Clinton Tries to Catch Up with Passion for Sanders in Iowa
Source: New York Times
DES MOINES — Iowa Democrats are displaying far less passion for Hillary Clinton than for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont three weeks before the presidential caucuses, creating anxiety inside the Clinton campaign as she scrambles to energize supporters and to court wavering voters. The enthusiasm gap spilled abundantly into view in recent days, from the cheering crowds and emotional outpourings that greeted Mr. Sanders, and in interviews with more than 50 Iowans at campaign stops for both candidates. Voters have mobbed Mr. Sanders at events since Friday, some jumping over chairs to shake his hand, snap a selfie or thank him for speaking about the middle class. “Did you get to touch him?” asked one woman who could not get close enough after an event here on Saturday.
“We love you, Bernie! Enough is enough!” Nathan Arentsen, 29, cheered several times at another event in Des Moines as he stomped his feet to signal support for the candidate.
Audiences for Mrs. Clinton have yet to grow to consistently match those for Mr. Sanders, and the typical reception for her was evident on Monday in Waterloo. About 300 people welcomed Mrs. Clinton enthusiastically and listened to her diligently, but many of them, still unsure, rebuffed Clinton aides trying to get them to sign “commitment cards” to caucus for her. “I personally want to find out if she’s trustworthy or not,” said Katie Bailey, 71, of Cedar Falls. “There’s so much un-trust. I want to eyeball her.” Matt Fagerlind, 36, also attended Mrs. Clinton’s Waterloo event, but he found himself thinking about how Mr. Sanders’s rallies had the same uplifting emotional intensity as Barack Obama’s in 2008. “I think Sanders is going to give her a good run,” he said, describing himself as unmoved by Mrs. Clinton and planning to vote for Mr. Sanders. (Ultimately, a Clinton aide said, about half of the audience signed commitment cards.) With a major new poll showing Mr. Sanders closing within three points of her in Iowa, Mrs. Clinton and her aides have dropped any pretense that they can ignore Mr. Sanders or treat him like a gadfly. They have become zealous and combative as they try new ways to undercut his high favorability ratings.
On Monday, Mrs. Clinton proposed raising the income tax by four percentage points for people earning more than $5 million a year, an idea virtually out of the Sanders playbook. At the same time, she is going hard on the offensive on gun control and health care, undertaking relentless attacks on Mr. Sanders that can feel somewhat forced, like portraying him as an ally of the National Rifle Association. To amplify her criticisms, she has even taken to calling in to MSNBC news shows that are popular with Mr. Sanders’s liberal base, a level of engagement with the news media that she has rarely displayed, especially with erstwhile critics like Chris Matthews.
She is also increasingly trying to tap into the popularity of President Obama and former President Bill Clinton after insisting for months that she was not running for a third term for either man. She held her Waterloo event with Mr. Obama’s transportation secretary, Anthony Foxx, a North Carolina politician whose endorsement had little resonance here, other than his ties to the president. And Mr. Clinton is being dispatched to Iowa on Friday for his second campaign swing in two weeks.
Clinton advisers said they believed Iowa was a single-digit race and have been warning supporters against complacency, admitting that Mr. Sanders’s operation in the state was better financed and organized than they had expected.
On Saturday, they began trying to undercut his electability with a television ad casting Mrs. Clinton as the strongest possible Democratic nominee, even though some polls show Mr. Sanders would perform well in matchups against Republicans like Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. A Sanders victory in Iowa would be a shock given the institutional advantages held by Mrs. Clinton, a former secretary of state and a favorite of the Iowa Democratic establishment. It would also set off significant momentum for Mr. Sanders heading into the Feb. 9 primary in New Hampshire, where he is well known as a senator from neighboring Vermont and holds a slight lead in the polls.
Several of Mrs. Clinton’s advisers, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the race candidly, said that they were anxious but not panicking about Iowa, saying that they believed she would still deliver a victory here.
Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/clinton-tries-to-catch-up-with-passion-for-sanders-in-iowa/ar-CCqM1k
Article 11 hrs. ago.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont Rally in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, 2015.
= new reply since forum marked as read
is that they don't seem to be able to articulate many real concrete reasons why she should be President. They'll hold up examples of her achievements that she never actually did ("She fixed healthcare!"
, or some such nonsense, since they definitely can't hold up her public policy record to scrutiny. Sanders' supporters can present a detailed breakdown of his support for progressive values going back decades, whereas Clinton's most enthusiastic backers offer up little more than a vague sense that she's awesome. Their support for her seems mostly visceral.
and my favorite,
to be Bernie Sanders, the voters will choose Bernie Sanders every time.
