Time: "TAILOR-MADE" Foreign Policy Objection Fabricated To Make Bernie Sanders Look Bad

[Segami]

Before the Democratic debate even began Saturday night, Bernie Sanders was losing. A story, first reported on Yahoo News, began widely circulating that a top aide to the Vermont Senator had vigorously protested CBS’ decision to focus more on foreign policy in the wake of the Paris attacks on a conference call.

It was tailor-made to make Sanders look bad. And Sanders’ aides say that’s because it was “fabricated” and their account was backed up Saturday by a Democratic National Committee official who was also on the call, along with representatives for Sanders, front-runner Hillary Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

Sanders aide Mark Longabaugh said it is true that he argued with CBS about opening and closing statements, which he views as vital to a candidate who is not as well-known as Clinton and who is running an issues-based campaign. But he said the claim that he objected to a foreign policy focus, which came from a rival campaign, was bogus.

“The only bone of contention was, were you going to have closing statement and original opening statement which we agreed to? The rest of it was all baloney,” said Sanders aide Mark Longabaugh. “Any story that implied we were not fully prepared and ready to engage on foreign policy or Paris strategy in any way is just not true.”

A DNC official confirmed Longabaugh’s account on Saturday.

“Mark pushed back aggressively on opening statements. It was about opening statements,” said the official, who did not want to be quoted taking sides in a dispute between the Democratic campaigns. “The debate was never what are we going to talk about during the first 20 minutes.”

Sanders’ spokesman, Michael Briggs, said that the Vermont senator was prepared to talk about Paris.

“From the Senator’s standpoint, it wasn’t ever a question about whether there would be a discussion about what happened in Paris,” Briggs said. “Somebody is making a mountain out of a molehill and it’s still a molehill.” CBS gave the candidates 90 seconds for opening remarks, as Sanders’ campaign wanted.


http://time.com/4113762/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-argument/

[nc4bo]

1. Oh gee, I wonder who it could be?! SSDY

Same Shit Different Year.

[Samantha]

45. Could it have been the brain-child of the man in the middle?

Did you happen to see my thread on this?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251804955

Sam

[LovingA2andMI]

54. Must have been someone...

Who needed to spin the debate because they desired to keep the debate schedule on days most folks are clearly doing something else....like a Saturday night at 9pm. Wonder who that could be?

[Nitram]

118. How Bernie Sanders Lost the Debate Before the Debate

Original title to the story at the link.

[tblue37]

2. K&R for visibility, and to the greatest page for more visibility.nt

[HerbChestnut]

3. Not surprised.

[Segami]

4. Hmm,..I wonder WHO the 'rival campaign' may be?...

"...the claim that he objected to a foreign policy focus, which came from a rival campaign, was bogus..."

[nc4bo]

5. Be willing to bet the farm it was NOT O'Malley. That leaves.....

?????

[LovingA2andMI]

58. Probably wasn't...

O' Malley. But, the other person is like 30, 40, 60, 100 percent in the lead supposedly in the MSM "Polls" so what would they have to spin and fear about this?

[cantbeserious]

6. Riddle Me This - Which Rival Campaign Would Stoop So Low

eom

[840high]

43. Raises hand. I Know!!!!!

[SusanCalvin]

7. I don't get anything much out of this.

Was the argument over the time or the content of the opening statements?

The article implies time but does not say so explicitly. It does say it was about the opening statement, leading me to my original conclusion that a change related to Paris was requested and argued. I submit Bernie's actual statement in support of my supposition.

I'm a big Bernie fan, but this article is gibberish.

[Segami]

13. Its quite clear....

A story, first reported on Yahoo News, began widely circulating that a top aide to the Vermont Senator had vigorously protested CBS’ decision to focus more on foreign policy in the wake of the Paris attacks on a conference call.

The bogus story was trying to paint Bernie as reluctant or hesitate in debating foreign policy. The bogus story had nothing to do with the opening statements.

