“She has been saying lately that she thinks that I am, quote-un-quote, not qualified to be president. Let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton, I don’t believe that she is qualified. . ."
Those are the words of Bernie Sanders speaking to a crowd of supporters in Pennsylvania. But there is a problem with that statement. Hillary Clinton never said he was unqualified. The headline write got it wrong (something not rare in the newspaper business).
Does Sanders get his news just from headlines these days? Did he bother to read the story? Does he just accept what some aide tells him about his opponent? Those are troubling questions, because he should have checked out the story before reacting like a petulant child to it.
Or maybe this is just more of the nasty campaign tactics he has been using lately. He's been repeatedly lying about Hillary Clinton, even though he had promised to run a positive campaign -- a campaign based on the issues.
Reporters repeatedly tried to get Clinton to respond to Sanders silly statement in kind, but she wouldn't take the bait. Instead, she took the high road -- saying she would choose Sanders over Cruz or Trump anytime. Instead of apologizing (which he should do), Sanders chose to continue his path on the low road -- by trying to justify his remarks because of some policy differences with Clinton. That won't work. He may not like some of her policy positions, but that doesn't disqualify her to be president.
I think Bernie Sanders is just starting to get desperate, and is lashing out. With each passing state, he sees his chances of becoming the party's nominee getting slimmer and slimmer. I expect we will hear more vicious attacks coming from Sanders now (and from his supporters, who have raised gutter campaigning to an art form).
I wonder if it could be something more, as much as I hate to say it. But running for President may be the second most strenuous, mind and body wearing occupation, second only to actually doing the job. If you are a baseball fan, you've seen the standard side-by-side shot showing how a pitcher's delivery or a batter's swing has changed over time. I'd like to see a similar shot comparing Bernie of October with him today. (And even early in the campaign my wife said that he walked as if he'd had as many epidurals as I have, and I'm at least approaching ten. But she says he is looking much worse.)
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Then there are the slips he's been making. If you can find it, check the Rachel Maddow segment about the judge that both Democrats were trying to defeat -- and look at the two candidates' comments. (It's about at the 14:00 mark.) Not only does he get things confused, mentioning the Democrat but not explaining why the Republican is particularly deserving of defeat, he calls Gov. Scott Walker "Gov. Scott."
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That wouldn't be so bad, except that, during the DAILY NEWS interview there is a question about subways -- which one site seems to think was Hillary's mistake. That error didn't bother me, but he asked his assistant "When were we here? Wasn't it about a year ago?"
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I live in Bernie's old neighborhood, a dozen blocks from his old house -- hardly a tenement today -- and so I noticed the news stories about him returning to his old neighborhood, and particularly because he ate a gyro from a restaurant I'd patronized less than a week before. And that was less than two months before the interview.
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Again, I'm hardly a doctor, but I have to wonder if he's showing the combined effevts of age and campaigning -- and, btw, I'm about four years younger -- and 2 days younger than Drumpf -- and I know I have to watch myself.
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[Just the first of several comments I have on this one.]
One reason why I have become disenchanted with the Senator is his supporters, but I don't see the pretty fantasy of "The St. Bernard and the Bad Puppies." (yes this is the third blog I've used the line on today)
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First, where are they getting these stories from? If they are 'true blue PROGRESSives' they hardly read the Republican outlets. Yet they all seem to quote the same lies, the same profanity, the same anger and Hillary hatred -- and yes, they are usually people in grade school when Clinton left office, for some of them it was Obama that first got them into politics. (And they can't ALL be reading Glenn Greenwald, Arevosis, or remaining posts from the Hamster and FDL.)
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And they pronounce this slavish, almost religious devotion to their Great Leader. He could, at any time, made a speech stating that he knew from years of experience that Hillary was trustworthy and honest, and telling the 'congregation' that no one should use such Republican propaganda against her. Instead, he says nothing until Bret Baier asks him, and then he replies "We'll let the voters decide about that." (That was my final tipping point, to where the respect I once had ran out.)
