May 18, 2016

MSNBC ONLINE POLL: Is it time for Bernie Sanders to drop out of the presidential race?

MSNBC ONLINE POLL

Poll Results

Is it time for Sen. Bernie Sanders to drop out of the presidential race?

30% Yes, it’s time for him to back Clinton

18% He should stay in until the convention

47% No, he should keep fighting

5% I’m not sure

Total responses: 40,142 votes

May 18, 2016

Lewis Black: "I don't agree with some of what he's pushing for, but his critics are morons."

Lewis Black on Bernie Sanders, Voting Rights and The Root of All Evil
By Byron Graham

As an avowed socialist, are you supporting Bernie Sanders this election?

Yeah, but it's mostly just because I'm thrilled that he's running, that I've got a socialist running for president. I don't agree with some of what he's pushing for, but his critics are morons. They're saying that it's unrealistic to try and get free education, but it's a negotiating stance, you fucking morons. If Ted Cruz can say, "We're just going to get rid of Obamacare" — like they haven't been trying for years — then Bernie Sanders can say he wants free education.

]If the past eight years have showed us anything, it's that the opposition is going to hit back against middling compromised positions just as hard as legitimately progressive ones.

Republicans won't even mention Bernie Sanders's name. They literally spit the word "socialist" out as if they were chewing bad meat. But it's like I finally have a candidate. Do I think he's gonna win? No! But I'm not upset about it, because this is the first time in my life that I've had a candidate. And what, now all of a sudden he's going to win? But somebody in the party has to say that this is absurd, you know? If the Republicans are going to believe that changing the tax structure is going to somehow create jobs, we need an opponent to point out how the gap between them and reality is insane! It's like a Marie Antoinette gap



Read the full interview of Black at:
http://www.westword.com/arts/lewis-black-on-bernie-sanders-voting-rights-and-the-root-of-all-evil-7689621

May 18, 2016

Anti-war Democrats Resist Hillary Clinton's Pro-war Agenda

The Coming Democratic Crackup
May 16, 2016
Exclusive: Though the mainstream media is focused on Republican divisions, a more important story could be the coming Democratic crackup, as anti-war Democrats resist Hillary Clinton’s pro-war agenda, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry


If the Democratic Party presses ahead and nominates hawkish Hillary Clinton for President, it could recreate the conditions that caused the party to splinter in the late 1960s and early 1970s when anti-war and pro-war Democrats turned on one another and opened a path for decades of Republican dominance of the White House.

This new Democratic crackup could come as early as this fall if anti-war progressives refuse to rally behind Clinton because of her neoconservative foreign policy – thus infuriating Clinton’s backers – or it could happen in four years if Clinton wins the White House and implements her militaristic agenda, including expanding the U.S. war in Syria while continuing other wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya – and challenging Russia on its borders.

Clinton’s neocon policies in a prospective first term could generate a “peace” challenge similar to the youth-driven uprising against President Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War in 1968.

Indeed, in 2020, anti-war elements of the Democratic Party might see little choice but to seek a candidate willing to challenge an incumbent President Clinton much as Sen. Eugene McCarthy took on President Johnson, leading eventually to the chaotic and bloody Chicago convention, which in turn contributed to Richard Nixon’s narrow victory that fall.

Clinton also has vowed to take the U.S.-Israeli relationship to “the next level” by embracing right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who expects to convince President Hillary Clinton to end any détente with Iran and put the prospect of bombing Iran back on the table. Clinton would seem to be an easy sell.

So, the establishment Democrats – with their grim determination to resuscitate Hillary Clinton’s nearly lifeless campaign – may be engaging in the political equivalent of whistling past the graveyard, as the ghosts of the party’s Vietnam War crackup hover over Election 2016.

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/05/16/the-coming-democratic-crackup/

May 18, 2016

Latest Polls: Clinton doing poorly against Trump in Arizona and New Hampshire. Sanders stronger.