[SusanCalvin]

15. That's not the way I originally heard it,

but it's late and I'm not going to go looking for references at this time.

[Segami]

19. The Yahoo story..

The dispute centered on CBS’s decision to increase the emphasis on terrorism, foreign policy, and national security in the wake of the attacks that left more than 100 people dead in Paris on Friday night. According to the rival staffer, Sanders strategist Mark Longabaugh lit into CBS vice president and Washington bureau chief Christopher Isham when the changes to the debate were detailed on the call.

“It was a little bit of a bizarre scene. The Sanders representative, you know, really laid into CBS and basically … kind of threw, like, a little bit of a fit and said, ‘You are trying to turn this into a foreign policy debate. That’s not what any of us agreed to. How can you change the terms of the debate, you know, on the day of the debate. That’s not right,’” the staffer recounted.

Another person who was on the call confirmed to Yahoo News that Longabaugh had a lengthy dispute about the changed plans for the debate format during the call with CBS. The Sanders campaign declined to comment.

The rival staffer said the CBS representatives on the call argued they were not completely switching the focus for the debate.

“The CBS folks were like, ‘Look, we’re not turning this into a foreign policy debate. We’re going to reorder the questions so that we’re leading off with a foreign policy focus based on what happened last night,’” the rival staffer said.

According to the staffer, representatives for the two other candidates, Hillary Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, chimed in to say, “We completely agree with CBS.” The staffer said Longabaugh was “hot” and had his voice “raised.” The staffer said Longabaugh described the changes as “not right” and noted that CBS originally offered the candidates an opening that was more “open-ended,” where they “could talk about the basis for our campaign.”

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/sanders-aide-pushes-back-against-cbs-switch-to-215805298.html

[SusanCalvin]

24. Ah, so it was about the opening.

I revert to my previously prepared position that the staffer may well have had a point, in a rational world, but that pressing that point was not a smart move, in a pragmatic world.

[Segami]

28. You do agree then

that the Yahoo story was bogus?

[SusanCalvin]

31. Seems highly likely that it was.

The part you have bolded I hope no one was stupid enough to say.

[winter is coming]

16. Allegedly, CBS wanted to cut/reduce the 90 second opening statements to permit

more time to cover what happened in Paris. Why the debate couldn't simply have run over its original length by 5 minutes was never made clear; CBS regularly runs late on Thursday evening, due to football games.

[SusanCalvin]

21. And I read today that the debate ran short.

Yeah, even without looking up references, starting to sound like misdirection and/or blowing out of proportion.

[winter is coming]

26. I thought it was ratfucking at the time.

Anonymous sources and couched in emotionally laden language? High likelihood of total bullshit, or at least someone with an axe to grind who's exaggerating a pedestrian exchange into high melodrama.

[navarth]

106. Your bullshit detector

...is strong.

[yeoman6987]

101. Sunday too.

[winter is coming]

108. True, but Colbert's not on on Sunday, so I don't care.

[yeoman6987]

114. Oh sorry. You are correct.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. Oh imagine that, dirty tricks and lies from the

Clinton campaign.

[think]

9. Dirty dishonest campaign tactics. Not surprising....

[jeff47]

10. This is clearly what you do when you are inevitable.

[winter is coming]

18. That, and get your SuperPACs to commission dubious polls. n/t

[Betty Karlson]

73. Bingo - and bingo again.

The internal polls must be telling a horrendous story.

[merrily]

22. Or, what you do when you were inevitable once before and then you weren't.

And, you've only had four years since then to get your ducks in a row.

[LovingA2andMI]

59. That sounds like a factual statement...

And Conclusion.

[merrily]

75. Historical and, hopefully, also a prophesy.

[jfern]

11. The Hillary campaign being dishonest?

Impossible! They'd never make something up to hurt a rival campaign! Never!

