Rob and I watched the New Hampshire primary this evening, the first after the Iowa caucus. Bernie Sanders was predicted to win this primary because – as the pundits kept repeating over and over again – his state of Vermont borders New Hampshire.
These same pundits were surprised that the Iowa caucus last week was essentially a tie between Sanders and Clinton. He won 49.6 percent of the vote and 21 delegates and Clinton won 49.9 percent of the vote and 23 delegates. Clinton, however, came out before any of the networks had announced the projected winner and declared herself the winner.
Early on during the New Hampshire primary, MSNBC announced that Sanders was the projected winner. As of 11:22 p.m., Sanders has won 110,953 votes or 59.6 percent of the votes and Clinton has won 72, 231 votes or 38.8 percent. As one pundit put it, this is the largest margin in history. For the first time, we heard moderators and commentators saying for the first time that Sanders was a force to be reckoned with. This was the guy who, nine months ago, was written off by everyone because he’s a Democratic socialist, because Clinton was the presumed candidate.
It’ll never happen: we heard that time and again. But, as some wise person somewhere once said, Never say never. Bernie kept drawing the largest crowds of any candidate wherever he spoke. Young crowds, college kids, the youth vote. His grassroots fundraising – no super PACS, just donations from more than 3 million people who donate an average of 27 bucks – is unprecedented. When he and Clinton essentially tied in Iowa, the pundits really sat up and took notice. Now that he has won New Hampshire by such a huge margin, even Clinton supporters like MSNBC’s Chris Matthews are blown away.
Here’s the Sanders’s message, which has remained basically unchanged for his decades in Congress:
That the system is rigged for the super wealthy – the upper one percent
That corporations should pay their fair share in taxes
That no one should have to go 50 or 60 grand into debt to get a college education- i.e., free tuition at state universities and colleges
That health care should be a right not a privilege – i.e., single payer system, Medicare for all
That Citizens United – the supreme court decision that corporations are people – must be overturned so that corporations can’t buy elections
That the minimum wage must be raised to at least 15 bucks an hour
That the U.S. can’t continue to be the world’s cop – i.e., he voted against the war in Iraq; Clinton voted for it
Combating climate change
Racial justice
And that’s just the tip. Read more about his issues at his site.
But the thing with Sanders is his passion, the consistency of his message, and that fact that his voice comes across as genuine. Clinton, on the other hand, comes across as just another politician who talks about incremental change (sorry, that hasn’t worked) and how she can get things done and take on Wall Street and the banking system and all the rest of it. Never mind that in 2013, she earned more than 9 million bucks for speaking engagements on Wall Street.
One afternoon recently at the dog park, a bunch of us were sitting around on a large pipe that the dogs like to run through. Jamie and I were talking about Clinton and Sanders and she said that either one of them would be fine with her. “But they aren‘t equal,” I said, and enumerated the reasons why I think Sanders is the better candidate.
Jamie said, “Okay, let’s do a little dog park focus group,” and turned to a couple of young guys in their twenties. “Why is Sanders so popular with your age group?”
The bearded guy, a teacher, just laughed. “Well, that’s easy. He’s for the people. For us. When he talks, you know he believes what he’s saying. He’s genuine. When Clinton talks, it’s all about her.”
“She’s the establishment,” the other guy said. “Sanders is the rogue, the rebel, the revolution.”
It’s interesting that a 74-year-old Socialist Democrat has 85 percent support among 18-27 year-olds. When I mentioned this, the teacher nodded. “Yeah, it’s his message. We get it. Clinton’s message is about the perpetuation of the status quo.”
When we left the dog park, Rob and I got a kick out of the fact that the only two cars in the lot with Bernie Sanders stickers were ours and a truck, parked right next to each other. That’s the picture above.
After watching the primary tonight, I realized that one of the reasons I love national politics is because you get a sense of the collective pulse, the collective consciousness. And this pulse has Sanders at the very liberal end of the spectrum and Cruz and Trump at the very conservative end of the spectrum. The headlines at the Huffington Post tonight
WTF GOP
A RACIST, SEXIST, XENOPHOBIC DEMAGOGUE JUST WON THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY…
But a Democratic Socialist also won the primary.
