Bernie Sanders Running for US President

[dust1n]

Sorry TurkeyOnRye, your thread now features a Bernie Sanders newsfeed.

"WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders knows he faces an uphill battle against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, but he believes he can win by reaching out to overworked, underpaid Americans anxious for change.

"I've been traveling around the country for the last year trying to ascertain whether there really is grass-roots support in terms of people standing up and being prepared to take on the billionaire class," the independent senator said in an interview Wednesday with USA TODAY as he prepared to officially announce his candidacy Thursday. "I believe that there is..."

Acknowledging that former secretary of State Clinton will be a formidable fundraiser, Sanders says he can compete by attracting small contributions from millions of Americans and mobilizing young people and other volunteers to help him wage a nationwide campaign.

"I am running in this election to win," he said. "We've got a long path forward. Most people in America have never heard of Bernie Sanders. More than 90% of Americans have heard of Hillary Clinton. ... I will absolutely be out-spent. But I do believe we have a chance to raise significant amounts of money through small, individual contributions."

About 60% of the money he received in his successful 2012 campaign for a second Senate term came from small contributions from individual donors, Sanders said. He won that election with 71% of the vote...

Sanders said he knows he's an underdog and that political analysts may believe he can't win. But he points to his upset victories to become mayor of Burlington, Vt., in 1981, to beat an incumbent congressman in 1990, and to fend off one of the wealthiest businessmen in Vermont to win his first Senate term in 2006.

"It probably would not be a good idea for people to underestimate me," he said.

Bernie Sanders: 'I am running in this election to win'

 

[Revoltingest]

"Unlike Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders didn't use a splashy, big-budget video to announce his campaign. Instead, the Vermont senator opted for a series of one-on-one television interviews Wednesday followed by a low-key launch event outside the US Capitol Thursday morning. "I believe that in a democracy, what elections are about are serious debates over serious issues," he said Thursday. "Not political gossip, not making campaigns into soap operas. This is not the Red Sox vs. the Yankees. This is the debate over major issues facing the American people."

Pundits are already dismissing Sanders—who has, in the past, described himself as a socialist rather than a Democrat—as a long-shot candidate with little chance of defeating Clinton for the Democrats' 2016 nomination. But Sanders is already beating Clinton on one metric: answering questions from the press.

Earlier this week, National Journal's Zach Cohen counted all of the times Clinton has answered press questions since she announced her presidential campaign on April 12. Cohen counted just seven "answers"—about half of which ignored the actual question. When asked about whether a super-PAC would support her campaign, she said, "I don't know." When she was quizzed about her chances in Iowa, she said "I'm having a great time, can't look forward any more than I am."

Sanders, who needs all the press attention he can get, kicked off his presidential campaign by fielding a barrage of questions from TV news reporters in interviews Wednesday. Over the course of one five-minute exchange with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday, Sanders answered seven separate questions. The trend continued at Sanders' campaign launch event Thursday morning, when he took six more questions."

Bernie Sanders Has Already Taken More Press Questions Than Hillary Clinton | Mother Jones

Sometimes I like people I'd never vote for, eg, Bernie, Jimmy Carter.

 

[dust1n]

Sometimes I like people I'd never vote for, eg, Bernie, Jimmy Carter.

Most people I like I don't think I'd vote for.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

If Bernie remains standing for his independent platform that he has stood on he may make a great president. Fox News may have an aneurism if it happens.

 

[dust1n]

So, I went over to a friends house. I asked my good friend if he was going to vote Bernie. He said, yeah, he was going to sign up to, and he had already donated to the campaign. Later on, another slumpy friend, and I just mean a really piece of trash friend of mine, was even going to register to vote.

I'm bring up Bernie in every conversation.

In more news:

"As he formally announces his run for the presidency, it is nothing short of astonishing that Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist who will be 75 years old on Inauguration Day 2017, has emerged as Hillary Clinton's leading opponent in the race for the Democratic nomination. But that is what has happened.

A new Iowa survey by the Democratic polling firm PPP finds Clinton with an overwhelming lead over the Democratic pack — no news there. But PPP also found that, while the former secretary of state is the choice of 62 percent of Democrats surveyed, Sanders is now in double digits, with 14 percent saying they support him. (Martin O'Malley is at 6 percent, Jim Webb at 3 percent, and Lincoln Chafee at two percent, while 13 percent say they are not sure who they support.)