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It is amazing that someone so unvetted, someone who was around to see the devastation 'swiftboating' did to John Kerry, and the way Ayers was turned into a lifelong companion of President Obama because they served on one civic board together, someone who has seen birtherism and the 'Obama is a Muslim' (sometimes raised to the point that he is only pretending to fight first Al Qaeda and now ISIL) -- and his two opponents are a birther-in-chief and someone whose father (and main surrogate) is. And one of his opponents, his most likely, should he actually win, has even accused the present President of possibly playing a part in the death of Justice Scalia.
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And then there is The Tape (with his praise for the Castros and Ortegas. He can get nasty against Hillary, who won't use those weapons, but he'll display a whole cabinet full of glass jaws if he gets the nomination.
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One last one because it is getting late, but one way I judge qualifications for Presidency is by looking at a candidate's foreign policy. Bernie says things about headline news, but how would he react if -- as may be happening -- Russia may be trying to absorb one of the Baltic states? How would he deal with, or sum up the complications of the long-time fight for Kurdish independence --- which would take a large slice of Turkey and other countries -- hs for using them against ISIL. And what is his position on Kashmir, Indian, Pakistani or Independent, and how would he treat with the various factions. Just listing the sorts of problems makes my point -- and we don't even know wh his advisors are.
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More tomorrow, knowing me.
Good observances. You have given me some food for thought. Thanks. I look forward to more.
ReplyDeletehe is becoming more and more like that crazy old man standing on the corner screaming the world is coming to an end..repent..
ReplyDeleteYou may regret encouraging me, I can be rather longwinded at times -- my friends are not surprised I've never bothered to learn how to use Twitter, because they know I can't say "Hello!" in less than 144 characters. I also tend to throw some odd Historical observations -- and even I am not always sure if I am 'teaching' or 'showing off.' (Not surprisingly from someone who changed his name -- it is a BORING story, no sinister hiding or WittSec, just a way of starting over -- in 1977 and legally in 2006 to "Benton" in honor of the Senator, Thomas Hart Benton, thoughts about whom pulled me back from a very thin edge. Ironically, the name on my birth certificate -- equally 'chosen,' since I've known I was a bastard even before I came to question how my lesbian mother had me -- was "Sanders.' The person I was named for, (in admiration, I doubt highly they ever had any contact) though, was the actor, George Sanders, though she never admitted that.
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Anyway, less on my own ego, and back to Bernie and Hillary, two people much more interesting. And I didn't start out as a Hillary fan, merely a supporter for purely practical reasons. I was still leery of her -- as was my wife -- because of some things in 2008, and because I remembered that 'birtherism' did not come from Pa;in and crew -- they and even WND actually ignored it for much of the campaign, but from the group of supposed Hillary supporters who called themselves PUMAs -- mostly from the Geraldine Ferraro wing, the 'progressives for whites only' Democrat that I thought was almost extinct after 64. (It was PUMAs who Chris Matthews tried to interview at the convention and walked away saying -- on air -- 'You people are insane!')
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But Bernie was never on my list. Too old, 'socialist' will be a 'rred flag' and -- this was pre-Trump -- I didn't want to give the GOP a chance to use the 'Obama's policies are so bad you couldn't find one real Democrat to defend them' meme.
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[this break is forced by your maximum character length, which I keep forgetting.]
[Part 2 of Part one, and have ti remember that limit.]
ReplyDeleteBut I had worries about Hillary as well, even with the PUMAs vanished from my rear view mirror. I worried about 'triangulation' which she and Bill used so often, usually to disastrous effect. (If you triangulate, too often your friends think you are betraying them, and the people you are trying to convince think you're lying and really believe what you are accused of believing. And while she is honest on the big things, I can't deny she has a certain type of dishonesty that, I guess, most of us have, a tendency on what we view as unimportant -- or impertinent -- questions to say what makes us look the best. (Minor case in point, she was -- it was on either Rachel or Colbert -- saying that sometimes she binge-watched TV with Bill. What shows? She mentioned MADAME SECRETARY -- which IS a great show, btw -- and THE GOOD WIFE. Unfortunately, she then went on to describe TGW in terms that showed she hadn't watched it since the first season, if then, because the relationship between the Florricks might have been true about the Clintons, but the Florricks have been shown to be completely different, and she'd hardly like Bill to be compared to the Peter Florrick who actually -- on the show -- ran against her, hoping first for the VP. (Shutting myself up -- this is too favorite a rant to get into here and burn up too much bandwidth.)
