“People like Bernie are always attractive, as I was. They speak truth to power. The problem with candidates like that — and like me — is that as you get closer to election time, you’re more careful about how your vote’s going to be used. You’re going to tend to want to see somebody who you think looks presidential as the nominee of your party. That’s one of the things that sank me.”
— Howard Dean, in an interview with the Washington Post.
Politico: “Clinton’s campaign, it appears, is unleashing the hounds. While the wounded front-runner is ignoring her competition in the primary race altogether — she still does not utter Sanders’ name on the campaign trail – Brooklyn is paying the travel costs for proxies who are using their appearances in the early-voting states to criticize the surging senator.”
National Journal: “Bernie Sanders has rapidly gained support in the first-in-the-nation voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, creeping up on Hillary Clinton and raising the possibility of mounting a real challenge to the Democrats’ primary front-runner. But in Nevada, the third state on Democratic primary calendar, Sanders faces a challenge that thus far has been the principal sticking point of his campaign: moving past a core supporter base that is largely white, and winning favor among minority voters.”
“Unlike the first two states on the map, in Nevada, minority voters are poised to play a major role in picking the Democrats’ winner. Nonwhite voters make up just less than half of the state’s population, while white voters are much more dominant in New Hampshire (92 percent) and Iowa (88 percent).”
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“Taking his outsider message into the heart of the Democratic establishment,” Sen. Bernie Sanders “challenged hundreds of the party’s leaders on Friday to embrace his candidacy, warning that the huge crowds of supporters he has drawn may not vote for Democratic candidates in 2016 unless he is at the top of the ticket,” the New York Times reports.
Said Sanders: “My friends, the Republican Party did not win the midterm election in November: We lost that election. We lost because voter turnout was abysmally, embarrassingly low, and millions of working people, young people and people of color gave up on politics as usual and they stayed home. That’s a fact.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) “huddled with advisers at his home here Wednesday to chart what he describes as the second phase of a campaign that has exceeded all expectations but still lacks the infrastructure and support from the party elites that could help him compete with Clinton on a national level,” the Washington Post reports.
“He said he will issue a slew of detailed policy proposals, including for a tax system under which corporations and the wealthy would pay significantly more for initiatives that would benefit the poor and middle class, and will pour resources into voter outreach in early nominating states.”
“It only took six weeks for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign to outgrow its headquarters in New Hampshire. The Sanders team will move their state headquarters next week from its current location in a modest strip mall on Manchester Road on the south side of Concord to larger offices on the east side of Manchester,” the Washington Post reports.
“Word of the move came just a couple of hours after a new poll in the first-in-the-nation primary state indicated the senator from Vermont may have an edge on Hillary Clinton among likely Democratic primary voters here.”
“The overflow crowds showing up to hear Bernie Sanders these days are a testament not only to his current popularity and the campaign’s social-media savvy but also to the promotional abilities of an alchemy of like-minded interests: progressive activists, labor unions and even Sarah Silverman,” the Washington Post reports.
“All told, Sanders has attracted more than 100,000 people to his rallies in recent weeks, riding a wave of Facebook shares, retweets and old-fashioned word-of-mouth to become by far the biggest draw on the campaign trail.”
“You don’t change the system from within the Democratic Party. My own feeling is that the Democratic Party is ideologically bankrupt.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), quoted by Politico.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who has been drawing eye-poppingly large crowds on the campaign trail, on Sunday night attracted his largest audience yet: about 28,000 people in Portland, OR, the Washington Post reports.
“Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who has emerged as the leading alternative to Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, appeared at a Portland arena with a capacity close to 20,000, aides said. An additional 8,000 people gathered in overflow areas set up for the event, aides said, citing numbers provided by officials from the venue.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) says he “will not run for president as an Independent if he falls short in his bid to secure the Democratic 2016 nomination,” The Hill reports.
Said Sanders: “I would not want to be responsible for electing some right-wing Republican president.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) held a house party for 100,000 possible supporters, the New York Times reports.
“The national organizing day, which featured more than 3,500 events and house parties across the country, centered around a technological infrastructure that uses text-messaging sign-ups and a deep database of volunteers. Attendees at the house parties were asked to text a number to opt in and show interest.”