[pnwmom]

47. In this case it's the Bernie campaign being dishonest.

It is a fact that CBS wanted to take time from all the candidates opening/closing statements to add to time for foreign policy. that And Bernie's campaign was the only one to oppose this, and oppose it strongly, and they viewed the outcome as a win.

Until it backfired on them.



http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/bernie-sanders-debate-no-terrorism-215868

DES MOINES – With the rest of the world riveted on Paris, Bernie Sanders’ top aides fought hard to preserve his 90-second opening remarks – even as sponsors of tonight's debate demanded time to discuss the terrorist slaughter of 120 civilians.

In a conference call with all three campaigns hours after the attacks in Paris, executives with CBS, the host of the debate here, suggested changing the format of the forum to carve out more time to discuss the suddenly-imperative issue of keeping the violence in Europe from lapping over to U.S. cities, campaign sources said.


But Sanders' team forcefully opposed any changes – and, to the amazement of the network and the other Democrats who decried his tone-deafness, crowed publicly about limiting the foreign policy component to spend more time discussing economic inequality and other issues central to the Vermont senator’s candidacy.

“We had agreed on opening and closing statements, the timing of those," Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said about the debate format that was settled before the attacks on Friday. "Others attempted to change those. We pushed back on those and ended up prevailing. We're very happy about that.”

When asked for more details, he smiled: "Let's just say we won."

[jfern]

48. The link said it wasn't about the topics, it was about the closing statements

[pnwmom]

49. It was about taking time from opening statements --

the content of which would have been controlled by the candidates -- and put that time into answering foreign policy questions instead.

From the Politico piece:

With the rest of the world riveted on Paris, Bernie Sanders’ top aides fought hard to preserve his 90-second opening remarks – even as sponsors of tonight's debate demanded time to discuss the terrorist slaughter of 120 civilians.

From CNN:


http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/14/politics/paris-terror-attacks-bernie-sanders-democratic-debate/

Jeff Weaver, the Vermont senator's campaign manager, backed the account that the dispute was largely over cutting the opening statements from 90 seconds to 30 seconds in order to get right to questions about the Paris attacks.

"They wanted to make some last-minute changes to the debate. We obviously wanted to keep the format to what had been agreed to and I think people on our staff argued vigorously to that and were successful," Weaver told CNN.

"We ended up prevailing," said Weaver, who added that Sanders went over Paris-specific questions Saturday morning.

[jfern]

50. That's only 4 1/2 minutes of a 120 minute debate

CBS found time to have analysis DURING the debate, so I don't think they were too hurting for time.

[pnwmom]

51. So? The Sanders campaign objected strongly -- according to Jeff Weavers, their

campaign official -- to reducing their initial statement to 30 seconds. And the Sanders' campaign prevailed.

Then, when they received blowback, they tried to pretend Hillary sabotaged them somehow.

[jfern]

52. No, the Hillary campaign lied about Bernie avoiding foreign policy

90 seconds isn't much. Especially considering that there was analysis in the middle of the debate taking up some time.

[pnwmom]

55. No one lied. The effect of not agreeing to cut the intros to 30 seconds each is that it delayed

the beginning of the debate -- and an immediate discussion of foreign policy issues -- by three minutes. And three minutes is a long time in the TV world -- long enough for people to decide to change channels.

[jfern]

56. 90 seconds isn't 3 minutes, and CBS found time to have analysis in the middle of the debate

So I don't think they were too hurting on time.

[pnwmom]

60. 1 minute x 3 candidates = 3 minutes. It's not just about Bernie.

Each candidate was being asked to reduce his or her opening statement from 90 seconds to 30, and Bernie was the only one to object.

But the merits of the CBS/Sanders argument aren't important. What IS important is that Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager, has acknowledged that they pushed back strongly against the idea, and that they "prevailed."

But when they faced blowback, they suddenly wanted to shift the blame to Hillary. I thought Bernie was all about fairness, but this certainly wasn't fair.