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The nearest she has come to truly lying about something that mattered, I believe, was her insistence that she had really opposed SSM until she reevaluated her position in 2012.
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And I'm going to break shrtly, Mets home opener, computer problems that make it better to start a new comment, and other things. But one last thing about Bernie. Not only did the name thing link us, and the fact that I've been living in Midwood for 25 years now,, but even before, I had had a relationship with a (bisexual and black) woman who had been living in Burlington, about when Bernie was Mayor, an only my detestation of the cold kept me from considering moving there.
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Anyway, that's where I started. Now I have come to really LIKE Hillary (the Benghazi hearings were a key to that) and more and more am getting disgusted -- not just at Bernie supporters, but at Bernie himself.
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In fact, one last line, but we have to find someway to keep even some of the mosy hysterical Bernie supporters with us, because they need education, but WE need their level of enthusiasm -- but then 'populism' is always a dangerous two-edged sword.
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More later.
it's later, almost too late, so I'll just make a few comments, and probably will move the discussion to whichever excellent post you put up that it most applies to. (I do hope to get back to my line about 'the dangers of Populism' but that may take a while.)
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Where I was going -- or at least one of the places -- was to make the point about Bernie's destroying his own reputation, how many of the more adult commenters on the blogs I read have said something similar to this (from June Butler commenting at SOUTHERN BEALE -- which, with ZANDAR VERSUS THE STUPID and JUANITA JEAN'S ... and this are my main current small blogs)
[This should be blockquoted, but Blogger doesn't allow it.] Excellent breakdown of the disastrous interview, SB. I supported Sanders in the beginning of the campaign; I was his to lose, and he lost me. Several months ago, I switched to Clinton and I’ve never regretted my choice. For a while, I tried to stay neutral in my public statements, but I am now vocally speaking against Sanders. His promises of free this and free that with no details about how he will deliver the goods have me on my last nerve. While Sanders may mean well, he has very little credibility. All this with the caveat that, of course, I will vote for him if he is the nominee against Cruz, Trump, or whoever else the GOP chooses.'
and this, also from SOUTHERN BEALE, 'Kathleen' replying:
[Ditto]June, I was for Hillary from the start but I had no problems with Sanders running in the primary. But after learning about his constant carping against President Obama, his repetition of right wing smears about Hillary, his support from Karl Rove’s PAC, his support for the NRA, his criticism of Democratic Party primary/caucus rules after joining the party only to benefit from financial support and media coverage, his lawsuit against the Democratic Party, and his inability (or refusal) to provide tax returns, I asked myself what’s the difference between him and a Republican.
Also, it amazes me how his cult followers (not all his supporters are cult followers) and the media don’t ask such basic questions such as, what has he done to demonstrate he is serous about balancing income inequality. What is his voting record? What alliances has he forged, either in Congress or in communities? He’s made statements that he’s not interested in being a leader. How does he see his role? What can he do to effect change as President, member of Congress, or individual? I do not see these questions being asked enough, though the NYDN interview was a good first step.
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I could have included comments from ZANDAR, from commenters on the MADDOWBLOG, and elsewhere. But the key is that too many people are getting too close a look at Bernie, and seeing feet of clay, jaws of glass, and, overall, someone who has used techniques in campaigning he would have excoriated Hillary for using.
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And yet, the Sanders people complain the media is biased against him, and Ezra Klein -- who has contracted a bad case of 'pundititis' wrote a piece where he is all over the map arguing every side. That one I'm sure I'll be including in tomorrow's comments.
Interesting stuff. Have you thought about doing a guest post (or several)? I would certainly be open to it on this blog.
ReplyDeleteIf so, contact me at jobsanger@hotmail.com. We can discuss it.
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