Given the peculiar character of the Democratic race, just being in double digits qualifies a candidate as a legitimate opponent of Clinton. And PPP numbers also put Sanders in double digits in New Hampshire. "We've now found that in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Sanders is the second choice," says PPP director Tom Jensen. "If there really is a desire on the far left for anyone else — now that they're not going to get Warren — Sanders may be their guy."

What appears to have happened is that Sanders has become a stand-in for Warren among those Democrats who wanted the Massachusetts senator to run and are disappointed that she has declined. They have now transferred their support to the next-best candidate to represent their point of view, and that is Sanders.

One indication of that is in the PPP data from Iowa Democrats who describe themselves as "very liberal." Among them, Clinton's lead over Sanders is 55 percent to 29 percent — still a big lead at 26 points, but far less than Clinton's 48-point lead among Democrats overall.

Yes, Clinton is far, far ahead. But in the big picture, the PPP results show that despite her lead, 38 percent of Democrats in the key early state of Iowa either do not want Clinton as their nominee or are not sure who they support. No, that's not enough to win. But for her would-be opponents, it's a start."

In 2016 Dem race, Bernie Sanders is the new Elizabeth Warren | WashingtonExaminer.com

 

[TurkeyOnRye]

So, I went over to a friends house. I asked my good friend if he was going to vote Bernie. He said, yeah, he was going to sign up to, and he had already donated to the campaign. Later on, another slumpy friend, and I just mean a really piece of trash friend of mine, was even going to register to vote.

I'm bring up Bernie in every conversation.

In more news:

"As he formally announces his run for the presidency, it is nothing short of astonishing that Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist who will be 75 years old on Inauguration Day 2017, has emerged as Hillary Clinton's leading opponent in the race for the Democratic nomination. But that is what has happened.

A new Iowa survey by the Democratic polling firm PPP finds Clinton with an overwhelming lead over the Democratic pack — no news there. But PPP also found that, while the former secretary of state is the choice of 62 percent of Democrats surveyed, Sanders is now in double digits, with 14 percent saying they support him. (Martin O'Malley is at 6 percent, Jim Webb at 3 percent, and Lincoln Chafee at two percent, while 13 percent say they are not sure who they support.)

Given the peculiar character of the Democratic race, just being in double digits qualifies a candidate as a legitimate opponent of Clinton. And PPP numbers also put Sanders in double digits in New Hampshire. "We've now found that in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Sanders is the second choice," says PPP director Tom Jensen. "If there really is a desire on the far left for anyone else — now that they're not going to get Warren — Sanders may be their guy."

What appears to have happened is that Sanders has become a stand-in for Warren among those Democrats who wanted the Massachusetts senator to run and are disappointed that she has declined. They have now transferred their support to the next-best candidate to represent their point of view, and that is Sanders.

One indication of that is in the PPP data from Iowa Democrats who describe themselves as "very liberal." Among them, Clinton's lead over Sanders is 55 percent to 29 percent — still a big lead at 26 points, but far less than Clinton's 48-point lead among Democrats overall.

Yes, Clinton is far, far ahead. But in the big picture, the PPP results show that despite her lead, 38 percent of Democrats in the key early state of Iowa either do not want Clinton as their nominee or are not sure who they support. No, that's not enough to win. But for her would-be opponents, it's a start."

In 2016 Dem race, Bernie Sanders is the new Elizabeth Warren | WashingtonExaminer.com

I will most certainly be voting for him in the primary. I think Bernie's airtime is very high quality and his supporters are probably much more confident in his message than Hillary's supporters are of her's. For those who aren't dead-set on having a president with two X chromosomes, that could translate into a horizontal shift of support from her to him. Obviously he is not as well-known, but that is rapidly changing, and won't really be true by the time of the primary. People forget we live in a technological age where information spreads virally. What Bernie has going for him is that listeners seem to believe in his message, but more than that, they believe him when he says it. The fact that his campaign is 100% grass-fed is evidence that he isn't a hypocrite...and at a time where wealth and income inequality and political corruption have become the paramount issues of this election cycle, that should hold a lot of water.

 

[Revoltingest]

Bernie Sanders For President
Money people, hand it over.

No way!
I intend to become one of them again.
I miss the financial independence I had before the crash.
Plans are afoot!

 

[dust1n]

I will most certainly be voting for him in the primary. I think Bernie's airtime is very high quality and his supporters are probably much more confident in his message than Hillary's supporters are of her's. For those who aren't dead-set on having a president with two X chromosomes, that could translate into a horizontal shift of support from her to him. Obviously he is not as well-known, but that is rapidly changing, and won't really be true by the time of the primary. People forget we live in a technological age where information spreads virally.

