Bill Clinton showed up in Western New York yesterday to fire up volunteers for Hillary. Donald Trump plans a visit to Buffalo in a week or so. No word on when Bernie Sanders will come to town. Today, Ted Cruz was heckled in New York City so he might be wary about coming here.
Most of my students support Bernie Sanders. When asked why, they tell me: “Bernie is going to give me a free college education.” Who do you think will win the New York Primary on April 19?
Bernie and Trump! I’m a strong Sanders supporter, and a precinct delegate, but if the she bitch from Hell becomes the candidate I’ll vote for whoever runs against her! And I don’t like any of the Republicans, but better one of them than Madam Square Pants!
Bob, don’t hold back on your opinions!
I can’t help it: Every time I see Ted Cruz, he looks to me like Wilbur Post.
Dan, in the WALL STREET JOURNAL yesterday, Joseph Epstein commented on the Presidential candidates. He compared Mario Rubio to a siding salesman. Ted Cruz reminds me on a used car salesman.
I go back to Eric Foner’s great quote: “Every ideal starts out as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” IMHO, the GOP has been functioning at peak racket for the last 30 years. Is it any wonder that their candidates are appearing more and more like scammers and con men?
Deb, all the Super PACs and campaign money in this Presidential race sure qualifies as a scam.
If Cruz is a used car salesman, he isn’t one you’d trust to sell you a car. If you shook his hand, you’d want to count your fingers afterwards and check if your wallet is still there.
Jeff, if Cruz shows up in Western NY, he’ll get heckled for sure!
I don’t get the DNC–why are we letting Sanders run as a Democrat? He has not self-identified as one in a long time. I’ve said since the day after Obama’s re-election that I was all about Hillary 2016 and I’m still there.
Deb, I think Bernie Sanders becomes irrelevant after Hillary wins big in New York and California.
We’ll see if the purging irregularities have any ultimate effect on delegate distribution among the Democrats.
Deb, the Democrats never made it necessary for a candidate to be officially a Democrat to run for the nomination. Presumably, now “fixed.” Did he ever register as a Democrat before the campaign began? Shall have to check.
Yours for Jill Stein.
Deb, Bernie switched his registration to Democrat last year in order to be able to run. I can understand know-nothings like George’s college students supporting him because, well, they know nothing. If I were a 20 year old student now I might feel the same. But anyone who has been around the block a few times who supports him (other than a violent Hillary hater like the Cap’n) is, in my opinion, stupid.
Read the transcript of his interview at the Daily News. He knows nothing, even about his supposed “signature” issue. Free college education? Sure. Sounds great. Who’s going to pay for it – me? No, “the rich” I suppose. The man has been in Congress for TWENTY-FIVE YEARS and I defy Cap’n Bob or any other supporter to name One Single Thing he has ever accomplished. There isn’t one. He’s the white knight of dilettante phonies like Susan Sarandon, who should know better, especially after she supported Ralph Nader (another loser), and helped get W. elected.
I’m not saying I love Hillary like Jackie and Deb, but considering the rest of the field….
I think Hillary and Trump will have no trouble winning here, though Trump will have a much bigger margin of victory.
We have a saying in German that in politics always the “kleinste Übel” (the smallest evil) should win – that is the person whom you dislike the least.
So, though of course my opinion is totally irrelevant here, I’m hoping for Hillary to win against Trump or whoever makes it on the “repug” side …
Wolf, the chance that Trump could win scares people. But, never underestimate a billionaire.
Um, yes…because there’s no reason to dislike neoliberalism and Clinton as one of its chiefest avatars in the US. Keep telling yourself that, Jeff. You’re not alone in this worldview in the Democratic Party, of course. More’s the pity.
I’m guessing Hillary for the Dems, but not sure about the GOP I think NY has had trump in their faces for decades and may well be on to him, but who knows. I’ve heard that if he doesn’t get the nom from the GOP, trump will run as an independent. That would be great, pulling a Nader as it were. There isn’t one Republican candidate I’d trust with 1c. Sadly, the dumbing down of the US has brought us to this point.
I think Sanders is a different sort of political animal. Has a new approach and style, much as I fear the free college is like the trump wall, totally not feasible.
I really wish Elizabeth Warren had run. If the GOP candidate is the winner, our nation will be the big loser. If it’s trump, I doubt we’ll have many allies left in the world
Maggie, I’m with you on Elizabeth Warren. Hillary may win but it will be a close election. She is a very flawed candidate.
A lot of people like Elizabeth Warren.
Jeff, Elizabeth Warren is smart and doesn’t have all the baggage that Hillary has.
Since you asked!
BERNIE SANDERS: Former student organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Led the first ever civil rights sit-in in Chicago history to protest segregated housing. One of only 2 sitting US Senators to have heard MLK’s “I have a Dream Speech” in person in the march on Washington, DC. Former professor of political science at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and at Hamilton College. Former mayor of Burlington, VT. Elected by the state of Vermont 8 times to serve in the House of Representatives. The longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. He was dubbed the “amendment king” in the House of Representatives for passing more amendments than any other member of Congress. Ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee. Author of 2 books, and co-author of 3 others. Has recorded and released a folk music album. Self-described Democratic Socialist. Married to a woman named Jane, who is a former president of Burlington College.
