Clinton Camp says She's Been Forced to the Left Enough Already

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/29/clinton-camp-says-shes-been-forced-left-enough-already

That's not all that surprising, given factors apart from Sanders, Ehrenfreund writes. He points to data from Pew Research Center showing Americans' attitudes on various issues including race, poverty, regulation, and foreign policy are becoming more progressive. And there's also the influence of politicians like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in areas like Social Security, he notes.

But Amie Parnes writes at The Hill, "Clinton supporters argue the former secretary of State has already been forced to the left by Sanders, and can't risk moving further ahead of a general election."

And while political talk show host Bill Press told The Hill that it would be the wrong move for Clinton to "move back to the center," Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), told the political website that her campaign couldn't make any more leftward concessions, saying, "I don't know what's left to extract."

Cleaver added that "[Sanders has] already impacted this election probably more than anyone else including Donald Trump," and then suggested it was time for Sanders to help gather support for his rival.

Parnes also cites an anonymous Clinton ally who said, "We can't do it," regarding meeting some of Sanders' policy demands.

[BirdieSanders]

1. It's sad she won't budge, because Bernie voters by and large want the platform not the person

If I had to guess, I'd say Jill Stein is going to pull closer to double-digits than she ever has before

[Chasstev365]

2. Spoken like True Conservatives!

Dimiss Bernie and his supporters at your own peril Third Way Democrats!

[pengu]

3. Buhahahahahaha

[Katashi_itto]

4. Hahahahaha!

[NurseJackie]

5. She doesn't need to chase after Bernie's "fringe rally goers" for their ...

... individual votes (especially considering their frequent "no show" habits).

For every ONE of these "lost" hardcore Bernie voters (and despite their malcontent threats to vote for Jill Stein,) there are a DOZEN other votes from reasonable people in the center that she will earn elsewhere instead.

She'll be fine right where she is! :-D

No matter the threats from the bitter Bernie fans, the trade-off of Hillary pursuing (consoling?) those unreliable voters isn't worthwhile.

National elections aren't won by appealing exclusively to the fringe or extremes ... Hillary is smart enough to know that.

Besides, you wouldn't expect Bernie to shift, modulate, moderate and concede anything to win over Hillary voters ... why demand more from Hillary than you would expect from your own candidate?

[Armstead]

8. Progressive Liberalism not welcome in the United States of Monsanto or in the Land of the Goldman

?itok=faQPIQHm

[NurseJackie]

12. It's over. He lost ... better luck next time.

Instead of complaining and continuing with the same tactics that have already failed, his hardcore fans should reflect on the mistakes and what to do differently next time.

[pinebox]

15. "Frings goers" while most of America agrees with Bernie? Legit

Especially when Hillary is hated by most of American's and seen as untrustworthy.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/more-and-more-americans-agree-bernie-sanders-and-not-just-those-who-identify-left

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/06/03/polls-americans-socialists-bernie-sanders.html

http://reverbpress.com/politics/datalog/americans-agree-bernie-sanders/

[NurseJackie]

16. She'll be fine. That's why she's WINNING, and that's why ...

... she has more media endorsements, more labor union endorsements, more Senatorial endorsements, more US Rep endorsements, more Gubernatorial endorsements, more state-level rep endorsements than Sanders.

Eventually, reality will sink it ... but I'll go ahead and tell you again ... BERNIE WILL NOT BE THE NOMINEE. At this late date, nothing you say or do will change that.

There aren't enough charts, videos, attacks, smears, online polls, RW websites, self-serving RW polls, or lunatic columnists that you can link-to that will change that fact. Hillary won. Bernie lost. There will be no convention floor-show, there will be no en mass flipping of super-delegates. This thing is over. OVER. Deal with it.

Time for Bernie's hardcore fans to lick their wounds, regroup, do some inward reflecting, adjust, find a better candidate with a better delivery and a better message with better plan and try again.

[pinebox]

18. She is WINNING among a bubble

Endorsements are meaningless. Literally. Ask yourself why big corps are the 1% are endorsing Hillary while the worker bees vote Bernie.

Reality will sink in with you too when Hillary loses a GE *should* she be the nominee because most of America can't stand her. Her favorability numbers clearly show that yet it's head in the sand while polls show Bernie smokin' every single GOP candidate. Only Bernie does that. Hillary, popular among 55% of Dems ONLY.

You want lunacy? Here, let me give you a hand. You support this. Most of America doesn't. Yup, that's lunacy alright. Yet you outright ignore it because everything truly is unicorns and rainbows in "Hillaryland". Time for Hillary fans to face the music, America isn't electing a candidate under an FBI investigation.