I think you are on the spot on. I expect most people are going with Hillary because they simply don't know any of the other candidates yet. Meanwhile, it's going to be hard to start a scandal in Bernie's corner.

 

[dust1n]

No way!
I intend to become one of them again.
I miss the financial independence I had before the crash.
Plans are afoot!

Well, don't get too successful there, or else the state might have to put you on house arrest for being too independent.

 

[dust1n]

Bernie on the warpath:

"WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday that if he becomes president in 2016, he will bring "a real political shake-up" that lifts the nation's poorest while stemming the proliferation of millionaires and billionaires.

In other words, he said he wants to make America look more like Scandinavia.

During an interview on ABC's "This Week," host George Stephanopoulos asked the 73-year-old Vermont senator if it's really possible for someone like him to be elected president. Sanders, who identifies as a democratic socialist, announced his White House run last week.

"Well, so long as we know what democratic socialism is," he said. "And if we know that in countries, in Scandinavia, like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, they are very democratic countries, obviously. The voter turnout is a lot higher than it is in the United States. In those countries, health care is the right of all people. And in those countries, college education, graduate school is free."

When Stephanopoulos said Republicans were likely to jump all over Sanders for saying the U.S. should be more like Scandinavia, the senator said he has no problem with that.

"That's right. And what's wrong with that?" Sanders said. "What's wrong when you have more income and wealth equality? What's wrong when they have a stronger middle class in many ways than we do, higher minimum wage than we do, and they are stronger on the environment than we do?"

"The fact of the matter is, we do a lot in our country, which is good," he added. "But we can learn from other countries.""

Bernie Sanders: What's Wrong With America Looking More Like Scandinavia?

"Sen. Bernie Sanders might face tough odds in his bid for the White House, but he’s still striking a nerve on social media.

The reaction on Facebook to the Vermont Independent’s Thursday campaign announcement was more muted than the outpouring of discussion for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — the Democratic front-runner — but was, nonetheless, comparable to the chatter after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced his bid for president.

In all, Facebook saw 1.2 million likes, posts, comments and other interactions about Sanders on Thursday, generated by 592,000 people.

That’s pretty close to the reaction Rubio got last month, when 695,000 people generated 1.3 million interactions.

Still, compared to Clinton, Sanders has a long way to go. The former senator and first lady generated 10.1 million interactions from 4.7 million people on the day she announced her bid for the White House.""

Sanders makes Rubio-sized waves on Facebook | TheHill

"The folks at Vermont Teddy Bear in Shelburne appear to be riding the coattails of excitement following U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' announcement earlier this week that he is seeking the Democratic nod for president.

Vermont Teddy Bear announced Friday that it has introduced a "Bernie Bear," a 15-inch stuffed animal, which emulates the independent senator wearing a suit, tie, white shirt and campaign pin.

The Bernie Bear also wears glasses and has unruly white hair — though perhaps the bear looks less rumpled than Vermont's junior senator sometimes does."

Vermont Teddy Bear introduces Bernie Bear

 

[Laika]

Go on America. Come to the Dark Side. Don't you want Free Health Care?

 

[metis]

Bernie v Hillary-- I'll take Bernie.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Bernie v Hillary-- I'll take Bernie.

Would any logical person vote for Hillary if it came down between those two?
Anyone with the name of Bush or Clinton needs to be banned from politics.

 

[Revoltingest]

What if I were Bernie's running mate?
(Naturally, since his star is brighter I'd be the Veep.)

What if we ran against Rand Paul & Red Economist?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

What if I were Bernie's running mate?
(Naturally, since his star is brighter I'd be the Veep.)

What if we ran against Rand Paul & Red Economist?

I'd wonder who spiked my drink with what drugs, because damn those would be some good drugs if I saw those combinations on the ballot.

 

[dust1n]

What if I were Bernie's running mate?
(Naturally, since his star is brighter I'd be the Veep.)

What if we ran against Rand Paul & Red Economist?

Obviously Bernie's running mate is going to have to the most right-leaning democrat as VP.

 

[dust1n]

In more Bernie news.



"When he arrived at the University of Chicago in 1961, he was a product of his “solidly lower-middle-class” upbringing in a poor Jewish family stuffed in a three-and-one-half room apartment in Flatbush. His father, Eli, was an immigrant from Poland who arrived in the U.S. in 1917, penniless, and without an education or the ability to speak English. None of his relatives who stayed behind survived the Holocaust. He sold paint to scrape together a living to support his wife, Dorothy, the daughter of Polish immigrants, and their two sons, Larry and Bernie. The alarmingly tight finances made a lifelong impression on Bernie, who told a reporter for the New York Times that his father reminded him of Willy Loman of Death of a Salesman.