There’s something extraordinary happening in this country that I haven’t seen since the political scene of the late 1960s. What began with the huge crowds that Sanders drew early in his campaign, in the tens of thousands- dismissed by pundits as flukes – may now be a revolution that will usher in a vastly changed world if he wins the nomination and the election.
Yes, I would love to see a woman as president. But give me Senator Elizabeth Warren, not Clinton. She’s the old guard.
Sanders is the agent of change. And who knows? Wouldn’t it be something if he tapped Elizabeth Warren as his VP?
I have been inundated with phone calls from the Democratic Party to caucus this Saturday in Nevada. Unfortunately, we will not be there. The young man that had me on the phone was so disappointed that a “Bern” follower would not be there to swing the nomination in a very high ‘status-quo’ part of the state. Nevada is a swing state and I would have definitely gone to the caucus!!
Clinton lost me when she was Secretary of State. She simply has not met a war she didn’t like. But the last straw was a segment with John Stewart when asked what she saw as the number one problem in America and she stated that is was that we just didn’t pat ourselves on the back enough.
Really? We just don’t sing our praises enough? That’s the number one issue in America? Go home, Hillary. Your time is done. Be a grandmother, enjoy your life, but do not be elected POTUS. We have big problems and it is going to take someone not tied to the same people who created the problems in the first place.
Well said!
Laurence, I agree with everything you said except one thing: I believe the reason the Supreme Court justices, who hold their seats for life, are making such dreadful decisions is BECAUSE they are too darn OLD to understand the world must move forward and the United States must be taken out of the quagmire they have certainly helped put us in, so that we may make significant progress in different and positive directions. There’s an old adage about God only allowing younger men and women to become parents, and then as they become older they are grandparents…..because as grandparents age, they haven’t the capacity or energy to cope with capricious children. For me, and I am definitely a geriatric, I now totally understand why being able to conceive children stops in mid-life. I believe we need younger folks with fresh, new, viable ideas and who possess the energy to carry out those ideas, in positions of power in this country. The Elders are wise, yes, but many are stuck in past spaces where the dynamics no longer are effective. Our country is living proof of that. But, again, I do agree with everything else you stated, for sure!!!!
Okay, this is HILARIOUS: https://7373-presscdn-0-43-pagely.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Weekend.png
LOL!!! 🙂
Off to take a look!
I saw a good one of bernie taming trump in a stranglehold. Can’t find the URL, tho.
Funny how folks are talking age here while we have an entrenched supreme court full of geriatics. These folks can dictate federal policies for decades to come. Lets not worry about age but getting involved and bringing everyone to the voting booth this november.
No way No how am I ever voting for a republican. We need a cleansing and a more amicable congress/ senate. This America is crying for civility to return.
Laurence Zankowski
p.s. I look forward to the day when ” black lives matter, equal pay for equal work, womens reproductive rights, clean water as a god given right not a legislative battle,LBGT issues are resolved, from disharmony to unity to community, no one, no one can be untouched, participate, vote, stand tall and be accounted for.
How true about the supremes! And I’m with you all the way!
And Supreme Court Justice Scalia passes away, Obama can appoint a Justice while still in Term!
That’s our hope! He still has 361 days in office and the longest that congress has ever stalled on voting for a justice is 125 days!
I don’t get the Bernie hype. I have tried to picture him in meetings with foreign leaders and as the commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces and I can’t see it. In debates, he has a tendency to turn questions about foreign policy back to his stump remarks against Wall Street. When I see him, I see an absent minded curmudgeon professor with a huge chip on his shoulder filled with grievances against the wealthy. I don’t believe he has the ability to change the system and I think liberals often make the mistake that all they have to do is vote in presidential elections to change the country, but they can’t be counted on to vote in critical local and midterm elections.
Since I’m a committed Affirmative Action guy, I am voting for the woman candidate this time. But I believe whoever the nominee will be, the odds are not good that the Democrats will be able to hold the White House. There is a modern historical trend that it is difficult for a political party to hold the White House for more than two terms. The reason is because when people get tired of losing, they are more willing to support the party’s candidate choice for the win. The party that has been in the White House for two terms begins fracturing its winning coalition as ideology and purity matter more than winning. Based on the crowd reaction I’ve seen from watching more than two dozen Trump speeches, I think the teabaggers are very motivated to get their candidate into the White House and the acrimony between Hillary and Bernie supporters is going to make it more difficult for the Democrats to coalesce behind one or the other candidate.