[NurseJackie]

20. Your ineffective posts change nothing. Hillary will be the nominee and she'll win by a landslide.

Time for the hardcore Bernie supporters to lick their wounds, regroup, reflect, analyze their failures, build on successes, find a better candidate, a better message, a better plan and try again later.

It's over. Over.

[pinebox]

22. Uh huh explain this to everybody and we'll wait

Time for you to face the music but you won't. You'll keep sticking your fingers in your ears and ignoring facts as per is the course with Hillary supporters. You can lead a Hillary supporter to water but you can't make them drink.

And as much as you wish it was over, it isn't. Hillary won't have the numbers going into the convention.

Meanwhile America says what?

[NurseJackie]

28. See? This is why y'all lost. Obsessing about things you can't change...

... I'd recommend looking to the future and figuring out a plan (and a candidate) that actually appeals to more people.

Or, you can just stand there and shake your fists at the castle gates. Whatever. Your choice.

I don't care what you do anymore.

Hillary won. Bernie lost. It's over.

[pinebox]

30. Hillary hasn't won lol

Your fantasy is quite hilarious lol
Can you show us Hillary's victory speech? We'll wait.

[NurseJackie]

34. Bernie can't win. He's lost. It's over.

[vintx]

23. Your posts are so thoughtful

You are obviously an intelligent person of some intellect

I respect you

[choie]

32. Your posts are what is making DU

a really uncomfortable place to be. I've been here since 2004 and have seen this site deteriorate because of nasty and vindictive responses such as yours. You say Bernie supporters need to reflect?
Perhaps you should..

[CobaltBlue]

55. Absolutely correct, choie!

Nurse Jackie should stop trolling the Democratic Party and move over to the Republican Party.

[Buddyblazon]

61. Cut the crap with the grave dancing...

It does nothing for unity whatsoever.

[CobaltBlue]

53. Attn. Nurse Jackie

Go join the Republican Party!

[Sky Masterson]

6. Hillary is an uneven table that is slighty tilted to the right

Her position is a steel Marble.
Naturally it wants to roll toward the right.
Bernie is a Magnet.
He slows and drags her back towards the middle left of the table.
At the convention the table will be shimmed for the cameras
and we will have a candidate so far to the left that she will make
Amy Goodman sound like Carly Fiorina.
Then the table will be moved to the General and they will conveniently forget the shims.
And without the magnet pulling her towards the left she will roll right.
It would be better to flip the table around 180 and have the Marble want to roll the right way on its own.
But that metaphor is one that I don't have the steel balls to compose yet.

[Trust Buster]

9. Hillary will try to be gracious but anyone would be kidding themselves if they think she'll morph

into Sanders. That's not what millions voted for. Hillary will stand on her agenda and no one else's.

[B Calm]

10. Sounds like Trump is going to win. Seriously she won't budge any at all? What about

the failed War on Drugs?

[randome]

11. One talk show host and 'unnamed sources'. Brilliant journalism!

[hr][font color="blue"][center]No squirrels were harmed in the making of this post. Yet.[/center][/font][hr]

[moriah]

13. I hate anonymous sources, but could you edit your excerpts to reflect the actual article?

Just so there is no confusion:

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), told the political website that her campaign couldn't make any more leftward concessions, saying, "I don't know what's left to extract."

Cleaver added that &quot Sanders has) already impacted this election probably more than anyone else including Donald Trump," and then suggested it was time for Sanders to help gather support for his rival.

Just so no one who skips the article thinks that he was stating Hillary hsd been that person, instead of Bernie?

Given DU's unhappy dislike for brackets in formatting, that part being left out could have easily been the result of a technical glitch, so please don't take this request as a suggestion it was deliberately left out.

[Doctor_J]

14. Her platform is to the right of a lot of republican voters (social security for example) so the tric

will be to siphon off enough feminists and get enough DINO to the polls, then hope that trump's even more unpopular than she is. She'll have a significant media advantage, and I think the billionaires are afraid that a loose cannon like trump is too risky. Charles Koch has already endorsed Clinton, for example.

A shame that the party wants to kiss off all of Sanders voters.

[vintx]

25. It's good they're just blowing us off.

If the green party does better it will help them in the next election.

[zalinda]

57. When haven't they? eom

[LiberalElite]

17. Why are they whining? She'll never adopt Sanders' positions - just his words eom

[Lizzie Poppet]

19. Don't worry, Princess Weathervane! No one believed your hedging left in the first place.

>Heartfelt principles.
>Hillary Clinton.
(pick one)

[BernieforPres2016]

21. Of course they can't do it

Hillary's corporate and top 0.1% masters won't allow it.