He graduated from Brooklyn’s P.S. 197 and James Madison High School* where he was captain of his high school track team. He enrolled at Brooklyn College, but then transferred to the U. of C., where he financed his education with a mix of part-time jobs, grants, and loans.

While his parents voted for Democrats, they were not, Sanders has said, involved in politics. His mother died young, at 46, during Bernie’s year at Brooklyn College, and, brokenhearted—his mother’s unfulfilled dream was that the family would move out of the apartment to a house—he headed to Hyde Park.

It was there that he has traced his attraction to lefty politics “When I went to the University of Chicago, I began to understand the futility of liberalism,” he told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times in 1991. On campus, he joined the Young People’s Socialist League, he became active in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), he was an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and he organized and led a sit-in protest in 1962 against university-owned, racially segregated campus housing. He has admitted to being a middling student at U. of C., reading Marx and Freud on his own while investing lightly in preparing for classes and taking tests. He took an overnight bus to DC—his first time there—to participate in the 1963 March on Washington, and witnessed, via loudspeakers on the Mall, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech..."


Americans Flock To Bernie As Sanders Announces 175,000 Volunteers For Presidential Bid

Sanders made the announcement on The Rachel Maddow Show, “I had the feeling, Rachel that there was a strong undercurrent of support, and when we announced on Thursday, we sent out an email on website berniesanders.com. We got 35,000 responses in terms of contributions, and 100,000 people indicated on the first day alone that they wanted to sign up and work on the campaign, and those numbers have gone up in the last few days. I feel really good about that.”

Maddow asked, “You have 100,000 people who have pledged to volunteer on the campaign already?”

Sanders answered, “No, actually, we have 175,000.”

Later, Sen. Sanders added, “I think the main thing is Rachel, is that we have a message that is resonating all across this country. And that is, the income and wealth inequality in this country is grotesque. Ninety-nine percent of all new income goes to the top one percent. The top one-tenth of one percent owns as much wealth as the bottom ninety percent, and meanwhile, the middle-class in this country continues to disappear. I think people want a candidate who is prepared to take on the billionaire class and say you know what, this country belongs to all of us, and not to a handful of billionaire families.”

Within the mainstream press, there was an immediate dismissal of Sen. Sanders as a legitimate candidate, but Bernie Sanders is legit. The American people are putting the Senator from Vermont in a position to mount a credible challenge to former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton. The more money and volunteers that the Sanders campaign can gather, the longer he will be able to stay in the race.


In A Few Days, Sanders Campaign Has Raised Over $2 Million In Small Donations | Vermont Public Radio

The Bernie Sanders presidential campaign has gotten off to a strong fundraising start.

In just a few days, the campaign has raised more than $2 million and almost all of the contributions have come from small donors.

Sanders says he can be successful as a presidential candidate only if hundreds of thousands of Americans contribute to his campaign. His goal is to raise between $40 and $50 million dollars over the next eight months.

In the first few days of his campaign, Sanders received more than $2 million from over 35,000 people. The average contribution is just under $50.

Retired Middlebury College political science professor Eric Davis says this weekend's fundraising efforts make it very likely that Sanders will be able to reach his goal.

"I believe there are two million people out there who would give an average of $25 each to the Sanders presidential campaign that would enable him to raise $50 million over the next few months,” says Davis.

Davis says Sanders will need around $10 million to pay for his campaign infrastructure. The rest of the money can be used in the early primaries. "That would leave roughly $10 million per state for the four early primary and caucus states, [which are] Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. I believe that's enough to be competitive in each of those four states,” he says.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Will Debate Six Times During The 2016 Primary

Democratic voters have gone from wondering if there will be any debates to learning that they will be treated to six debates between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Democratic primary. The Democratic debates will occur Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina. The location of the other two debates has not been determined yet.

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said, “Our debate schedule will not only give Democratic voters multiple opportunities to size up the candidates for the nomination side-by-side, but will give all Americans a chance to see a unified Democratic vision of economic opportunity and progress — no matter whom our nominee may be.”

Republicans will 9-12 primary debates, but with dozens of candidates potentially running for their party’s nomination, it is questionable whether any of the candidates will be able to stand out.

Let’s be honest, it became much easier for the Democratic Party to schedule debates after Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy. The DNC was going to have a difficult time with putting together a compelling debate schedule if the candidates were Hillary Clinton and a bunch of people that no one has ever heard of.