[jfern]

67. Huh, the previous thing wasn't about blame, it was about lies that Bernie

didn't want to talk about foreign policy.

[pnwmom]

80. The truth is that he refused to give up a minute of his intro statement time,

along with the other candidates, so that the real debate, beginning with its foreign policy questions, could start three minutes earlier.

And when he ran into blowback, his supporters decided to blame Hillary for making him look bad. It wasn't her fault that he refused to go along with the CBS request. It was his.

[jfern]

82. The Hillary campaign got blowback for falsely claiming he didn't want to talk about foreign policy

[pnwmom]

84. Please show me where the Hillary campaign said that. I showed you the quote

from Jeff Weaver.

I'd like to see what you're referring to from the Hillary campaign, since you claim they made a false claim.

[jfern]

89. It clearly came from one of the other 2 campaigns

And we know the Hillary campaign rather than the O'Malley campaign would be the ones to stoop this low.

[pnwmom]

104. No, the report could as easily have come from someone in CBS who was annoyed

that Sanders wouldn't have gone along with their plan. Starting the debate three minutes earlier would have helped with the ratings. But Sanders was stubborn and, as his campaign manager said, Sanders won.

But the report was truthful -- Sanders refused to give up a minute of his time in order to discuss foreign policy. So I don't see why ANYONE should be criticized for reporting the truth.

[AlbertCat]

102. The truth is that he refused to give up a minute of his intro statement time,

along with the other candidates, so that the real debate, beginning with its foreign policy questions, could start three minutes earlier."

Ohhhhh... I see. Hillary knows 3 minutes more about foreign policy than Sanders.



It's all to remind us that she was SoS. Nothing more.

[AlbertCat]

100. In this case it's the Bernie campaign being dishonest.

You're clearly wrong.... again.

[SunSeeker]

109. Exactly. Thank you for wading into this thread, pnwmom. nt

[pnwmom]

113. You're welcome, SunSeeker. n/t

[ibegurpard]

90. Are they anything else?

[Major Hogwash]

12. And he still won the debate!!!

Even with all of the ratfucking going on in the background!!

[beam me up scottie]

14. Is anyone surprised?

I mean really?

After 2008 I think they're just getting started.

[BeanMusical]

41. I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked!

[Cheese Sandwich]

17. Clinton Dirty Tricks. nt

[merrily]

20. Same shit, different primary.

[LovingA2andMI]

61. Yep....

Speaking of the last primary, near this time in the cycle....

"A series of comments from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, her husband and her supporters are spurring a racial backlash and adding a divisive edge to the presidential primary as the candidates head south to heavily African-American South Carolina.

The comments, which ranged from the New York senator appearing to diminish the role of Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement — an aide later said she misspoke — to Bill Clinton dismissing Sen. Barack Obama’s image in the media as a “fairy tale” — generated outrage on black radio, black blogs and cable television. And now they've drawn the attention of prominent African-American politicians.

“A cross-section of voters are alarmed at the tenor of some of these statements,” said Obama spokeswoman Candice Tolliver, who said that Clinton would have to decide whether she owed anyone an apology.

“There’s a groundswell of reaction to these comments — and not just these latest comments but really a pattern, or a series of comments that we’ve heard for several months,” she said. “Folks are beginning to wonder: Is this really an isolated situation, or is there something bigger behind all of this?”=

http://www.politico.com/story/2008/01/racial-tensions-roil-democratic-race-007845

Things that make one go.....ummm

[merrily]

74. ummm

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12777603

[Admiral Loinpresser]

105. You can count on attempts to divide people,

when a certain someone is running for the brass ring.

[LovingA2andMI]

115. Yep...

MTS....

[Doctor_J]

23. I wonder. If Mrs Clinton's campaign released a statement declaring that Sanders

campaign manager is a serial killer, would big media and the HRC group believe it?

