My latest Huffington Post article on Clinton's 2008 persona as "Pro-Gun Churchgoer" was recently quoted in The Atlantic, along with another reference to Obama calling today's anti-gun crusader "Annie Oakley." Yes, Clinton has evolved on federal gun legislation, along with Iraq, Keystone XL, the TPP, gay marriage, marijuana legislation, sending U.S. ground troops to fight ISIS, and other contentious issues. Like a recent headline in The International Business Times states, "Hillary Clinton Flip-Flopping On Ground Troops To Fight ISIS? Before US Sends Troops To Iraq, Clinton Says No To Deployment After First Saying Yes."
Clinton's latest attempt at labeling Bernie Sanders the Ted Nugent of Democrats doesn't only ignore his lifetime D-minus rating from the NRA; it illustrates fear. Sanders has once again surpassed Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, and when he wins both, could easily take South Carolina. With three initial losses, Clinton's Southern "firewall" and hopes at a big Super Tuesday would be done, and the positive media coverage alone would propel Sanders throughout the primaries.
Then of course, wins in Iowa and New Hampshire would focus attention on the reasons non-white Democrats throughout the South and the nation would vote for Clinton. When more attention is paid to Clinton's 3 a.m. ad against Obama, use of race and Islamophobia against Obama, and Congressman James Clyburn's recollection of how both Clintons treated Obama in 2008, South Carolina will easily shift to Sanders.
Boston's Black Lives Matter President Daunasia Yancey referred to Clinton's racial justice record as "abysmal." The Clinton campaign accepted money from prison lobbyists. In addition, for some unknown reason, Hillary Clinton waited almost three weeks to make a statement on Michael Brown's death and Ferguson, despite the fact African Americans vote around 90% for Democrats in presidential elections.
Nobody knows why Clinton waited so long to make a statement on Ferguson.
When media coverage is given to Clinton's record on race and her 2008 campaign against Obama (Sanders wins in Iowa and New Hampshire will lead to this coverage), early leads in South Carolina will dwindle as fast as leads in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Like Barack Obama in 2008, Bernie Sanders is the far more progressive and trustworthy candidate with immense grass roots support. While 59% of American voters believe Clinton is "not honest and trustworthy" and 51% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Clinton (one poll cites 55% of voters), Bernie Sanders has positive favorability ratings. In fact, while both Donald Trump and Clinton are viewed in a negative manner by most people, Sanders is the only leading presidential candidate with positive trustworthiness and favorability ratings.
The only leading candidate in 2016 (Ted Cruz, like Trump and Clinton has a negative favorability rating) with positive favorability numbers is Bernie Sanders.
Think about that for a moment.
The candidate with the least amount of media coverage, and the candidate thought of as unable to win a general election by some pundits (even though he beats Trump in a "landslide of epic proportions"), is the only candidate in 2016 with positive favorability numbers.
Hillary Clinton has negative favorability scores in 10 out 10 national polls according to HuffPost Pollster, with seven polls indicating over 50% of Americans possess an "unfavorable" viewpoint of the former Secretary of State. Donald Trump also has negative favorability scores in 10 out of 10 national polls, one of the many similarities both share with one another.
In contrast, Bernie Sanders has positive favorability scores in 6 out of 10 national polls, with two polls leaning negative by less than three points. This helps explain why Sanders was able to attract crowds totaling over 100,000 people, just several months after announcing his bid for the presidency.
For these reasons, and the three reasons listed below, Bernie Sanders will defeat both Clinton and a billionaire xenophobe named Trump to win the presidency. He'll also be able to achieve a stunning victory, primarily because even today (without the benefit of Iowa and New Hampshire wins), Bernie Sanders "destroys" Trump in a general election by 13 points.
When the three issues presented below erase the myth of inevitability from the Clinton campaign, and the hollow arrogance from Trump's manufactured brand image, voters will elect Sanders in a landslide.
1.Bernie Sanders continues to surge in the polls, despite getting 1/23 the television coverage of Donald Trump, and without Clinton's universal name recognition. Imagine when Bernie wins Iowa and New Hampshire, and the notion of Clinton's inevitability, along with fears pertaining to Bernie's inability to win, are shattered.
Despite a lack of media coverage and other obstacles, Sanders has achieved record-breaking fundraising totals, as illustrated in a Huffington Post piece titled Bernie Sanders Becomes the First Presidential Candidate to Reach Two Million Individual Campaign Contributions: In 2008, Obama Had Just One Million:
Tonight, Bernie Sanders received the final dollars he needed to break a historic milestone. The senator officially hit two million individual campaign contributions, a feat that no other U.S. presidential candidate has achieved at this point in an election.
To put that number in context, Barack Obama's historic 2008 campaign managed to break just one million contributions. Sanders literally has twice what Obama had. Not only that, but Sanders reached two million faster than President Obama reached one.
Sanders was able to break Obama's records without massive media attention and widespread name recognition. He also had the Democratic establishment scheduling debates in Clinton's favor. Imagine what happens after two initial wins.
2.Remember the poll stating Americans won't vote for a socialist? Well, Bernie Sanders isn't a Fox News socialist, he's a Democratic Socialist like Theodore Roosevelt and FDR. Iowa and New Hampshire wins, along with widespread media coverage, will highlight this fact.
Nothing exemplifies Bernie Sanders becoming a modern-day Theodore Roosevelt like Robert Reich's latest piece in The Huffington Post titled The Big Short and Bernie's Plan to Bust Up Wall Street:
Most importantly, the movie shows why Bernie Sanders's plan to break up the biggest banks and reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act (separating investment from commercial banking) is necessary -- and why Hillary Clinton's more modest plan is inadequate.
...More than a century ago, Teddy Roosevelt broke up the Standard Oil Trust because it posed a danger to the U.S. economy. Today, Wall Street's biggest banks pose an even greater danger. They're far larger than they were before the crash of 2008.
Like Joseph Stiglitz, Nouriel Roubini, and others, Reich agrees with Bernie Sanders on Wall Street reform. Reich also states that Bernie's plan is "necessary," while Clinton's "more modest plan is inadequate."
3.Vice President Joe Biden's praise of Bernie Sanders highlights the main difference between Sanders and Clinton, and explains why Sanders would easily defeat a GOP challenger for the presidency.
A recent CNN article titled Biden praises Sanders on income inequality, calls Clinton 'relatively new' to the fight, highlights exactly why only Bernie Sanders will address the structural issues plaguing the U.S. economy:
"Bernie is speaking to a yearning that is deep and real. And he has credibility on it," Biden said during an interview with CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger.
"It's relatively new for Hillary to talk about that," Biden continued...
"Hillary's focus has been other things up to now, and that's been Bernie's -- no one questions Bernie's authenticity on those issues," he said.
Wealth inequality is a major issue in both parties and 63% of Americans according to Gallup believe "money and wealth distribution is unfair." In addition to so many other differences, "authenticity" separates Sanders, from both Trump and Clinton.
Iowa and New Hampshire will be remembered forever as the two states that ushered in a new era of American politics, one where Bernie Sanders will emulate Teddy Roosevelt and battle the "malefactors of great wealth" to defend against future financial collapses and endless military quagmires. After these initial wins for Bernie Sanders, the media will finally jump on the bandwagon, leading to a landslide victory for Sanders in 2016.
The three reasons above (as well as the possibility of the FBI ending Clinton's campaign with future revelations) reflect an undercurrent of support that will become a nationwide phenomenon after Iowa and New Hampshire. I explain why I'm only voting for Bernie Sanders in this 60 second YouTube segment. In my recent appearance on The Thom Hartmann Program, I explain why Bernie Sanders will become president.