Bernie Sanders is hot enough on the campaign trail to be drawing attacks

[Playinghardball]

The relative comity of the race for the Democratic nomination for president was interrupted last week with an unexpectedly sharp attack video aimed in an unexpected direction..

“Bernie Sanders is no progressive when it comes to guns,” said the narrator of a Web video produced by a "super PAC" supporting former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

That the first direct attack of the Democratic primary would focus on guns – a second-tier issue -- and Sanders – a long-shot candidate – would have been hard to predict in a race dominated by front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton and the party’s search for an economic message. But as Sanders, the Vermont senator and a self-described socialist, rises in the polls, he’s also emerged as the top target – both for those wanting to supplant him as the liberal alternative to Clinton and those arguing that a liberal alternative isn’t necessary.

“It is clear that Bernie Sanders is the most interesting character in the Democratic nomination play at the moment,” said Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist.

It’s also clear how Sanders became the hot target. Fueled by his unpolished appeal and unvarnished attacks on moneyed interests on Wall Street and in Washington, the Sanders campaign is gaining ground – particularly in all-important New Hampshire, where the Vermont senator is a well-known figure. A CNN/WMUR poll released last week found Sanders within 8 percentage points of Clinton. Although Sanders remains a distant challenger in other early-voting states, his status as the progressives’ protest to the Clinton candidacy is firming up – and the famously cautious Clinton appears unlikely to rely simply on her front-runner status to keep his challenge at bay.

Sanders has begun to take hits on three major themes -- gun control, where his record veers some from Democratic party line, his support among African Americans and Latinos, and his broader viability among voters in the general election.

Along with the O’Malley backers’ broadside on guns, a close Clinton ally last week labeled Sanders’ views “extreme.” A fellow Democratic senator, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, said on MSNBC that “Bernie is too liberal to gather enough votes in this country to be president.” She complained that journalists are “giving Bernie a pass,” particularly in comparison to Clinton, and called for his record to be more closely inspected.
He’s against trade – he’s against a whole lot of things that are unrealistic in this day and age,” McCaskill insisted.


More here: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-bernie-sanders-gun-control-20150629-story.html#page=1

[arcane1]

1. Sanders is "a long-shot candidate" but is placing 2nd in the polls

[daleanime]

6. +1

[PatrickforO]

2. What Bernie has said on guns actually makes sense.

He is proposing different rules for rural vs urban America.

[swilton]

4. As I understood it

I thought that he proposed that both the rural and the urban-dominated states would work together on a solution.

I'm pro gun regulation - but the gun issue is a tempest in a tea-pot given Sanders' record with the NRA and his votes on legislation....It keeps coming up to distract from his more effective and more threatening (to some) positions on economics and the environment. Those are the issues most critical to the country's middle class, democratic governance and survival of the planet. We don't have time for AAA to come to the rescue.

I think O'Malley and the establishment have to nip Sanders' message in the bud. His early lead and popularity is surprising them and they aren't taking any chances....and although this may be unpopular to say, I think Biden's indecision/candidacy is part of the grand strategy to divide the 'other-than-Hillary' movement/momentum.

[BrotherIvan]

3. Isn't it strange how ALL of those talking points have been floating around DU?

Funny. Not funny ha ha. But funny.

Not enough, Bernie!

[Doctor_J]

5. His main problem is that he's far too closely aligned with the majority of Dem voters

That's why the other candidates have to simply make stuff up (he's a racist!! even though he's been vocally battling racism for 50 years). If we had honest debates, Mrs. Clinton would probably throw up her hands and change her party affiliation.

Don't worry, Turd Wayers. Clinton will win easily at the end. Try not to completely degrade yourselves in your desperation. You're getting close already.