No universal healthcare because big pharma and the health insurance companies won't allow it.

No breaking up the too big to fail banks because the banksters won't allow it.

No even handed approach to Israel because Haim Saban and other large contributors won't allow it.

No real action on climate change because big oil won't allow it.

No increase in the 15% "carried interest" tax rate because billionaire hedge fund managers won't allow it.

No free college tuition because the banks (student loans) and for profit education industry won't allow it.

No spending to repair our infrastructure without "public-private partnerships" because hedge funds and other investors want to be able to charge us tolls and user fees into perpetuity.

No halting TPP because the companies who want to export more jobs to low wage countries to increase profits and pay themselves larger bonuses won't allow it.

No stop to interventionist wars and regime changes because the military-industrial complex won't allow it.

No campaign finance reform because.....that one is self evident.

[vintx]

26. Wish this was an OP

I would love to rec it and it deserves to be seen, not buried in a thread

[BernieforPres2016]

29. I think it was completely accurate that the Hillary spokesperson said "we can't do it"

Instead of "we won't do it".

[Teamster Jeff]

56. I keep hearing Clinton will destroy Trump in the general because of Trumps obvious negatives

and you have perfectly shown why Hillary will be another useless status quo president.

My question is will Bernie really go all in supporting a corrupt and rotting Democratic establishment.

[Broward]

24. Trump is to the left of Hillary on free trade so there's plenty of space to move left.

[BernieforPres2016]

27. He is going to kill her on that issue

Along with campaign finance reform and breaking up the big banks if he is smart.

Can you imagine a campaign where the Republican candidate is to the left of the Democrat on free trade, banking and campaign finance, where a Democrat is trying to defend corporate interests over people?

[vintx]

31. If he did go for CFR and the banks (which I doubt will happen) it would be a landslide

Another Reagan revolution.

[BernieforPres2016]

36. There is nothing to stop him from going there

And he can easily get to the left of her on healthcare as well. He could get away with that by saying that Obamacare is a disaster. Premiums are going through the roof, even with the subsidies. But we can't cut off people's health insurance or get rid of preexisting conditions, so we need to just go to a single payer system. He can talk about how it would make U.S. business more competitive by allowing them to get rid of healthcare costs, and it would allow people not to have to stay with an employer to keep their healthcare. Over half of the people in the U.S. favor a single payer system, including over one quarter of Republicans. I believe if the issue was framed the right way (as blowing up that awful Obamacare, pro business, an issue of fairness and as anti-Hillary because she's owned by big pharma and big insurance), Republican support for it would go up significantly.

thehill.com/policy/healthcare/229959-majority-still-support-single-payer-option-poll-finds#

I think the smartest positioning for Trump would be a populist policy platform that basically concedes some corporatist Republican voters to Hillary, where they're likely to go anyway. His base doesn't care what he runs on, they're with him. In exchange for giving up some Republicans he could make a huge pitch for Independents and even some Democrats.

[vintx]

37. If he goes populist it's over

That would sink this party for over a decade. Again.

[BernieforPres2016]

39. It's the obvious strategy if Trump wants to win

He would have to be stupid not to do it. Hillary would be stuck in the middle defending the status quo, which the majority of the electorate is fervently opposed to, while he attacked her on some issues from the left and on other issues from the right. Hillary would have no defense on the issues. She would have to go virtually 100% negative.

[vintx]

45. She would have the establishment behind her

but could he motivate enough disaffected types to vote?

I wonder.

A lot of people here seem to think his nasty comments are enough to sink him. I get the impression from the people in my deep red area that they would look right past it.

Add populism to the mix and I bet he'd sway more than just those who can already tolerate him.

I still don't think it's likely, but if he did....

[Broward]

33. Hillary will also be the only candidate of the two that voted for the Iraq War.

[MisterP]

40. he'll just smirk, turn to the audience Tannen-style, and

"You say we're xenophobic warmongers? I'm an America Firster while you've repeatedly started wars even south of the border, bragged about deportations, and are the only one in this room who voted for the border wall! You say the GOP hates retirees? Your economic team is packed with people who say retirement should be at 70, 75! You have bidders already lining up for Social and Medicare! I tell my sheep that they're all on the dole, that they should get more of it, and they LOVE it! You say I hire illegals? Your policies have sent millions and millions of jobs overseas! You say I'm a huckster? You've bled hardworking whites dry and come back to town twenty years later with the same globalizing carny act! I'm racist? You cheerlead polices that jailed a third of (slur redacted) men and took credit for that as a fall in unemployment! I'm greedy? You're in the payday-lending party! It costs over five C's or twenty grand just to see you! I'm a bigmouth pandering to the audience? You literally reverse yourself within a week in front of different audiences, but we can't tell because your transcripts haven't been released for 243 days running! We're not even allowed to OVERHEAR what you're telling the people you actually work for! Your whole campaign is based on voters not knowing a damn thing you've done!"

