Rock-Star Appeal of Bernie Sanders Should Make Clinton Very Worried

[n2doc]

With huge crowds, rising poll numbers, and a proven fundraising operation, Sanders shows he can compete
by Eugene Robinson

First came the big crowds, now comes the big money. At this point, anyone who doesn’t take Bernie Sanders seriously must not be paying attention.

Sanders’ campaign announced that it raised an eye-bugging $26 million in the third quarter—essentially matching the $28 million raised during those three months by Hillary Clinton, long considered the presumptive Democratic nominee. If that doesn’t make Clintonistas nervous, they need defibrillation.

On paper, Sanders is wildly unlikely as a Democratic nominee. He’s hardly even a Democrat—he represents Vermont in the Senate as an independent. He proudly describes himself as a socialist, hanging around his own neck a label that is supposed to be fatal in American politics. And he’s 74, making him the eldest among the Democrats’ gerontocratic field.

Yet polls show Sanders leading Clinton in New Hampshire and essentially tied with her in Iowa. It is possible that Clinton could lose the first two primary states and still win the nomination, but only two Democrats have accomplished this feat—Bill Clinton, who didn’t even campaign in Iowa in 1992, and George McGovern, for whom the subsequent 1972 general election did not work out well.

Sanders’ money haul has to worry Clinton, not just for its size but for the way it was achieved. The vast majority came in small donations—Sanders’ average contribution is less than $25. This means he can keep going back to these same supporters later in the campaign. Far more of Clinton’s donors, by contrast, have already maxed out their allowable contributions for the primaries.

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http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/10/02/rock-star-appeal-bernie-sanders-should-make-clinton-very-worried

[marym625]

1. K&R!

[eridani]

2. WaPo: The Rock-Star Appeal of Bernie Sanders

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/32718-the-rock-star-appeal-of-bernie-sanders

On paper, Sanders is wildly unlikely as a Democratic nominee. He’s hardly even a Democrat — he represents Vermont in the Senate as an Independent. He proudly describes himself as a socialist, hanging around his own neck a label that is supposed to be fatal in American politics. And he’s 74, making him the eldest among the Democrats’ gerontocratic field.

Yet polls show Sanders leading Clinton in New Hampshire and essentially tied with her in Iowa. It is possible that Clinton could lose the first two primary states and still win the nomination, but only two Democrats have accomplished this feat — Bill Clinton, who didn’t even campaign in Iowa in 1992, and George McGovern, for whom the subsequent 1972 general election did not work out well.

Sanders’s money haul has to worry Clinton, not just for its size but for the way it was achieved. The vast majority came in small donations — Sanders’s average contribution is less than $25 . This means he can keep going back to these same supporters later in the campaign. Far more of Clinton’s donors, by contrast, have already maxed out their allowable contributions for the primaries.

While the Clinton machine has made a point of being thrifty — requiring many staff members, for example, to take the bus between Washington and campaign headquarters in Brooklyn — it’s still, as Donald Trump might say, yooooge. And unlike Sanders, Clinton has been paying for television ads in the early states and consultants of the kind who don’t come cheap.

As a result, even though the Clinton campaign, since inception, has raised $75?million to Sanders’s $40 million, they have pretty close to the same amount in the bank. He’s sitting on $26 million in cash; she has $32 million.

[LiberalElite]

3. Kick nt