Wall Street Journal: “His campaign has considered whether Mr. Sanders should give a foreign-policy speech, but hasn’t decided whether to do so, said Tad Devine, his senior strategist. He said it takes considerable time to write a ‘serious speech on a serious topic’ and noted that Mr. Sanders didn’t launch his campaign until April 30.”

David Axelrod: “By building a movement around the issues of inequality, the plight of the embattled middle class and the outsized influence of Wall Street, Sanders has pushed Clinton to shed her caution and embrace these economic issues, albeit with a slightly more moderate pitch, as a centerpiece of her campaign. This has made her a stronger candidate than she otherwise might have been.”

“Time will tell whether Clinton’s abandonment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Asian trade agreement she once hailed as the ‘gold standard,’ was a shrewd political decision. Her flip could flop if it becomes symbolic of a penchant for shape-shifting, leaving supporters of the TPP angry and opponents doubtful about her true commitment. But it’s a pretty good guess that she might have made a different choice if she weren’t up against Sanders, who, like the leaders of organized labor, is an ardent foe of free trade agreements.”

Washington Post: “There may be no more important event on the calendar for Sanders than Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses. He is counting on a political revolution to sweep him into the White House. But with Hillary Rodham Clinton regaining strength over the past month in the fight for the Democratic nomination, there’s a growing sense that Iowa could instead be the beginning of the end if Sanders doesn’t pull off back-to-back victories here and in New Hampshire.”

Mother Jones has found video clips of a cable access show hosted by Bernie Sanders when he was mayor of Burlington, Vermont.

“It was a low-budget production. The credits were written in marker by hand; the intro music was a recording of ‘We Shall Overcome’; there was no script. Now, the station has posted dozens of episodes of Sanders’ show, along with poorly lit footage of various mayoral functions and campaign events. The collection captures Sanders at his most unfiltered—and, at times, eccentric.”

Campaign strategist Tad Devine confirmed in an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball that Bernie Sanders is in fact a Democrat.

CM: If he gets the nomination of the Democratic Party, will he become a Democrat?
Devine: He is. He’s running as a Democrat. In this campaign he decided to run for the Democratic Party nomination. He’s running as a Democrat.
CM: He is  a Democrat? Is he a member of the Democratic Party?
Devine: He can’t technically be a member of the party because there’s no registration in Vermont.
CM: Is he a Democrat?
Devine: Yes, he’s running as a Democrat.
CM: I thought he was a Socialist. Which is it?
Devine: Well, his philosophy is Democratic Socialist.
CM: Oh, I thought that his title was Socialist?
Devine: No.
CM: He’s an Independent in the caucus. He is a member of the Democratic Caucus in the Senate, but he’s not a member He’s an Independent member of the Democratic caucus of the Senate, but  he’s not a member of the caucus.
Devine: He’s a member of the Democratic Caucus.
CM: But he’s not a Democrat.
Devine: He’s running as a Democrat for President of the United States. He signed an affidavit..
CM: Ok. I personally – don’t argue with me it’s a weird situation. He’s now a Democrat because in the past he’s ran against Democrats. He ran against Democrats for mayor. He ran against Democrats for Congress.
Devine: In this campaign, he decided to run for the Democratic Party nomination. He’s running as a Democrat.
CM: He is a Democrat.
Devine: Yes.
Devine: Yes – I’m glad we resolved that.
CM: Well,  I didn’t know he changed parties. He..
Devine: He didn’t change party. If he could register he would, but he can’t.
CM: I think that’s a technical point. I’ll take him at his word. He’s a socialist which is fine with me.
Devine: He’s a Democratic Socialist.

Jane Sanders told Yahoo News that her husband’s presidential campaign is less about winning than about setting the agenda.

Said Sanders: “He’s doing what he aimed to do… The last election the candidates didn’t talk about inequality, they didn’t talk about fairness, they didn’t talk about climate change. He’s setting the agenda. That’s what it’s about.”

New York Times: “For a candidate who has inspired the most impassioned followers since Barack Obama in 2008, Mr. Sanders is surprisingly impersonal, even uninterested, in one-on-one exchanges — the sort of momentary encounters in which a candidate can show warmth and humility by gripping every open palm.”

“He rarely drops by diners or coffee shops with news cameras in tow, unlike most politicians. He hardly ever kisses babies, aides say, and does not mingle much at fund-raisers. To Mr. Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, political schmoozing is a phony business, and anathema to his total focus on weighty issues.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders says he will not attack Hillary Clinton “in harshly negative ways. But pollsters for his campaign are quietly testing pointed critiques of Mrs. Clinton as too close to Wall Street or as unreliably liberal for initially supporting trade deals and the Iraq war,” the New York Times reports.