 

[dust1n]

Everyone loves Big Banks.

Except one man.

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist U.S. senator who has launched a bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, said on Tuesday he will introduce a bill to break up the biggest banks, a position far to the left of the party's front runner, Hillary Clinton.

Calls for Wall Street's largest firms to be cut down were numerous after taxpayers spent billions of dollars to prevent the financial system from collapse during the 2007-09 financial crisis, but they have since gradually died down.

Sanders faces long odds against Clinton's fund-raising might, and his views might help position the former secretary of state and first lady more as a moderate and buttress her efforts to attract money from banks' deep pockets.

Under the Sanders proposal, regulators on the existing Financial Stability Oversight Council would compile a list of institutions that are 'too big to fail' and implicitly rely on government support during a crisis.

"If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist," Sanders said in a statement.

Within a year of enactment of the bill, the Treasury secretary would be required to break up these firms. They would also be prohibited from using any customer funds for risky or speculative activities on financial markets.

Sanders, an independent from Vermont, launched his long-shot bid last week, highlighting his fight against authorizing the Iraq war, which Clinton voted to authorize as a senator, and putting pressure on her political agenda from the left.

Sanders is not alone in his view that large banks still pose an undue risk to the economy after causing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a highly visible Democrat from Massachusetts, also wants to break up big banks. Among regulators, Tom Hoenig, second-in-command at the powerful Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, wants the same thing.

Still, the bill stands a near-zero chance of becoming law. Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California, also backed the bill, but it has no Republican support. Republicans hold the majority in both houses of Congress.

President Barack Obama is also opposed to making any changes to the 2010 Dodd-Frank law aimed at reforming Wall Street."

2016 hopeful Bernie Sanders: If a bank is too big to fail, 'it's too big to exist' - Business Insider


Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has some believers in his candidacy for president. A new poll by Rasmussen poll, published Tuesday morning, showed that while 63% of likely Democratic primary voters think the independent liberal senator is unlikely to win the nomination in 2016, as many 23% believe Sanders is likely to beat Hillary Clinton and win their party’s nomination.

Among all likely voters, 19% think Sanders is likely to win his party’s nomination, but 64% view that outcome as unlikely.

Considering Hillary’s statue and name recognition, an overwhelming 91% of Democrats believe she is likely to be their party’s presidential nominee in 2016, including 66% who say it is “very likely,” the poll showed.

Just as his announcement drew positive feedback, Sanders is also starting off with pretty good numbers. 38% of Democrats view him favorably, with 20% who share a “very favorable” opinion of him, while 18% have an unfavorable view. Since he is viewed as a ideological candidate running to the left of Hillary, the poll showed his favorablity among liberal voters at a 48 percent.

More significant is that 44% of voters in his own party don’t know enough about Sanders at this point to voice any kind of opinion of him. In comparison, just 5% of Democrats have no opinion of Clinton.

A poll published by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, conducted before Sanders entered the race, showed that as many as 43 percent prefer that the Democrats find a candidate to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president. Some 56% say they remain unconcerned about the absence of a potent primary threat to Clinton, according to the poll, down from 61% in March.

Clinton has mainly lost ground among white Democrats, as more than half – 53% – want to see another candidate challenge Mrs. Clinton in the primary, up from 38% in March.

Sanders, a Brooklyn native, was born to Polish Jewish immigrant parents, whose family was mostly wiped out during the Holocaust, according to a 2007 New York Times profile. After he graduated from the University of Chicago in 1964, he spent several months in Israel on a kibbutz, according to Religious News. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991, and in the U.S. Senate since 2007.

The longtime Jewish progressive also got a warm welcome by the National Jewish Democratic Council. “Throughout his career, Sen. Sanders has fiercely fought for progressive values – values that characterize the vast majority of Jewish Americans,” the NJDC said in a statement. ” We are particularly pleased to see a strong Jewish progressive leader entering the race in what should be a moment of pride for all Jewish Americans. The coming months will provide an opportunity for the country to hear from all our candidates, and we have no doubt that the eventual Democratic nominee will be a strong and compassionate leader who will best represent the values of American Jewish voters.”

Jewish American presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders gets off to solid start - World - Israel News | Haaretz

 

[dust1n]

Would any logical person vote for Hillary if it came down between those two?

Who could compare the two?

 

[Revoltingest]

"Solving" problems?
It's so cute when those who have done nothing in a field will lecture those who have about how it works.
I like his honesty & candor, but I doubt he could find his hat on his head in the dark.