.

Many who came out to hear Cruz on a chilly, wet Sunday had settled on him months ago, attracted by what they say is the Texas senator’s commitment to religious liberty and the Constitution.

“Taking it from both sides is pretty hard to do. He promised not to compromise his values when he went to Washington and he hasn’t,” said Andrew Lary, a 43-year-old power equipment manager from North Liberty, as his two young children sat on the concrete floor drawing pictures while awaiting Cruz’s appearance.

Rubio is trying to make a strong finish and put himself on course to become the consensus pick of more moderate Republicans.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were campaigning hard, but expected to finish low.

Governor John Kasich of Ohio spent Sunday in New Hampshire.

The candidates on Monday will do the things they’ve been preparing for months to do: try to get their supporters into small caucus rooms across the state to cast votes for them. They have gathered endorsements, taken names at events so they could follow up, and it will all come down to Monday night.

But there is one thing they have not quite prepared for: snow. A storm is expected to brew, starting in the western part of the state and moving east throughout the early evening.

--more--"

Then it will be....

ON to NEW HAMPSHIRE


"In N.H., Hillary Clinton hits on opioid abuse as a top concern" by Kay Lazar Globe Staff  January 04, 2016

DERRY, N.H. — Hillary Clinton, who arrived to loud applause here at one of three New Hampshire campaign stops Sunday, said prohibitively expensive education, lack of support for families coping with Alzheimer's disease, and the rising tide of opioid abuse are among problems she hears most commonly on the trail.

As the Democratic presidential candidate took questions later from the crowd in a packed middle-school gymnasium, a 12-year-old girl in a pink-striped shirt, raised her hand.

Her mother had overdosed, said the girl, who was near tears. She is living in foster care and wanted to know what Clinton could do to help the countless children like her, whose families are shattered by substance abuse.

Clinton paused and the room fell silent. Tell me more, if you can, about your situation, Clinton gently asked the girl, who told her she had a supportive foster mother.

Another staged and scripted campaign event?

From substance abuse and climate change, to terrorism and poverty, audience members posed questions about how Clinton would handle each issue. When the candidate didn’t have a precise answer, she pledged to try to find one.

The applause kept coming....

--more--"

Related:

The politics of addiction

Health care is main focus of Hillary Clinton’s N.H. stop

Presidential candidates relate tales of addiction, but are short on answers

No answers provided here, either:

"Driver in crash involving Secret Service agents was unlicensed" by Laura Crimaldi Globe Staff  December 30, 2015

WAKEFIELD, N.H. — Authorities say an unlicensed driver may have been attempting to pass another vehicle Tuesday when he crashed head-on into a car carrying four US Secret Service agents who were in the area to help protect Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The driver, 45-year-old Bruce Danforth, died in the crash, which injured the four Secret Service agents and two of Danforth’s passengers. Investigators are seeking to verify a report that Danforth was trying to pass another vehicle driving north on the icy, hilly road.

“That vehicle obviously did not stop,” New Hampshire State Police Lieutenant Kevin Duffy said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon at Wakefield Public Safety Building. “If you were in that vehicle or you were driving that vehicle, please contact New Hampshire State Police.

Danforth was driving north around 7:03 p.m. Tuesday in a Mercury Sable on Route 16 — in an area known as Wakefield Hill — when his vehicle crossed over the center line and smashed into the southbound Ford Taurus carrying the on-duty agents, police said.

Duffy said a preliminary investigation found there was “no improper driving at all on behalf of the Secret Service agents.”

Angela Zakupowsky, who lives on Wilson Road, said she heard sirens, and the stretch of highway where the crash occurred has a reputation for being treacherous. The weather conditions were also difficult. The neighborhood was hit with a mix of snow and rain Tuesday, she said.

She said she had read some social media posts lashing out at the Secret Service agents for the crash. “They are jumping to blame the agents, politics, and Hillary Clinton,” Zakupowsky said. “People need to stop and realize there are accidents.”

Pat Anderson, who also lives nearby, said she was surprised to hear that agents were involved in the crash.

“I was wondering why they were here without Hillary,” she said. “Maybe it was shift change.”

Good question. 

 What were they doing so far away from the client?

Clinton was the only presidential candidate with Secret Service protection who was in New Hampshire Tuesday.

Her campaign had an event scheduled at a high school north of the crash....

--more--"

Related: Secret Service agent paralyzed in fatal NH crash gets married at Mass. General

Time to check the polls:

Poll shows Sanders leading Clinton in N.H.

"Bernie Sanders backers in N.H. express misgivings on Clinton" by Akilah Johnson Globe Staff  February 01, 2016

CONCORD, N.H. — Recent polls show a significant portion of Sanders’ supporters in New Hampshire are cold toward Clinton and the problem is getting worse for her.

