Wednesday, January 20, 2016

First Read: It's Panic Mode for the Democratic Establishment

 
It's Panic Time for the Democratic establishment

No, Bernie Sanders likely isn't ahead in New Hampshire by 27 points, as yesterday's CNN/WMUR poll showed (the other polling just doesn't back that up). But 12 days before the Iowa caucuses and 20 days before the New Hampshire primary, there's something happenin' out there. And now he's viewed as enough of a legitimate threat that the Democratic establishment and the liberal wonks are piling on him as if he were the frontrunner. It started Monday after the debate, when liberal writers like Paul Krugman, Jonathan Chait, and Ezra Klein either blasted Sanders' single-payer plan or argued he'd make a poor president in these politically polarized times. Then yesterday, author Ta-Nehisi Coates criticized Sanders for proposing utopian prescriptions on economic matters (single-payer on health care, breaking up the big banks) but not on race (reparations for slavery). And last night for the attempted coup de grace, Democratic politicians ran to the New York Times to tell the paper that Sanders would damage the party at the top of the ticket because he's a democratic socialist. Some of the juiciest quotes:
 
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon: "Here in the heartland, we like our politicians in the mainstream, and he is not — he's a socialist." 
 
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN): "It wouldn't be helpful [on downballot races] outside Vermont, Massachusetts, Berkeley, Palo Alto and Ann Arbor." 
 
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO): "The Republicans won't touch him because they can't wait to run an ad with a hammer and sickle." 

Click here for the full article:

Source: NBC News

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