[in_cog_ni_to]

25. David Brock.

From now on, when any negative hit job article appears, we should just assume it's hit man Brock who planted it. Question everything.

[winter is coming]

27. Or Mark Penn.

Given how poorly Hillary did in last night's debate, I expect the bullshit factory will be working overtime this week.

[SoapBox]

30. Yup.

Exactly what I was going to say.

The rotten and dirty is thick already.

[GoneFishin]

29. This keeps happening. And each time it reminds me why I don't want a dirty trickster in the WH.

Enough of this shit.

[Segami]

32. Well,...get ready for TWO

for the price of one if Hillary is elected. Both Clintons are confirmed habitual public liars. We will be entering another Nixonian era if she is elected to office.

[pnwmom]

53. The dirty tricksters in this case are the Sanders people who realized

they made a mistake in pushing back against reducing his opening statement. One day they were gloating about winning the argument -- and the next they were on the defensive, worried about how it made Bernie look on foreign policy issues. So they tried to shift the blame to Hillary.

Here is Jeff Weaver, Sanders campaign manager, bragging about prevailing over CBS in the argument.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/14/politics/paris-terror-attacks-bernie-sanders-democratic-debate/

Jeff Weaver, the Vermont senator's campaign manager, backed the account that the dispute was largely over cutting the opening statements from 90 seconds to 30 seconds in order to get right to questions about the Paris attacks.

"They wanted to make some last-minute changes to the debate. We obviously wanted to keep the format to what had been agreed to and I think people on our staff argued vigorously to that and were successful," Weaver told CNN.

"We ended up prevailing," said Weaver, who added that Sanders went over Paris-specific questions Saturday morning.

[LovingA2andMI]

63. Okay, just for factual Basis and All

This one will be posted Twice....

"A series of comments from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, her husband and her supporters are spurring a racial backlash and adding a divisive edge to the presidential primary as the candidates head south to heavily African-American South Carolina.

The comments, which ranged from the New York senator appearing to diminish the role of Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement — an aide later said she misspoke — to Bill Clinton dismissing Sen. Barack Obama’s image in the media as a “fairy tale” — generated outrage on black radio, black blogs and cable television. And now they've drawn the attention of prominent African-American politicians.

“A cross-section of voters are alarmed at the tenor of some of these statements,” said Obama spokeswoman Candice Tolliver, who said that Clinton would have to decide whether she owed anyone an apology.

“There’s a groundswell of reaction to these comments — and not just these latest comments but really a pattern, or a series of comments that we’ve heard for several months,” she said. “Folks are beginning to wonder: Is this really an isolated situation, or is there something bigger behind all of this?”

http://www.politico.com/story/2008/01/racial-tensions-roil-democratic-race-007845

Things that make one go....ummm.

[pnwmom]

64. So you're posting about something entirely unrelated that may have happened 7 years ago?

You're scraping the bottom of the barrel there.

Funny how things like that haven't kept Hillary from having MUCH higher support in the AA community than Sanders does.

[LovingA2andMI]

68. No....

We have posted a FACTUAL article about the 2007/2008 Democratic Primary from Late 2007/Early 2008. Also, did you see Nina Turner just switched her support to Bernie and she carries a lot of weight in the State of Ohio.

A top Ohio Democrat has changed her endorsement from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders, Northeast Ohio Media Group’s Henry Gomez writes.

"I'm very attracted by his message and his style -- and that he has held pretty much strong on his beliefs and the world is catching up with him," said Nina Turner, a former state senator who is now the engagement chair with the Ohio Democratic Party.

“The move comes as a surprise -- and a blow for Clinton. Turner had been among her most enthusiastic cheerleaders in the Buckeye State and nationally. She was involved early with the Ready for Hillary super political action committee that promoted Clinton as a presidential candidate before the former U.S. secretary of state launched her campaign,” Gomez writes.