Sanders was once considered a long-shot candidate but now has a sizable lead over Clinton in New Hampshire.

“More Sanders’ voters dislike Clinton than Clinton voters dislike Sanders,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. His poll showed that 41 percent of New Hampshire Democratic primary voters were “not too likely” or “not at all likely” to vote for Clinton on Feb. 9, compared with 26 percent of voters who had the same responses when asked about Sanders.

Another recent poll of New Hampshire Democratic primary voters showed that 95 percent say Sanders “gets it.”

 More on that after the primary.

While pollsters agree Sanders has perhaps unprecedented approval ratings, their reasons why are varied — and reach beyond his populist appeal and even his own candidacy.

Some point to age, saying younger generations want to see a political paradigm shift and find Clinton unpalatable. Others say Sanders is doing more to attract disengaged or first-time voters. And then there are those who say gender plays a role, with more moderate Democratic men protesting Clinton by choosing Sanders.

“She’s a got a man problem,” said Suffolk University pollster David Paleologos, pointing out that his most recent poll showed men favoring Sanders, 67 percent to 25 percent. “There are a mix of people who are ideologically left, on the one hand, who are particularly tuned into his issues like climate change and single payer health care. Then he’s also got other men who are more conservative and whose intentions are more anti-Hillary Clinton than pro-Sanders.”

Clinton’s campaign said that she, unlike Sanders, has been subject to months of attack ads and still “Hillary Clinton continues to be the person that Democrats trust to get the job done and deliver real results for Granite State families,” Julie McClain, Clinton’s New Hampshire spokeswoman, said in a statement underscoring a different subset of poll questions – which candidate can get results.

And Clinton does have a well of support in New Hampshire, which has been known as Clinton Country since 1992, when her husband made a comeback in his own presidential bid. In 2008, Hillary Clinton won the New Hampshire primary by a two-point margin, breathing life into her faltering campaign, although she eventually lost the nomination.

 Those all look like rig jobs in hindsight.

Voters have their own opinions, with many touting her experience but saying it’s simply not enough to win their vote in the primary. Even then, many Democrats said they would eventually support Clinton if Sanders did not win the nomination.

“I just like him,” Tom Smith, a small-business owner in Concord, said. And although Sanders “appeals” to Smith, who considers himself an independent voter with Democratic tendencies, the 58-year-old said he’s not completely committed — “yet.” He is, however, completely opposed to Clinton.

“I don’t like Hillary Clinton at all,” Smith said from behind the counter. When asked why, he said, “Oh, geez. We don’t have long enough to talk. Let’s not even go there.”

Albert LaChance, of New Boston, gladly went “there” as his wife tried to hurry him into the waiting car, a huge “Bernie 2016” in the back window.

“I don’t hate her. But something there is spiritually lacking,” he said, calling Sanders honest and saying he likes the campaign’s focus on economic justice. “Like you could feel Obama, you can feel Bernie. You don’t feel Hillary.”

 No, you find hate on the other side.

Sanders’ “people-powered movement” resonates with Willow Mauck, owner of Willow’s Plant-Based Eatery. He’s inspiring young people, including herself, to get involved in the political process, the 30-year-old said.

“I’m actually going to phone bank for him,” she said.

Mauck demurs when asked what she thinks about Clinton, pausing and saying “hmm” and “uh” several times before answering: “I’m all for a woman president, but it’s not about a woman president.”

 It's really about the person, and always has been.

Mauck’s neighbor, Rachel Ward, didn’t tap dance around her disapproval of Clinton.

“I don’t personally like her,” the 42-year-old single mother of two said. “I don’t trust her.”

 Not alone there.

--more--"

"Anger, frustration is driving voters on the left and right" by Sarah Schweitzer Globe Staff  January 30, 2016

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. —As Iowa and then New Hampshire prepare to hold the first elections of the campaign, some voters are frustrated about what they call government dysfunction and a political process so paralyzed that it isn’t helping the country move forward. It’s a contrast with the voter ire that was directed at the war in Iraq in 2008 and a lagging economy in 2012.

The frustration emerges not just at rallies for the GOP's controversial front-runner, Donald Trump, but some 70 percent of respondents in a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll agreed that they “feel angry because our political system seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington, rather than working to help everyday people get ahead.”

 So much for all that polarization we are told about by the pre$$.

The poll’s responses did not divide along party lines or by demographics.

In New Hampshire, voters are funneling frustration into support for insurgent candidates at either end of the political spectrum. On the left, voters have embraced Sanders’ message of economic inequality and a government hijacked by billionaire businessmen. On the right, voters have aligned with Trump’s attacks on immigration and the impotence of elected officials.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC/Marist poll released last week showed Trump leading the Republican pack in the state, with 31 percent support from likely voters, and Sanders nearly 19 points above Hillary Clinton.