[Broward]

41. She's open to numerous lines of attack. She''ll make a terrible general election candidate

and a terrible president.

[MisterP]

42. "nuh-uh, she won't, because I don't want her to be"

[pampango]

48. He is not 'to the left'. He is to the Coolidge/Hoover isolationist side. That is not 'left'.

At least not FDR's definition of 'left'. FDR spent his administration tearing down the high tariffs constructed by Coolidge and Hoover, then tried to construct a post-war world in which they did not come back. Perhaps in the 21st century Coolidge and Hoover were 'left' and FDR was 'right'.

[PeoViejo]

35. Hillary isn't forced to the Left, just forced to parrot Bernie's talking points.

Her World view has not changed. It's just another one of her sleazy tactics to con the voters into thinking she's on their side.

[Ino]

38. Exactly. No one forced her.

It was a typical cynical, manipulative, dishonest ploy. Just another example of how The Weathervane points whichever direction the wind blows. She has no principles or moral rudder, therefore she adopts whatever will achieve her ambition -- First Woman President™

[AzDar]

43. ^This.

[Nye Bevan]

44. Now she's beaten Bernie, she most certainly will not move further to the left.

Now her interest will be in pealing off moderate Republican voters who can't stand Trump or Cruz. If anything she will pivot in the opposite direction (to the disappointment of quite a few DUers, no doubt).

[pampango]

46. I don't see anyone from "Camp Clinton" quoted in the story.

But Amie Parnes writes at The Hill, "Clinton supporters argue the former secretary of State has already been forced to the left by Sanders, and can't risk moving further ahead of a general election."

And while political talk show host Bill Press told The Hill that it would be the wrong move for Clinton to "move back to the center," Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), told the political website that her campaign couldn't make any more leftward concessions, saying, "I don't know what's left to extract."

Cleaver added that " already impacted this election probably more than anyone else including Donald Trump," and then suggested it was time for Sanders to help gather support for his rival.

Parnes also cites an anonymous Clinton ally who said, "We can't do it," regarding meeting some of Sanders' policy demands.

There are quotes from a writer for The Hill, a political talk show host, a Democratic congressman and "an anonymous Clinton ally."

[ViseGrip]

47. gee..where...cuz I'm still looking for a reason outside the shit and shittier argument.

I'm thinking my vote should go to whomever makes congress more miserable. Why should it only be the voters left miserable by their choices, and the end result of that?
They can work with Hillary of course, they have said that. So I don't think she will make them very miserable. If you think I'm wrong, show me her Goldman Sachs transcripts. Now. It was Goldman who said, they'd be happy with either Clinton or Bush!

[Ferd Berfel]

49. DUPE

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511866927

[artislife]

50. And she will snap back as soon as she is able.

Don't trust her, people.

[killbotfactory]

51. Embrace the left and win big, or pivot to the center and win by the margins

Big money doesn't support left wing ideas. In fact they hate them. They would commit murder, and have, to suppress left wing ideas.

Golly, I wonder what will happen in the GE.

[Kip Humphrey]

52. She's afraid of being called a liberal.

[snowy owl]

54. She'd get Republicans if she would do it. They do not understand the electorate.

More similarity in tea party Repubs and Progressives than between moderate Republicans and tea partiers. i believe Progressives, centrist dems and tea partiers would support Bernie but centrist Republicans will support Trump. Tea partiers will not support Hillary unless she moves further left and sounds like Bernie. Will centrist republicans support Hillary or Trump?

[Hiraeth]

58. bless it

[Chan790]

59. What I'm hearing when I read that headline.

"I don't want your vote, Chan." Also "I'm really trying to lose this election."

[felix_numinous]

60. Not listening to the electorate,

election fraud, declaring yourself a winner without all the votes being counted. We can see through this facade, and it is not democratic.

[pat_k]

62. "he might be on the winning side in the contest over the party's future."

With or without Bernie as torch barer, it's up to us to make sure we win the "contest over the party's future."