As much as I hate to admit it, if Hillary is not the nominee, I hope Michael Bloomberg will run because I will not vote for Bernie Sanders for president. I believe he would be a disaster in office and his Wall Street busting agenda would be dead on arrival in a Republican controlled House of Reps. He’d only be a one term president anyway because Democrats will primary challenge him in 2020 if he decides to run for a second term.
With the super delegates Clinton has, she’s still way ahead of him. But she’s the old guard. And the texture of congress may change with this election. And, frankly, is Trump wins, it’s time to leave the country!
I agree 100% that his thinking is clear, lucid, and totally on-spot, and he has my vote IF he chooses Warren or a viable VP…. a great running mate! No matter what today’s statistics say about age, it does make a difference because the body begins to ‘break down’ earlier than the brain and a person in his or her seventies, unless the person is a dedicated athlete, etc., has physical functional issues that are unavoidable and that can, I emphasize CAN, affect the person as a whole. I remember Roosevelt was in a wheelchair and maintained the presidency with a solidly functional mind. JFK suffered horribly with spine injuries and pain, but he was quite young and able to run his duties. I am 74, and I have many, many, many friends and family around my age.
Without exception, each of these folks has some degree of dysfunction with their bodies that interferes with their abilities to operate at maximum capacity, regardless of what the ‘statistics’ show about age. I HOPE Sanders wins, and I HOPE he chooses a terrific VP. I cannot begin to imagine someone like Trump representing this country.
My husband thinks he’s the greatest thing to come along since chocolate. I think my husband must have lost his mind! 🙂 I would be ashamed to call myself an American if a person with Trump’s narcissism and ugly. mean ,almost- criminal lifestyle and mentality was my president. I’d want to hang a huge sign in front of our house saying “I DIDN’T VOTE FOR TRUMP!” I’m waiting to see who Sanders chooses for VP, and crossing my fingers that the majority of citizens in this country have more sense than to put that horrible man Trump in the White House.
My problem with having Sanders as President, and the ONLY problem, is his AGE.
That can’t be changed. His body is 74 years old, regardless of the great state of his mind. This means after his first term, he would be 78 years old, just two years short of 80. The statistics for a person of his age (and I think he will be 75 by November, which means he would be 79 by the end of his first term) remaining in sufficiently good health to run the complications of this country are dire. Then who would we have? Who would he choose as his VP? These are things we need to seriously consider, not just his platform. His age bothers me a lot. I think we would be foolish to ignore the implications of a person his age becoming the greatest leader in the free world regardless of my personal preference in having him as our POTUS. I wouldn’t hesitate to give him my vote if he were younger, and still will, depending on his choice for VP. I want to wait and see who he picks as a running mate, because I don’t think having a man in his eighties (second term) in the Oval Office would be the greater part of wisdom. It’s something that, imo, deserves consideration. I understand that the Pope is elderly. But the Pope doesn’t make all the myriad decisions required to run a country. There’s a huge difference. He has a multitude of minions who do those things for his Church. Age matters in something of this magnitude.
Trump is 69, clinton is 68. I thing people are making too big a deal out of it. Years past, 68 and 69 were considered old. 74 was considered ancient. Not true anymore.
The young folks, who you would think would be most concerned about Sander’s age, don’t see it as an hindrance. If age was the key factor, the under 30 crowd would be rallying around Rubio. Not so. In the contest between Sanders and Hillary, he got 85% of the vote among those 18-30. He’s younger in his thinking than any of the other candidates. The world is changing – and has changed. After all, if a black guy named Barack Hussein Obama can be elected twice, so can a 74-year-old Jewish socialist from Brooklyn!
hey Mac… what’s that a bleeping Nissan next to your vehicle…. nice mileage….
I have given a fair amount of money to the Sanders campaign. Could you please talk Bloomberg out of the race? He would certainly throw in a monkey wrench. And in the Year of the Monkey at that! 🙂
Sanders has integrity, Clinton should face criminal,charges and shouldn’t be running at all!
As of 11:22 p.m
Interesting numbers to start a poll off with. I predict Hillary will be appointed next president. And things will remain the same.