Turner, who ran an unsuccessful campaign against Jon Husted for secretary of state last year, will take a leave of absence from her position with the Ohio Democratic Party while she serves as a surrogate for Sanders.

***

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/11/13/ohio-politics-now-nina-turner-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton.html

The Tide is Turning....

[pnwmom]

81. John Lewis, Donna Shalala, and Andrew Young have endorsed Hillary,

along with 50 former and current black Mayors and numerous other African American political figures.

But you can keep talking about Nina Turner.

http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/key-bloc-black-mayors-back-hillary-clinton-n447426

[LovingA2andMI]

85. Who....

Besides John Lewis -- who supported her the last time over Barack Obama and Andrew Young - who nearly no one in Generation X or the Millennials know.

[moobu2]

33. Mark threw a fit, Mark pushed back aggressively

What difference do it make? None.

[winter is coming]

34. "Threw a fit" is laden language, implying that Mark overreacted

and/or was childish. It's the sort of bias that marks the story as propaganda. That, coupled with the quickly-released but dubiously constructed PPP poll paid for by a Hillary SuperPAC, smacks of dirty politics.

[Hissyspit]

86. Sure it does.

[frylock]

35. Fascinating.

knr

[Adrahil]

36. I don't the issue here...

Bernie is not a fragile flower. He can handle himself.

More people piling off the deep end....

[Segami]

37. The issue is..

fabricating a political falsehood against a candidate for personal gain.

It has nothing to do with your fragile flower point.

[Adrahil]

38. Meh... sounds to me like he DID pitch a fit. nt

[Segami]

39. Only in your mind.

[Agschmid]

83. Or in the article you posted...

Sanders aide Mark Longabaugh said it is true that he argued with CBS about opening and closing statements, which he views as vital to a candidate who is not as well-known as Clinton and who is running an issues-based campaign. But he said the claim that he objected to a foreign policy focus, which came from a rival campaign, was bogus.

[TM99]

88. He argued about opening and closing statements.

He did not, as was disseminated as propaganda through Yahoo News (ha ha!), argue about the foreign policy focus.

Have you gone that far into the Clinton supporter camp that you truly can't see the difference?

If so, that is very disappointing.

[pnwmom]

44. Nothing was fabricated. The undisputed fact is that CBS wanted to take time from

the intro/closing statements of the candidates to add it to foreign policy time, and Bernie's campaign strongly objected.

His campaign was crowing about having won till they realized it didn't make Bernie look good. Then they decided to blame everything on Hillary.


http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/bernie-sanders-debate-no-terrorism-215868

DES MOINES – With the rest of the world riveted on Paris, Bernie Sanders’ top aides fought hard to preserve his 90-second opening remarks – even as sponsors of tonight's debate demanded time to discuss the terrorist slaughter of 120 civilians.

In a conference call with all three campaigns hours after the attacks in Paris, executives with CBS, the host of the debate here, suggested changing the format of the forum to carve out more time to discuss the suddenly-imperative issue of keeping the violence in Europe from lapping over to U.S. cities, campaign sources said.


But Sanders' team forcefully opposed any changes – and, to the amazement of the network and the other Democrats who decried his tone-deafness, crowed publicly about limiting the foreign policy component to spend more time discussing economic inequality and other issues central to the Vermont senator’s candidacy.

“We had agreed on opening and closing statements, the timing of those," Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said about the debate format that was settled before the attacks on Friday. "Others attempted to change those. We pushed back on those and ended up prevailing. We're very happy about that.”

When asked for more details, he smiled: "Let's just say we won."

[HerbChestnut]

62. So I guess the DNC staffer who supports that the accusations were fabricated

is in the tank for Bernie? Unlikely...

[pnwmom]

65. The DNC staffer said no such thing.

The word "fabricated" was used by the Sanders campaign and repeated by the reporter.

This is what the DNC official said:

“Mark pushed back aggressively on opening statements. It was about opening statements,” said the official, who did not want to be quoted taking sides in a dispute between the Democratic campaigns. “The debate was never what are we going to talk about during the first 20 minutes.”