“A few months ago, Mr. Sanders never thought he would be speaking to this many people, telling First Draft that he would have thought that maybe 1,000 would turn out. But as he continues to draw large crowds, crowds that ‘continue to surprise me to this day,’ the campaign realized that now was the time to try and turn the interest into working volunteers.”
Mark Halperin: “Let’s all please stop asserting that Bernie Sanders can’t beat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic nomination race. Pundits and journalists galore have been declaring (alleged margin of error: zero) that the Vermont senator will lose to his party’s front-runner. Sure, his odds are long, but so far he’s shown substance, grit, and surprising appeal…. Sanders’ surprising success has already influenced Clinton’s conduct and fortunes, and there is every reason to believe that he will continue to challenge her, influence her, and create significant problems for her as the race continues.”
“There are plenty of recent examples of underdog candidates in both parties who ‘couldn’t’ win the nomination in the estimation of the chattering class but who nonetheless had an outsized influence on the contours and, indeed, outcome of the race. These include Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich in 2012 against Mitt Romney; Pat Buchanan in 1992 against George H.W. Bush; and Jesse Jackson in 1988 against Michael Dukakis. Based on how things are shaping up so far, Sanders has the potential to adversely affect Clinton in numerous ways, echoing the underdogs who ran before. “
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) “drew more than 11,000 people to a rally Saturday night in downtown Phoenix — the largest crowd to date for a presidential candidate whose audiences have been swelling in recent months,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Sanders: “Somebody told me people are giving up on the political process. Not what I see here tonight.”
Nate Silver says Sen. Bernie Sanders could beat Hillary Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire and lose everywhere else.
“Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa and Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire are really liberal and really white, and that’s the core of Sanders’s support.”
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “Hillary Clinton is very, very likely to be the Democratic nominee, not Bernie Sanders. That’s true even if Sanders manages to upset Clinton in both Iowa and New Hampshire. The fact is, the key constituencies of the Democratic Party are likely to back Clinton, and big Sanders audiences aren’t going to change that.”
Nate Cohn says the Sanders surge “is about to hit a wall: the rank and file of the Democratic primary electorate.”
Rick Klein: “It may be an accident of timing that the week the Clinton campaign chose to focus on national press was also the week the national press woke up to the big crowds and big dollars flowing to Bernie Sanders. (And it’s worth noting that the walking rope pen also preceded the first national TV interview Hillary Clinton granted.) But in either context, the Clinton camp’s response to Sanders’ buzz suggests that they find utility in the attention he’s getting. ‘I always thought this would be a competitive race,’ Clinton told CNN’s Brianna Keilar.”
“She may actually have always thought that, and people around her may actually have said that publicly with some consistency. Don’t mistake that, though, for their actual read of the potential race against Sanders, either before or after the crowds starting coming out for Sanders. When stories emerge about how the Clinton campaign is concerned about Sanders’ rise, that’s the surest sign that Sanders is useful at this point in the race for Camp Clinton.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) drew another large crowd to a presidential campaign stop in Portland, Maine, on Monday evening, this one topping 7,500, The Hill reports.
Bangor Daily News: “What was scheduled as a town hall forum had become a full-blown rally by Monday night. Sanders’ speech was delayed by 20 minutes as organizers let in the throngs of people still awaiting entry. Estimates pegged the crowd at 8,000 to 9,000 people.”
“When I hear Bernie talk I’m almost inclined to accuse him of plagiarizing me.”
— Ralph Nader, quoted by Politico, on Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) talked to The Nation: “Now, I’ve known Hillary Clinton for many years. Let me confess: I like Hillary. I disagree with Hillary Clinton on many issues. My job is to differentiate myself from her on the issues—not by personal attacks. I’ve never run a negative ad in my life. Why not? First of all, in Vermont, they don’t work—and, frankly, I think increasingly around this country they don’t work. I really do believe that people want a candidate to come up with solutions to America’s problems rather than just attacking his or her opponent.”
He added: “If you look at politics as a baseball game or a football game, then I’m supposed to be telling the people that my opponents are the worst people in the world and I’m great. That’s crap; I don’t believe that for a second…. I don’t need to spend my life attacking Hillary Clinton or anybody else. I want to talk about my ideas on the issues.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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