“They like the anger they hear from Trump,” said Steve Darrow, a Republican state representative who is backing Ohio Governor John Kasich. “There’s lots of anger and frustration and Trump is tapping into that, and Bernie is, too.”

Darrow said he hears a yearning for “somebody to shake things up.”

 That's the thing. People the world over and time over have always done everything they can to avoid violent revolution. Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said local polling backs up Darrow’s observation: Voters this cycle give high ratings to the insurgent candidates not so much for their policies, but for their calls to overhaul government.

The question, of course, is whether the proclaimed anger is reflected in voters’ choices on Feb. 9, the date of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.

 Why wouldn't it be?

New Hampshire has chosen insurgent candidates in times of peace and economic health, like Senator John McCain in 2000, and it has supported establishment candidates in rockier periods, as in 2012, when the state backed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the midst of a stalled economic recovery.

 Right, McCain was an insurgent.

Pollsters note that some anger is cyclical, with Republican frustration peaking after eight years of the opposing party in the Oval Office.

“Eight years with anyone and people start to get tired,” Paleologos said. “It’s human nature. People want to change it up.”

 Crap narrative but true. I'm as tired of Obummer as I was of Bush at this point, maybe even a little bit more.

Nan Legare is in that group. Asked about her emotional temperature as the primary nears, Legare, 64, of Franklin, offered without pause, “I hate Obama.”

In New Hampshire, unemployment is 3.1 percent, nearly two points below the national average. Yet among the candidates, only one is keying off the state’s relative good fortune: Kasich, who is banking on a win here and has stayed away from anger, calling himself the “prince of light and hope.”

 Oh my flipping word!!!

At times, he has seemed taken aback by the anger that he hears is out there.

Remy Hinxhia, one of his likely backers (he believes Kasich can balance the budget but also is considering Hillary Clinton) agreed. “I don’t believe there is any reason to be angry,” said Hinxhia, 43, who owns a real estate company in Concord. “Why should we be angry?”

 Must be part of the 1%.

Kasich is at 11 percent in the New Hampshire polls, including the WSJ/NBC/Marist poll, trailing both Trump and Senator Ted Cruz, another candidate appealing to an angry conservative base.

 I'm starting to get that way having seen the word so much in this article.

For some voters, discontent is borne of a sense of narrowing opportunity for their children and grandchildren. Jean Cleverly of Loudon is a law office administrator and her husband, Chum Cleverly, is retired from the public works department in nearby Bow. On a Sunday morning, they were enjoying a moment’s rest on benches at the Steeplegate Mall, thinking about an upcoming trip to Florida.

Asked about the election, they noted that their daughter has struggled to find a job in graphic design since leaving a corporate one, and a grandson recently dropped out of college and joined the Army because he thought he’d have too much student loan debt otherwise.

“He was frustrated,” Jean Cleverly said.

Both she and her husband have already cast absentee ballots for Cruz; they will be in Florida come election day, Feb. 9.

For other voters, there is an additional mounting frustration — a sense that there is overreaction and overcorrection by the insurgents.

“I get angry about Bernie,” said Mary-Ellen Berg, a real estate agent in Bedford who is considering Kasich. “When he says the system is corrupt, that smacks of: All of us who have been working hard every day have been doing it wrong. I resent that.” 

 I'm starting to resent this agenda-pushing garbage.

Cheryl Staples is a housekeeping supervisor at a nursing home, and her husband is a retired electrician. They struggle on her salary and his Social Security, they said.

He is leaning toward Trump. She is not.

“I don’t seen how anyone’s going to make a difference. Definitely not Trump, “ Staples said.

So who does she like?

“Maybe Bernie Sanders,” she said.

 Yeah, maybe. To stop Clinton. 

 Then we can work on the blood-from-the-fangs Zionism foreign policy.

--more--"

Time to vote:

"Hillary Clinton deserves Democratic nomination" by The Editorial Board   January 24, 2016

 I can't think of a better reason to vote Sanders.

America looks different in 2016 than it did the last time Hillary Clinton ran for president: The economy has come out of free fall, the military has left the quagmire of the Iraq war, barriers to equality have toppled, and universal access to health care has become a reality.

 Then why is the Obama administration rebuilding almost all of the bases it tore down in 2011, Bo$ton Globe?

Tumultuous as they’ve been, the Barack Obama years have proved transformative — and the priority for Democratic voters should be to protect, consolidate, and extend those gains.