The DNC official confirmed exactly what I've been saying. The issue was about cutting back the opening statements, and the Sanders campaign pushed back on the change.

[Segami]

66. The same posters who turned up their nose

when any Bernie supporters posted articles linked to Politico. Basically, the site was a republican rag in your eyes.........but NOW, its the bastion of honest journalism smacking down a false, and misleading Time story.....

[pnwmom]

78. I also linked to CNN. Here it is again:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/14/politics/paris-terror-attacks-bernie-sanders-democratic-debate/

Jeff Weaver, the Vermont senator's campaign manager, backed the account that the dispute was largely over cutting the opening statements from 90 seconds to 30 seconds in order to get right to questions about the Paris attacks.

"They wanted to make some last-minute changes to the debate. We obviously wanted to keep the format to what had been agreed to and I think people on our staff argued vigorously to that and were successful," Weaver told CNN.

"We ended up prevailing," said Weaver, who added that Sanders went over Paris-specific questions Saturday morning.

[oasis]

71. Thank you pnwmom for your informative posts on this thread which

finally bring the important facts of this issue to the forefront.

Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

[pnwmom]

79. You're welcome, oasis. nt

[PosterChild]

112. Second that! eom

[CharlotteVale]

40. K&R

[pnwmom]

42. This is a crock. CBS wanted to take time out of the introductory/closing statements and put it into

foreign policy time instead. Sanders vigorously fought that and won.

Now his campaign realizes that didn't reflect well on him, so they're trying to blame Hillary for Bernie's actions.

Fact: Bernie opposed taking time out of the candidates' intro and closing statements to be put into foreign policy time.

Fact: Bernie won.

And this probably also explains why his intro statement was so odd. Making a quick statement about the attacks and then immediately shifting over to his familiar economic arguments.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/bernie-sanders-debate-no-terrorism-215868

DES MOINES – With the rest of the world riveted on Paris, Bernie Sanders’ top aides fought hard to preserve his 90-second opening remarks – even as sponsors of tonight's debate demanded time to discuss the terrorist slaughter of 120 civilians.

In a conference call with all three campaigns hours after the attacks in Paris, executives with CBS, the host of the debate here, suggested changing the format of the forum to carve out more time to discuss the suddenly-imperative issue of keeping the violence in Europe from lapping over to U.S. cities, campaign sources said.


But Sanders' team forcefully opposed any changes – and, to the amazement of the network and the other Democrats who decried his tone-deafness, crowed publicly about limiting the foreign policy component to spend more time discussing economic inequality and other issues central to the Vermont senator’s candidacy.

“We had agreed on opening and closing statements, the timing of those," Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said about the debate format that was settled before the attacks on Friday. "Others attempted to change those. We pushed back on those and ended up prevailing. We're very happy about that.”

When asked for more details, he smiled: "Let's just say we won."


http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/14/politics/paris-terror-attacks-bernie-sanders-democratic-debate/

Jeff Weaver, the Vermont senator's campaign manager, backed the account that the dispute was largely over cutting the opening statements from 90 seconds to 30 seconds in order to get right to questions about the Paris attacks.

"They wanted to make some last-minute changes to the debate. We obviously wanted to keep the format to what had been agreed to and I think people on our staff argued vigorously to that and were successful," Weaver told CNN.

"We ended up prevailing," said Weaver, who added that Sanders went over Paris-specific questions Saturday morning.

[Nitram]

92. The fact is, Bernie is a politician, always has been.

His shtick is pretending not to be one. But just look how he's triangulated certain policies towards Clinton's POV, just as she's moved closer to some of his policies. If Bernie's supporters can't accept that, then at some point they are in for a huge disappointment.

[blackspade]

93. So the fuck what?

What is the issue here with the Sanders campaign not wanting to give up a minute of time and having to re-write an intro speech at the last minute?

