Labeling Hillary - or As the Windsock Turns
My wife and I watched the debate last night. It was a very unsettling experience. Bernie missed many opportunities to really nail Clinton. What's worse, he got a little wrapped up in the back and forth jabs and showed himself to be a little rattled. I think scoring debates is pretty much a useless exercise but what a debater/candidate can do, is build on the experience and refocus the message.
There were two times last night when Hillary was toast. The first was her flip flop on the $15 minimum wage and the second was on eliminating the SS tax cap on the wealthy. She was flustered and blubbering and ultimately, a liar or a waffler...you pick.
Bernie has been excellent in getting his message out. His portrayal of two Americas, one for the rich and one for everyone else is clear - unless you are so disengaged you don't give a shit.
At this point, Bernie MUST move to a new message. His opponent is a politician in the ugliest sense of the term. She will say or do anything that will get her votes. She is cynical and preys on peoples hopes and fears.
- Annie Oakley - to the right of Obama and Bernie on guns - now she is the great gun control champion
- For fracking, now against it.
- The great environmentalist with a billion solar panels but fossil fuels are a bridge to energy independence
- For $12 minimum - now $15
- For Universal healthcare - now it will bankrupt us.
- Loves BO who should never be contradicted like Bernie does - no fly zone, no Israeli settlement freeze, hardliner - rattle sabers with Putin, pro-arming of Syrian rebel
He needs to summarize all of this policy mess with, She cant be trusted. This is the message that everyone naturally gravitates towards in the first place, and Sanders needs to send it home with an exclamation point.
Happy Friday !
Comments
The viewing public
may be a little more sophisticated than you are giving them credit for. Just about everyone I speak to agrees with your criticisms of Clinton so the message is getting out there.
If your opponent is self-destructing don't interrupt the process.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
All things considered, I think he's holding up well
He's consistent and it shows.
She looked like a waffler last night - the audience was pretty mixed and she got a lot of boos.
I agree that he could come down harder on somethings, but I was ready to barf afterward since nearly ALL the commentators are using the word "TONE" now. Puh-leese, people, do not pander to her so much by using her talking points!
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
When the Grand Wizard of the KKK
Flipped his endorsement from Trump to Hillary he mentioned that he didn't believe she really wanted gun control...
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
If Benie said that last night the place the would have lit up
so I could see it from my house (about 1/2 mi from the Navy Yard)
Did that actually happen?!
"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." - Mark Twain
The Debate Open thread at Naked Capitalism
has some great comments about how Bernie has to walk a tightrope -- which prevents him from unloading both barrels on both Hillary and Obama.
RUKidding
I agree. A huge number of D voters – including Sanders’ supporters – still LOVE Obama, and I think Sanders is well aware of that. Hitting too hard on Obama will alienate these voters. It is good strategy on Sanders’ part. I mean: what’s he gonna do? Go for Obama’s jugular and tell the unvarnished truth about him and his Admin? Why? Won’t change those partisans’ minds, nor will it change anything about Obama. It will just hurt Sanders. Gotta bear that in mind.
I'm still reading comments but lots of great insights...
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/04/open-thread-reader-takes-on-sande...
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
She's going for the Harlem vote and the vote in my Bklyn
neighborhood, which has been changing what with the spillover from Manhattan and the Heights, but is still a strong sunday-go-to-church going community with ties to the NY machine. Just caught a glimpse of her in a small room in a senior center in Harlem. They must have missed collecting a few absentee ballots from those old folks who apparently need an interpreter to explain what she's saying.
In general Naked Capitalism site
is an awesome place to browse and learn. Really outstanding and educational. Not nearly as interactive as here and reddit, but highly informative and (in my case) worth my time. I learn a lot there.
Don't believe everything you think.
Hard to keep track of Hillary's rapidly changing positions
It was hard to keep track of Hillary's rapidly changing positions, she seemed to be debating against herself at times.
Last night Hillary repeated her Wall Street Bernie smear.
This was an oblique reference to the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA), which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Of course, Hillary wasn't a senator in 2000 and she didn't have to cast a vote on this. Some have suggested Bill did a favor for Wall Street to help Hillary win a NY Senate seat.
The Story Behind Clinton’s Jab At Sanders’ One Wall Street Vote
Long story short, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm rewrote the CFMA while nobody was looking (this was during the controversy over the outcome of the 2000 presidential election) and attached it to a last-minute appropriations bill to keep the government funded. Bill Clinton knew what was being done, but Bernie and a lot of other senators were blindsided.
Hillary in effect blamed the 2008 Wall Street meltdown on her husband, Bill. Bernie ought to have called her on that one.
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
I really wish he would turn the tables on her
regarding that gun immunity vote. There were two important pieces there that he could point to and say, "She voted NO for child safety locks and NO to a ban on armor piercing ammunition." For more info, see my Fairytales, Guns and Sanders, Part 1 and pas it along.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Gun control vs arms deals
I can't understand why Bernie doesn't ask her about all her arms sales as SOS...and the subsequent donations to the Clinton Foundation. I'm sure the rethugs are going to hit her with it.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Lets not
forget the hundreds of thousands of innocent people killed as a result of the Clintons deals and actions in the middle east and elsewhere.She wants gun makers held liable but not makers of weapons of war, if innocent people are being killed how is there a difference.