Salon: My day with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton

[Depaysement]

My day with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton: Two Iowa rallies explain why Hillary may be about to blow a sure thing
EDWARD MCCLELLAND


On Sunday morning, I sat in a coffee shop in Cedar Rapids, eating one of Iowa’s famous boxing-glove-sized cinnamon rolls, and scanning the Des Moines Register, which was cover-to-cover rally reviews. (“Glenn Beck Comes to Iowa to Endorse Cruz”; “Trump: I Could ‘Shoot Somebody’ and Keep Voters.”) Hillary Clinton was in Marion at 12:30, Marco Rubio in Cedar Rapids at 2, Bernie Sanders in Independence at 5:30. I decided to hit all three events.

. . .

Yet the dour New England socialist is the sunny one in this race. Clinton looks back, and is frightened. Sanders looks ahead, and sees the America he’s been trying to build since he moved from Brooklyn to Vermont in the 1960s: an America in which new mothers and fathers will be guaranteed three months of parental leave, the minimum wage will pay $15 an hour, free college tuition will be funded by a tax on financial speculation, and every citizen will be insured by a single-payer health care system.

“What this campaign is about is transforming America,” Sanders said. “Nothing that I said to you today is utopian; nothing is radical. Nothing that I have said does not exist in other countries, and nothing I have said to you today is not wanted and supported by the American people. The American people want to raise the minimum wage, they want pay equity, they want to create jobs by building our infrastructure, they want to make colleges and universities tuition free, they want to expand Social Security, not cut Social Security. They want us to deal effectively with climate change. They want to end a corrupt campaign finance system. None of this is radical. None of it is pie in the sky, and I told you how we could pay for each of these programs. The issue is not whether the American people want it; the issue is whether or not we have the courage to take on the greed of the billionaire class, who want it all for themselves. That is what this campaign is about.”

. . .

The latest CNN Poll of Polls shows Sanders leading Clinton in Iowa, 46 percent to 44 percent. The caucuses favor true-believing ideologues with motivated followers. Advantage: Sanders. A win in Iowa, followed by a certain victory in New Hampshire, would give Sanders the credibility to pitch himself to Southern voters. Once again, Hillary Clinton may be on the verge of blowing a sure nomination. Even if she wins, her pessimistic message would not sound appealing against Marco Rubio, who gave his Cedar Rapids audience a sunny vision of capitalism as “the only system that can make poor people richer without making rich people poorer.”

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/30/my_day_with_bernie_sanders_and_hillary_clinton_two_iowa_rallies_explain_why_hillary_may_be_about_to_blow_a_sure_thing/

[nxylas]

1. "Dour"?

Bernie has never struck me as dour. I think a large part of his appeal is that he doesn't come across as the stereotypical earnest, humorless lefty.

[Depaysement]

2. I agree

But otherwise I thought it provided a lot of hope going into Monday's caucuses.

[Dems to Win]

3. Iowa Democrats are liberal, they want Universal Health Care

I can't imagine the NO We Can't slogan is going over well at all.

Plus, the top secret emails really are problematic for people with any contact with security clearances or IT security. Army Corporal Sally Jones knows she'd be in a heap of trouble for handling classified info like Hillary did.

I wouldn't be surprised to see her support collapse in Iowa this weekend, and Bernie score a real blowout on Monday, with Martin coming in a solid second place.

[Depaysement]

4. That wouldn't shock me either

Read coffeecats' report on what's happening on the ground. It bolsters your comments.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511097568

When they say something is happening here, maybe they aren't kidding.