Latest Polls

Wednesday, May 18

New Hampshire: Trump vs. Clinton WBUR/MassINC Clinton 44, Trump 42 Clinton +2

New Hampshire: Trump vs. Sanders WBUR/MassINC Sanders 54, Trump 38 Sanders +16


Tuesday, May 17

Arizona: Trump vs. Clinton PPP (D) Clinton 41, Trump 45 Trump +4

Arizona: Trump vs. Sanders PPP (D) Sanders 45, Trump 44 Sanders +1

May 18, 2016

Wounded Hillary Clinton Limps to Kentucky Win. Just can't shake Bernie Sanders

Wounded Hillary Limps to Kentucky Win
In a razor-thin victory, Clinton won the Kentucky primary. But she was handily beaten in Oregon and just can’t shake Bernie Sanders.
by Jackie Kucinich
May 18, 2016


Hillary Clinton limped over the line in Kentucky on Tuesday night. She narrowly secured the chance to declare victory—even though Bernie Sanders pushed her to a virtual tie and they are likely to split the state’s delegates evenly.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton was leading by 46.8 percent to Sanders’s 46.3 percent.

Clinton spent the last two weeks crisscrossing the state in a bid to shore up an expected win and dent the prevailing sense that she is a weak frontrunner who is only getting weaker.

Tuesday did little to change that narrative.

Sanders scored a resounding win in his favorable state of Oregon—he was almost 10 points ahead with 73 percent of precincts reporting - while Clinton stumbled in the state where she was expected to win. She annihilated then-Sen. Barack Obama 66 to 30 percent eight years ago in Kentucky.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/18/wounded-hillary-limps-to-kentucky-win.html

May 18, 2016

So-called "Centrist" Democratic Party officials may prefer Trump rather than Bernie as President!

Democratic Senators who support Hillary's Campaign Say They Can Work With A President Trump !

I have to conclude that from reading the following article. Imagine2015

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Centrist Democrats: We can work with President Trump
Getting ready for Trump wins in their home states may just be good politics for moderate senators.
By Burgess Everett and Seung Min Kim
05/16/16

As Democrats portray Donald Trump as a dangerous leader for his party, most of them barely acknowledge he could be president. But some centrist Democrats say they’re ready and willing to work with the business mogul should he defeat their party’s nominee.

“The people will have a chance to vote. If Donald Trump is elected president there will be a great opportunity to sit down and have a conversation about what that agenda looks like,” explained Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), who has long backed Hillary Clinton. “If he’s president, we’re going to have disagreement. But we’d better all figure out how to come up with an agenda for the American people.”

Take Tester, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, whose job description calls for retaking the Senate by relentlessly linking incumbent Republicans to Trump in purple and blue states this year. But should Trump shock the pundits and win, Tester acknowledges that there are “for sure” things he can come together with Trump on, “as long as they’re good deals for America.”



"If Donald Trump is elected president there will be a great opportunity to sit down and have a conversation about what that agenda looks like,” says Sen. Heidi Heitkamp

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/donald-trump-moderate-democrats-223168#ixzz48pJdMYq7

May 18, 2016

The Facts Reveal Hillary Clinton Is an Extremely Vulnerable Candidate

May 17, 2016
Establishment Democrats and the Next March of Folly
On choosing the only candidate Trump could beat
by John Atcheson

Incredibly, the Establishment arm of the Democratic Party – which is to say most of the inside-the-beltway elite, including the corporate press and punditry, the DLC, and of course the super delegates – is aligned behind the Democratic candidate who is most at risk of losing to Trump.

To not run the candidate most likely to defeat him in the general election is a form of political malpractice. To run a candidate who could very well lose to him verges on criminal. Yet such is the power of entrenched self-interest - such is the commitment to the status quo – that this is precisely what the Democratic the Party is intent on doing. Indeed, the collective power of the Establishment has been gathered against Sanders in a confederacy of dunces from the very start, doing everything they can to assure that they nominate a status quo candidate in a year when people are screaming for a reformist.

The Facts Reveal Clinton Is an Extremely Vulnerable Candidate

There have been many excellent analyses that clearly and incontrovertibly show why Clinton is the weakest of the two candidates they could field against Trump. Here’s a summary:

Sanders does better than Hillary against Trump in every poll and has for months now. In the latest summary of polls, Hillary beats Trump by just 5.7%, barely out of the margin of error, and in a few polls she actually loses to him.
Sanders beats Trump by twice Clinton’s slender margin. 13%. ‘Nuff said.

Most potential voters view Hillary unfavorably. Her net favorable/unfavorable rating has been sinking and in the latest Real Clear Politics’ data now stands at a negative 15.5%. Only 39% view her favorably, while 54.5% hold an unfavorable view of her.

