Bernie Sanders gaining on Hillary Clinton in California

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Sacramento Bee

BY DAVID SIDERS

Hillary Rodham Clinton remains 12 percentage points ahead of the surging Bernie Sanders, according to a new Field Poll, but her support among likely Democratic voters in California has plummeted.

The poll, released Wednesday, reflects Clinton’s weakened but still-frontrunner status nationally in the presidential primary. The California measure is striking in contrast to the overwhelming support Clinton previously enjoyed in this heavily Democratic state.

Not only has Clinton lost ground to Sanders in California, nearly two-thirds of likely Democratic voters say it would be good for the party if Vice President Joe Biden entered the race – though they would not necessarily support him.

Clinton, struggling with ongoing controversy surrounding her use of personal email while secretary of state, dropped 19 percentage points in the poll from May, to 47 percent. Sanders, who polled in single digits five months ago, shot up 26 percentage points, to 35 percent.

FULL story at link. Videos below are from the story.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/election/presidential-election/article32786508.html

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/election/presidential-election/article32785521.html

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article38007336.html

[djean111]

1. I do not think this can all be attributed to the email thing.

More people are learning about Bernie, and there really is a great volunteer grass-roots movement.

And to those who say why is Bernie still relatively unknown although he has been in Congress for a long time - I don't know the names of Congress critters, usually, unless they are from my state or district, or if they do something really bad. Or are running for President.

[Boomer]

4. The shift in California....

The shift in California supports my belief that the surge in Bernie supporters is more about Bernie than an anti-Hillary sentiment.

As for why Bernie is relatively unknown, he's actually one of the few senators I have tracked for years now. Even though I've never lived in Vermont, I was aware of him as a progressive mayor of Vermont. His tenure there was notable. As a senator, his comments were constantly popping up on my Facebook stream, posted by friends who are living anywhere but Vermont.

I certainly knew more about Sanders than I did about Martin O'Malley or Lincoln Chaffee. I only know about Jim Webb because I work in Virginia.

[djean111]

5. Poor California. They may be declared irrelevant soon, if this keeps up.

Or someone might start to really concentrate on getting delegates before those pesky voters vote.

[cui bono]

29. eh...

maybe we'll fall into the ocean before then.

[d_legendary1]

8. Its true what you say about them Congress Critters

I didn't know anything about Larry Craig, Mark Foley, David Vitter, Anthony Weiner, Barney Frank, until they ended up doing something wrong.

*Granted Barney Frank knew nothing about the brothel his boyfriend at the time was running it out of his home, but the story itself was newsworthy.

[JDPriestly]

19. I've been talking to voters here in California.

I haven't heard very many negative comments about Hillary. The move toward Bernie is not a matter of people disliking Hillary all that much. Rather, it is a matter of people agreeing with Bernie's stands on the issues.

i'm just not hearing people talk about the e-mails at all. I'm hearing and seeing (gesticulations, shouting Bernie, Bernie, etc.) people liking what they hear from Bernie.

This is not an anybody but Bush or anybody but Hillary sort of phenomenon as far as I can tell from the limited sample of the public I am talking to.

I will report more on this if my present experience changes. So, Hillary will have a hard time dealing with this.

She has made a lot over the gun issue, painting Bernie as weak on gun legislation. But there are so many issues that I don't think she will be able to milk that one long enough or squeeze it hard enough to bite into Bernie's popularity. Bernie is just too strong on too many issues Americans really care about. And Bernie is not as weak on guns by any means as Hillary is trying to paint him. In fact she is likely to look foolish and even more dishonest if her supporters push Bernie's gun record beyond the reality of it.

I noticed some Hillary supporters trying to paint Bernie's stances on gay rights in a false light. That will backfire as will other attacks on Bernie's stances because Bernie talks a lot and has been very liberal on the issues in general, and way out in front of history, since the beginning of his career.

So people don't "hate" Hillary, they just like what Bernie is saying and what he has been saying for many years better.

[djean111]

21. Absolutely. And it just looks paranoid or something when Hillary's supporters refer to

anyone who does not support Hillary as a "Hillary Hater" or the "Anti-Hillary Wing" or whatever. All that tells me is that it must have been a real expectation that everybody would be on board for Hillary from Day One, and when that did not happen, (t was never going to happen), the only Plan B was to lash out.

The only "control group" I have access to is my 20 YO grandson, his friends, and what grandson tells me about the huge (117,000 or so, last time I looked) sub-reddit for Bernie. Marvelously organized. Just keeps getting bigger. General info and info by state, events, how to register, who needs to register as Dem (a lot of the young folks did not pick a party, they feel both major parties do not address their issues) so they can vote in a primary. They raise lots of money. The Hillary sub-reddit has yet to break 800, last time I looked. The reddit crowd does not hate Hillary, they just do not care about her, she represents the old political stuff that got us into wars and losing jobs, etc. She represents Wall Street to them. Grandson is adamant that I understand that if Bernie is not the nominee, there will not be a switching of enthusiasm and support to another Democratic candidate. They feel that the Dems are corporately controlled, and the insane GOP is also corporately backed. They are not interested in the old "lesser evil", be a team player thing.