“After weeks of inching toward a more aggressive posture against Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Sanders is now walking a fine line: He is trying to draw sharp contrasts between their records, yet not attack her on a personal level. He questions her political shifts on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, the Pacific Rim free trade deal and same-sex marriage rights, for instance, while trying to avoid impugning her honesty and judgment, a favorite Republican tactic.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is an independent, “received confirmation that he is a qualified candidate in the March 1, 2016 Democratic presidential primary in his home state of Vermont,” WMUR reports.

“That move, backed up by more than 1,000 signatures as required by Vermont law, should dispel any remaining question about Sanders’ qualifications to run in the Democratic primary in the Granite State… Sanders’ qualifications to file in the New Hampshire Democratic primary has been the subject of speculation for six months.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) “has denounced candidates who are overly poll-tested, a line of attack that has been used against Hillary Rodham Clinton in the past and one he had in his prepared text as a veiled reference to her at the Iowa Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on Saturday night,” the New York Times reports.

“But Mr. Sanders’s campaign, flush with cash from low-dollar donors, has hired a pollster of its own, his senior adviser Tad Devine confirmed. Mr. Sanders has brought on Ben Tulchin, who polled for Howard Dean, the insurgent Democratic presidential candidate of the 2004 cycle.”

Politico: “On Saturday night, at the high-stakes Democratic Jefferson-Jackson dinner, the Vermont senator launched a new, frontal attack on Clinton’s record, caution and character — a direct response to her recent surge in the polls here and nationally, and fueled by her strong performance at the first Democratic debate earlier this month. The shift represents a gamble: Can a nice-guy candidate publicly dedicated to running on substance turn to attack mode without sacrificing his reputation as an authentic voice of the people?”

Sen. Bernie Sanders said that he is preparing to give a “major speech” on democratic socialism, the political philosophy that is guiding him and his upstart campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, the Washington Post.

Said Sanders: “I think we have some explaining and work to do,” acknowledging that the term “democratic socialism” makes some people “very, very nervous.”

The Atlantic says “don’t be sur­prised if it’s Bernie Sanders who be­ne­fits just as much as Clin­ton from his per­form­ance at the Demo­crat­ic de­bate—and pos­sible even more. For an in­sur­gent like the Ver­mont sen­at­or, these ini­tial con­tests are the first real chance to in­tro­duce him­self to the coun­try, and judging from the Demo­crat­ic de­bate re­cord of 15.3 mil­lion people who tuned in to CNN, there was a lot of in­terest in see­ing Sanders take on Clin­ton.”

“While pun­dits de­clared Clin­ton the win­ner, tele­vi­sion fo­cus groups and ini­tial on­line polls went de­cis­ively for Sanders. Those are ad­mit­tedly a wholly non-sci­entif­ic pair of met­rics, but the res­ults got the at­ten­tion of former ad­visers to Pres­id­ent Obama, who said they saw the same dy­nam­ic play out dur­ing the de­bates eight years ago.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign said that it brought in just over $1.4 million from the Vermont senator’s performance at the first Democratic presidential debate the night before, Politico reports.

“Hillary Clinton’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to inquiries on Wednesday about its fundraising haul after the debate.”

Washington Post: “Sanders repeatedly saw spikes in Google interest after he spoke. After his intro. After he talked about guns. After basically everything else he said. About an hour after the debate began, Jim Webb attracted some attention after he complained about not having an opportunity to speak. But it was Sanders that drew attention the whole time.”

“What’s more, Sanders actually overpowered the long-term king of Google, Donald Trump. During the debate, Sanders continually attracted more Google interest than Trump.”

Amy Walter: “Bernie Sanders wants to run on issues, not on electability, and that is great news for Hillary Clinton. On the campaign trail, Sanders has never explicitly criticized Clinton, even when provided ample opportunities to do so. Tonight, he went even further when he declared that Clinton’s greatest weakness — her email server and the questions it raises about her honesty and trustworthiness — was irrelevant.”

“But, by not making the case for why this issue could come back to haunt her, and the Democratic chances for holding the White House in 2016, Sanders confirmed that his candidacy is more about promoting his views on economic and social inequality in America, than it is to seriously challenge Clinton for the nomination. His performance tonight was sure to make his supporters happy, but he did nothing to expand that base of support.”