More potential voters hold a positive view of Sanders than any other candidate. His net favorability rating has been hovering at around a positive 10.5%, with more than half of all potential voters expressing a positive view of him.

Most people don’t trust Hillary. According to a rolling Reuters poll, more than 60% of those responding disagreed with the statement that Hillary Clinton is trustworthy, while only 22% found her trustworthy.

Her extreme flip-flops and history of distorting the truth play into the distrust. The fact that she’s been all over the place on such defining issues as regulating Wall Street and the big banks; climate and energy policy; gay marriage; trade agreements; the XL pipeline; Iraq and regime change – on and on it goes – will make it extraordinarily difficult for her to regain trust. Then there’s her record of politically expedient fantasies such as being “fired on while landing in Bosnia” or “broke” when leaving the White House which will be fodder for Republicans in the general campaign.

Democrats need to win two out of the big three swing states to win the general election: Hillary is in trouble in all three, while Sanders wins. Since 1960, no candidate has won the Presidency without winning two of the following three swing states: Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Polling shows Clinton neck and neck with Trump in Florida, losing by a significant margin in Ohio, and in a de facto draw in Pennsylvania. Sanders beats Trump in all three.

Democrats need to win independents to gain the Presidency. According to a recent GWU poll, Hillary runs 5 points behind Trump with Independents, while Sanders beats him. With Independents making up 42% of voters, Democrats 29% and Republicans around 26%, this will be the key battleground and it will determine who wins.

Read the full article at:
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/05/17/establishment-democrats-and-next-march-folly

May 17, 2016

New NBC Poll: Hillary Clinton's Slim Lead Over Trump Declines 3 Points To Clinton 48% Trump 45%

NBC NEWS

Hillary Clinton Holds Slim National Lead Over Donald Trump: Poll
by Hannah Hartig, John Lapinski and Stephanie Psyllos
May 17, 2016

Attention is now rapidly moving to the hypothetical match-up between the leading candidates with an emphasis on a Clinton and Trump contest. In this week's poll, Americans are nearly split between their choice of Trump or Clinton; her margin over Trump narrows from 5 points last week to 3 points this week to 48 percent to 45 percent.

This early data indicates a very close race right now — though that may change considerably before November. Understanding, why the race is close requires a deeper look into how various demographic groups break for either candidate.

The demographic-based analyses below are from the latest data from the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll conducted online from May 9 through May 15 among 14,100 adults, including 12,507 who say they are registered to vote.

The NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking poll was conducted online May 9 through May 15, 2016 among a national sample of 14,100 adults aged 18 and over, including 12,507 who say they are registered to vote. Respondents for this non-probability survey were selected from the nearly three million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/hillary-clinton-holds-slim-national-lead-over-donald-trump-poll-n574901?cid=sm_tw&hootPostID=003a0299d6f6e43b8ee4a7425c1e56d6

May 17, 2016

Bottom line. The only campaign voters physically attacked have been Bernie Sanders supporters!

First by Trump thugs at several of his public campaign gatherings and than by a prominent Hillary campaign supporter against a women for saying she supported Bernie Sanders!

That's just the plain, hard facts.

And yet the charge is being made, without proving it, that the Bernie campaign is using thugs to threaten the lives of Democratic Party officials and their family members including kids!!!!!

Sure.

Come on.

Let's get serious and stop these outrageous and false propaganda claims designed to discredit people who are not rich benefactors of big corporations and Wall Street.

It's seems that some Democratic Party officials are really going into a major panic mode at the prospect of having a contested national convention.

Well, that's really too bad. Let me shed a tear.

If Hillary, with all her material and human resources and a decade of campaigning, couldn't sew up the nomination with elected pledged delegates against an old man, that just demonstrates how weak she is as a candidate.

Trump will walk all over her if she's the Democratic Party candidate for President.

Hilary is just to discredited and disliked by most voters, registered Democrats and Independents, to win the general election.

I know many some Hillary supporters are in denial, but that's pretty obvious by now.

May 17, 2016

Hillary should condemn the physical attack on Bernie supporter by one of her big fans. But won't!

Wendell Pierce pushed her boyfriend and then went after his girlfriend . . . grabbing her hair and smacking her in the head after she indicated she supported Bernie Sanders.

Hillary and her campaign committee and Super-Pac's remain dead silent on this matter.

Where's the outrage?

Hillary's silence can only encourage further acts of violence by her fans against Bernie campaign workers and supporters.