Today, the nation has new challenges, which require a different kind of leader — someone who can keep what Obama got right, while also fixing his failures, especially on gun control and immigration reform. That will require a focus and toughness that Obama sometimes lacked. This is Clinton’s time, and the Globe enthusiastically endorses her in the Feb. 9 Democratic primary in New Hampshire. She is more seasoned, more grounded, and more forward-looking than in 2008, and has added four years as secretary of state to her already formidable resume. Democrats in the Granite State should not hesitate to choose her.

As the recent spate of mass shootings has made tragically clear, the next president will face a crisis of gun violence. Clinton’s assertive record on guns stands in contrast to that of her main Democratic opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who voted against the Brady background-check bill and, his claims notwithstanding, is not a convincing champion of gun control. Clinton is simply more credible on what for too many Americans is a life-and-death issue.

So is immigration reform, but if part of the next president’s job is to tackle the unfinished business Obama will likely leave behind, an equally important goal must be to defend the milestones his presidency achieved on civil rights, health care reform, climate change, and foreign policy.

Obamacare is working.

 Is it?

Sanders’s great contribution to this year’s primary debate has been his emphasis on income inequality, and on the outsize political influence of Wall Street and other corporations. His entry into the race has pushed Clinton to the left in ways that have made her positions inconsistent — she has come out against a Trans-Pacific Partnership that she helped to initiate as secretary of state. But Sanders’s candidacy has also opened up more room for Clinton to champion working people who are struggling in a changing economy.

Like those working in the Globe newsroom?

Meanwhile, though, issues of income distribution dominate Sanders’s candidacy to the point of crowding out equally substantive matters of foreign and domestic policy.

!!!!!!!

Few Americans lack an opinion of Hillary Clinton, who has served as secretary of state, a senator from New York, and as the first lady during the presidency of her husband, Bill Clinton. She’s long been the bête noire of conservatives. Their cartoonish conspiracy theories — remember Vince Foster? — and unfounded attacks against her have, at times, triggered so much sympathy for Clinton that some of her actual weaknesses have been allowed to slide.

 Look who is hurling insults.

 Related: The Death of Vincent Foster 

 I didn't think much of it at the time, but now....

Clinton is not perfect — especially on issues of financial regulation while she represented New York. Her vote in the Senate to authorize the war in Iraq was a mistake, as Sanders has taken every opportunity to point out.

Still, in the same way that Obama caught some lucky breaks in 2008, Clinton has drawn a very good hand this year. Her main Democratic opponent has failed to expand his coalition, and her GOP opponents are undercutting themselves every time they attack her over e-mails, Benghazi, or her husband’s sex life. Even after 25 years in the limelight, her opponents still don’t seem to understand how much stronger those attacks make her.

 Bernie failed to expand his coalition, even as he is drawing in women and the youth. 

 Whatever, Bo$ton Globe.

But the best reason to support Clinton isn’t the weaknesses of her opponents; it’s her demonstrated strengths and experience. Even her most dyed-in-the-wool opponents ought to take a second look at her. While Sanders has made an important contribution to the Democratic primary campaign, it’s Clinton who would make a better president.

--more--"

Also see:

Sanders, Clinton seek support from women in N.H. primary
Appeal to Hispanic voters by Hillary Clinton backfires
Study Predicts Low Turnout Among Latino Voters
College students backing Clinton are frustrated with ‘Bernie Bros’

Time to upgrade those scanners.

I saw someone mention Joe Biden, and I saw Jill Stein (for those who vote strictly on gender) campaigning for president in Paris.  

Related:

 "Sanders is the only candidate tested in the poll for whom a plurality -- 50 percent -- says they feel comfortable with as president."

And yet the propaganda pre$$ tells us he can't win. 

 I predict it will be Wyoming that puts him over the top. 

 Next stop, White House:

Obama, Sanders at the White House: Nice chat but that’s all

He's being his usual divisive self and I fail to see how he helps.

 NDUs: 

 The front page has been updated and I have yet to read or compare what the web is giving you and what I got in print. 

Ted Cruz wins in Iowa, dealing defeat to Trump

 Well, the "humbled" Donald isn't used to finishing second, especially to a fool, and his supporters were shocked and heartbroken. The Palin endorsement didn't help, and I see Rubio got an unusually high percentage. Looks like he will be winning New Hampshire then, and in all likelihood will be the next Republican nominee. That's the way I see the rigged political narrative playing out. 

 I'm sorry I no longer trust the electoral process anymore (if you ever could), but after all the things we have seen the last 20 years or so....

 Clinton, Sanders battle in Iowa contest too close to call

 A picture is worth a thousand words and this morning the word was Clinton eeked it out. If Bernie can't win in Iowa.... Clinton wins New Hampshire and it's away we go.
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