I think that is because now, they can look stuff up, they don't read newspapers, they don't watch much TV as such, they cannot be spoon-fed dishonest, or skating the truth, or unverifiable campaign blather through advertising. They look stuff up. Transcripts, voting records, YouTube's of everything. Social media has changed part of the campaign paradigm. They see any pundit's pronouncements as a starting point, not the final word.
Right now, I feel that if the Hillary campaign even cared about, say, reddit - they would address it by buying a bunch of reddit registrations. Which, of course, would be investigated.

This campaign is fascinating.

[JDPriestly]

23. Thanks for your great post! You hit the nail on the head.

What is stunning to me is how well informed young people I talk to really are.

They can tell me about Bernie's issues.

Now, when I was young and JFK was the candidate, we knew a little about the issues, but we did not have even a hundredth of the information that the Bernie kids have. They are fountains of facts about the issues.

The internet has made this possible. Young people may watch the media, but they are the Jon Stewart generation. They look for the hypocrisy, the hype, the false folksiness, the platitudes and go for the meat.

This is a new generation and we are going to have to have a new news media to interest it.

The media is not going to be able to just deliver one-liners or opinions and fool the young people of today. They do dig deeper. I don't think anyone taught them to do that because our schools are doing a worse job teaching government than they did when I was young.

It's just that it is so easy to get information, so young people ask their computers and ferret out the facts.

Very interesting.

[Divernan]

25. That's encouraging information re support for Bernie.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

2. May: 63-9 Hillary Now: 47-35 Hillary GO BERNIE GO!!!!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. the same story, from C to shining C

depending on your computer hardware.

[SmittynMo]

6. Once people find out who Bernie is,

and what he represents, he will shine above the rest.

Unfortunately, corporate media and politicians(controlled by the 1%) are not allowing him to be visible.

I can't wait for the democratic debate.

[tex-wyo-dem]

15. You're not kidding about the corp media...

Ignoring Bernie.

I don't own a TV and haven't for years. If I see cable news, it's because it happens to be on at work, dr office, restaurant, etc. I happened to catch Jake Tapper on CNN the other day at work and he had the ex-campaign advisors from Hillary '08 and Romney '12. They were talking about the Dem primary and the discussion was all about Hil and a possible Biden run...not a single mention of Sanders until the Ex-Romney guy said it would be good to have Biden because her only competition is a "fringe socialist from a small obscure state"...dismissive to say the least. It was obvious Tapper wanted to avoid discussing Bernie at all.

[restorefreedom]

7. i agree with others

who are saying this has a lot more to do with people learning about bernie. i think they are also getting disillusioned with hillary, but bernie is cranking up the positive energy.

go bernie!

[JDPriestly]

20. The few people I t

and say they like Bernie better but support Hillary because people say she can win and Bernie can't.

So it is up to us volunteers to reassure people that they are being fed a lie. Bernie can win if they vote their better angels and vote for Bernie.

Hillary's name, so far, has only come up in that context and only among older people -- 60 and up -- in my personal experience. (Only worth so much but I do have a wide range and variety of acquaintances and people I talk to plus those I reach out to when leafleting, etc.)

This is California, but so far no one has mentioned Benghazi or the e-mails to me.

One woman asked who Bernie was because an on-line website had a test and said she agreed with Bernie on the issues. She did not know much about him at all and was extremely interested to learn more.

Her boyfriend said he backs the death penalty and therefore disagrees about politics with his girlfriend.

So that is all I can say on this issue, but I don't think that people are so much against Hillary as in favor of Bernie's views on the issues. I gather that they like Bernie's style also, but they don't specifically say that.

[restorefreedom]

26. the "he can't win" myth has been busted over and over

by recent polling. you're right.....one of the biggest challenges is the "only hillary can win a ge" idea. actually, with hillarys baggage and the polling data, it looks like bernie is the best shot at keeping the wh

[appalachiablue]

9. K & R. Go Bernie Go!

[kjackson227]

24. #feelthebern!!! eom

[dae]

10. Great to hear OS, thank you for sharing!

[WI_DEM]

11. I see Biden is getting 15%

If he doesn't run I wonder who would inherit most of that support?

[SmittynMo]

12. They are saying

that Hilliary will get 70% of those votes. How one can possibly know that is totally beyond me.