~In a stunning upset in 1981, Sanders wins the mayoral race in Burlington, Vermont’s largest city, by a mere 10 votes. Running as an independent, he shocks the city’s political establishment by defeating a six-term, local machine mayor.
~During his tenure as mayor, he balanced the city budget, drew a minor league baseball team to Burlington, turned the formerly industrial waterfront into a mixed-use district featuring housing, parks, and public space. Burlington is now reported to be one of the most livable cities in the nation.
~In 1991, he was the first independent elected to the House in 40 years. He will be re-elected by the people of Vermont to serve eight terms.
~Votes against a measure providing President George H. W. Bush with authorization to use military force in the Gulf War. “I have a real fear that the region is not going to be more peaceful or more stable after the war,” he says at the time.
~Co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus and chaired the group for its first 8 years.
~In 1992, Congress passes Sanders’ first signed piece of legislation to create the National Program of Cancer Registries. All 50 states now run registries to help cancer researchers gain important insights.
~Voted against the Clinton-era North American Free Trade Agreement, which we now know sent millions of American jobs overseas.
~Sanders is one of only 67 votes against the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal benefits to same-sex couples legally married. It took 17 years to overturn this Act.
~Standing up against the major pharmaceutical companies, Sanders becomes the first member of Congress to take seniors across the border to Canada to buy lower-cost prescription drugs. The congressman continues his bus trips to Canada with a group of breast cancer patients the following April. These women are able to purchase their medications in Canada for almost one-tenth the price charged in the States.
~Thanks to Sanders’ efforts, IBM agreed to a $320 million legal settlement with some 130,000 IBM workers and retirees.
~About 10 years before the 2008 Wall Street crash spins the world economy into a massive recession, Sanders votes “no” on a bill to undo decades of financial regulations enacted after the Great Depression. The House passed the bill 362-57 over Sanders’ objection.
~Sanders votes against the USA Patriot Act. “All of us want to protect the American people from terrorist attacks, but in a way that does not undermine basic freedoms,” Sanders says at the time.
~Sanders votes against the Bush-Cheney war in Iraq. He warns at the time that an invasion could “result in anti-Americanism, instability and more terrorism.” We now know that that war was one of the worst foreign policy decisions in our history.
~Sanders passes an amendment in the House to stop the government from obtaining library and book-buying records on Americans.
~Sanders defeats Vermont’s richest man, Rich Tarrant, to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Sanders, running as an Independent, is endorsed by the Vermont Democratic Party and supported by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
~Sanders’ authored energy efficiency and conservation grant program passes into law. He later secures $3.2 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for the grant program.
~Thanks to Sanders’ efforts, funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding doubles, helping millions of low-income Americans heat their homes in winter.
~Sanders works with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley to pass an amendment to an economic recovery bill preventing Wall Street banks that take taxpayer bailouts from replacing laid-off U.S. workers with exploited and poorly-paid foreign workers.
~Sanders passes language in the Affordable Care Act to allow states to apply for waivers to implement pilot health care systems by 2017. The legislation allows states to adopt more comprehensive systems to cover more people at lower costs.
~In 2010, President Barack Obama signs into law the Affordable Care Act with a major Sanders provision to expand federally qualified community health centers. Sanders secures $12.5 billion in funding for the program which now serves more than 25 million Americans. Another $1.5 billion from a Sanders provision went to the National Health Service Corps for scholarships and loan repayment for doctors and nurses who practice in underserved communities.
~Sanders works with Republican Congressman Ron Paul in the House to pass a measure as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill to audit the Federal Reserve, revealing how the independent agency gave $16 trillion in near zero-interest loans to big banks and businesses after the 2008 economic collapse.
~In 2012, he becomes Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
~Sanders, backed by seniors, women, veterans, labor unions and disabled Americans leads a successful effort to stop a “chained-CPI” proposal supported by Congressional Republicans and the Administration to cut Social Security and disabled veterans’ benefits.
~Sanders introduces legislation to break up major Wall Street banks so large that the collapse of one could send the overall economy into a downward spiral.
~A bipartisan $16.5 billion veterans bill written by Sanders, Sen. John McCain and Rep. Jeff Miller is signed into law by President Barack Obama.
~In 2015, Sanders takes over as ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, using the platform to fight for his economic agenda for the American middle class.
~Sanders votes against the Keystone XL pipeline which would allow multinational corporation TransCanada to transport dirty tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
~Both the NAACP and the NHLA (National Hispanic Leadership Agenda) have given Sanders 100% voting scores during his tenure in the Senate. Earns a D- from the NRA.
*Info from berniesanders.com
Keep this list handy so that when someone asks what he’s done for us lately, you’ve got your answer ready.
Bob, impressive!
Thanks, Bob, for that list – we Europeans don’t know /haven’t heard too much about Berine – if only he had become a candidate when he was younger!
Bob, would it be ok to quote that impressive list in another forum (for Germans travelling/working in the USA) and if so what source should I give?
George, I don’t know about New York but I hope the Democrats win in November. They are the more likeable characters in the poll play.
Prashant, the Republicans here seem to be on a path to chaos.