Add three minutes to the debate, or cut out that stupid mid-debate analysis.
Jesus fucking Christ on a crutch what some in the M$M won't do to gin up a story.

[pnwmom]

95. So -- in this case it looks like the Sanders campaign is trying to gin up anger against HRC. n/t

[blackspade]

99. Uh, No.

Last edited Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:15 PM - Edit history (1)

This is all on the M$M, ie Yahoo and Time.

[Nitram]

116. Typical ploy. Just blame it on the media.

That's a tired old chestnut, Mr Spade.

[blackspade]

119. Chestnuts are delicious. Yum!

The M$M, well I'm not buying what their selling.
Controversy is what they thrive on, or have you forgotten the ginned up bullshit that they were peddling about Clinton on Benghazi?
This is more of the same. Especially from ambulance chasers like Yahoo 'news.'

[Spitfire of ATJ]

46. Reality can be dictated. How "Republican" can you get?

The funny thing is they are playing to a vast middle that doesn't even EXIST.

[pnwmom]

57. It doesn't exist? That's funny, because I've been hearing from many

Bernie supporters that there is a huge number of Independents in the middle, all ready to vote for Bernie.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

69. Actually, there's about 25% Republican, 25% Democrat and 50% Non-Voter.

[AzDar]

70. Ugh.

[cui bono]

72. "claim was made by a rival campaign". Hm... Imagine that.

Gee... now which campaign did that?

[lovemydog]

76. Much more accurate headline, imo.

[hootinholler]

77. K&R

[Jack Rabbit]

87. Holy Donald Segretti, Batman!

You mean it was a political dirty trick?

[Nitram]

91. If a debate that focuses in foreighn policy is tailor-made to make Sanders look bad.

Then he shouldn't be president.

[MaggieD]

94. So who forced him to look bad.....

By giving short shrift to the Paris attacks and immediately launching into the income inequality shtick?

Even the sole Bernie supporter at my debate party exclaimed "Dammit Bernie" when he did that. It was awesome for us Hillary supporters. Do you think she invaded his brain and forced him to make that gaffe?

Do tell.

[treestar]

96. Bernie should be able to answer any question about foreign policy

No one involved should hold back questions because Bernie doesn't know how to handle them. That's the whole point of the debates.

[George II]

97. Another Segami-created FALSE headline. Why do you keep doing that?

[azmom]

98. K&R

[Thinkingabout]

103. Sanders was given a question on foreign affairs, he started giving an answer which may have helped

Him show his foreign affairs ability and he danced over to a financial statement and dodged the opportunity to show his foreign affairs ability. Sanders messed up his tailor made question. He has to take responsibility for his answer.

[SunSeeker]

110. Yup, his skip to economics showed how uncomfortable he was with foreign policy. nt

[CoffeeCat]

107. There were people on DU perpetuating this LIE!!

Here we go again. This is like 2008 2.0. This is about the time, in 2008, when the Hillary campaign began to reveal their true, ugly selves.

They started playing dirty tricks. Their lies and manipulations went public.

Democrats don't appreciate Rovian baloney metastasizing in their own party. These tactics are why we hate Republicans

Who is advising her...a PR agency staffed by crack addicts?

[SunSeeker]

111. Sanders' campaign admits it argued over the content of the opening statement.

Unfortunately for Bernie, his campaign won, and Bernie got to keep most of the time of the opening statement on economics rather than on Paris. That did him no favors, because Hillary complied with the moderators' request and devoted her entire opening statement to Paris. Bernie switching to economics, seconds after reluctantly acknowledging Paris, appeared like he was avoiding the subject and sounding like a on-trick pony who only knows how to rail against oligarchs.

[Nitram]

117. If you can't react to an unexpeccted question or event intelligently, the way Clinton did,

you're not very presidential. Bernie's supporters have their panties in a bunch over their candidate's failure to rise to the occasion.