But then, corporate media will support their SPAC candidate. Soooooo sad.

[Plucketeer]

13. Yeah - that's it

The record-breaking crowds that magically appear wherever Bernie shows up - all that's driven by folks feeling disillusioned about Clinton. NOT!
People are showing vibrant support for Bernie because the sound of unabashed truth is SO refreshing and invigorating!

[JDPriestly]

22. I went to the LA rally for Bernie. That entailed traveling on three trains

and standing in line for something that felt like an hour at least.

People were talking about Bernie's views on the issues. Hillary was not mentioned, BUT there was a lot of talk about ending corporate influence on elections.

And that issue hurts Hillary, and there is nothing she can do about it. She is caught in a web of her own making on the campaign finance and money in politics issues.

Bernie is the champion of changing our campaign finance system. And the voters in California at least are very ready for that change.

[WillyT]

14. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[nyabingi]

16. For Heaven's Sake people

don't say anything negative about Hillary Clinton or these pro-Hillary people will try to get you banned, get your messages hidden, and do it all anonymously because they are too sorry to challenge you personally. That's what people who can't win their arguments do and it's pretty cowardly and weak if you ask me. Hillary has trouble defending her own positions and her supporters do as well.

That said, Bernie has the excitement behind him that Hillary could only dream about, and the more Bernie makes the rounds and talks to more people, the more support he picks up. Bernie is surging without help from Wall Street or the corporate media, and that makes it truly democratic and a shared experience for all those looking to see him nominated.

I have some unresolved issues with Bernie, but I've donated to him and think he would make a fine president.

[Omaha Steve]

18. And when you donate use our DU for Bernie Act Blue link

Donate to DU for Bernie at Act Blue here: https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/duforbernie

[Peace Patriot]

17. The 'email' thing is quite deliberate corporate media PROPAGANDA.

They created the 'email' thing as a handy tool for various fascist corporate purposes--for instance, to 'explain' Hillary Clinton's loss to the devil's spawn (Bush cabal), next year, which would actually be accomplished by the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines (all over the USA, controlled by far rightwing-connected private corporations). Here, they're using it to 'explain' Clinton's plummeting numbers vs Bernie Sanders:

Clinton, struggling with ongoing controversy surrounding her use of personal email while secretary of state, dropped 19 percentage points...

The REAL reason, of course, for Clinton's plummeting numbers, is that most people in this country are FED UP with economic inequality and corporate control of our government, and, once they hear of Bernie Sander's views, policies and plans, they, of course, support him. He is also making a particular point of no super-pac or billionaire funding of his campaign--that is another thing that moves people to support him and to contribute to his campaign.

Clinton is second best--she will retain social progress on issues such as women's rights and gay rights, but she is beholden to billionaires and massive, transglobal corporations, and everybody knows this. Her interest in the poor majority is zilch. Her actions to improve the lives of the poor majority will be token, at best, and along the lines of Reaganite 'trickle down.' People are truly fed up with Democratic leaders who represent these moneyed interests and their goddamned lies about 'trickle down.' THAT is why they like Sanders. It has little or nothing to do with the phony, manufactured 'email' thing.

But the corporate media DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW what the REAL issues are, in the minds of the people of this country. So they drop in the 'email' thing--an item that they manufactured for purposes like this--as a phony 'explanation.'

The 'email' thing also enhances their power and puffs them up with their own self-importance. THEY decide who are candidates are going to be and don't you forget it! They can kill any candidacy they want to, with similar stupid, pointless 'scandals.' And they WILL try to do this to Bernie Sanders, of course, if he wins the nomination. Whether they succeed or not, against Sanders, will likely depend upon, a) voter turnout, and b) how vigilant Sanders' supporters and other citizens are, as to 'TRADE SECRET' code fraud in the voting machines and other voter suppression.

Also important: the ability of our people to 'read' bullshit like this about the 'email' thing correctly, for what it is. I do think our people are improving in this respect. They are fed up with the corporate media, too.

Here are two things to notice, and point out to others, about BS corporate media 'news' shaping, such as we see in this OP (it is typical): 1) the 'news' provides NO EVIDENCE that anybody gives a shit about the 'email' thing; and 2) the very selective choice of two sampled voters in the poll, to quote in the article as 'spokespeople' for Sanders supporters (the two chosen are lukewarm on Sanders).

The last thing the corporate media wants is an election about the REAL issues--the issues that concern you and me and most people. That is why they churn out 'news' stories like this, that bury the real issues and promote their own false 'memes' as if they mattered to anybody.

[Judi Lynn]

27. Good news, Omaha Steve. Thank you. n/t

[olddots]

28. damn it Steve DON'T LEAVE !!!!

just don't ........

[mhatrw]

30. We have not yet begun to fight! n/t