Bernie Sanders took control of an interview again
It is not hard to understand why the establishment fears Bernie Sanders. His message consistency and his authenticity is second to none.
Once again Sanders refused to let a host, this time George Stephanopoulos, dictate the terms of an interview as Sanders morphed every Stephanopoulos question into his middle-class centric message. Bernie Sanders has become very effective in using the mainstream media when he is on to get his message out irrespective of the context. Many Republican politicians have been good and effective at doing this albeit for promoting misinformation and fallacies on Obamacare, war, unemployment, and much more.
Stephanopoulos started by noting the fact that Bernie Sanders is doing very well and ascending in the Iowa and New Hampshire polls. Hillary Clinton’s new ad attempts to make electability an issue. She is trying to postulate that Bernie Sanders may not be electable given his age and his democratic socialist stance. Stephanopoulos put that question on the table.
Bernie Sanders pointed out that he is doing much better against most potential Republican opponents in current polls than Hillary Clinton. He refused to address the age issue and immediately went on to discuss the real issues that Americans care about.
“Well, for a start, I would urge those voters, the voters all over this country, to take a look at recent polls in which Bernie Sanders is matched with Republican candidates Trump on down,” Sanders said.” “Hillary Clinton is matched with Republican candidates. And do you know what? In many of those polls, including the major recent one, the Quinnipiac Poll, we beat Trump nationally by 13 points. Secretary Clinton beat him by 7 points. Look at a recent New Hampshire poll, just in New Hampshire. We did much, much better against the Republican candidates than did Hillary Clinton. So if people are concerned about electability, and Democrats should be very concerned, because we certainly do not want to see some right-wing extremist in the White House, I think Bernie Sanders is the candidate. We’re doing much better with Independents. We even draw a little bit better with Republicans. So I believe, quite honestly, that with the enthusiasm that we are generating, with the kind of voter turnout that I think we can bring out — look, Republicans win when people are demoralized and the voter turnout is low. Democrats and progressives when I when working people and low income people and young people get involved in the political process.”
When George Stephanopoulos attempted to make the Democratic Primary one that was overly focused on the gun debate in what appears to be the platform where Hillary Clinton thinks Sanders is vulnerable, Senator Sanders would have none of it. He gave a quick answer stating he would revisit the legislation to correct any deficiencies and immediately pivoted to other issues central to the American middle-class and the poor.
“But by the way, you know, I would ask Secretary Clinton why she is not supporting legislation that I’ve introduced that would lift the cap on taxable income for Social Security so we could expand Social Security benefits,” Bernie Sanders said. “Why is she not supporting a major piece of legislation in the House and the Senate for paid family and medical leave so that moms who have a baby can get three months off with pay? I wait to hear for Secretary Clinton to tell us why she is not supporting that legislation that the American people want to hear.”
In the long run Bernie Sanders will need to address the age issue. Of course if he is the nominee his selection of a vice-president should take that into account. He cannot afford to make the same mistake George McCain made.