Sanders sharpens attacks for N.Y. showdown that may dash Clinton’s unity hopes

[beaglelover]

In a mathematical squeeze to make up ground in the Democratic presidential race, Bernie Sanders is preparing to ratchet up his attacks on Hillary Clinton ahead of a New York showdown that could establish how easily the party can pull itself back together for the general election.

The Empire State’s April 19 primary looms as potentially determinative: A win by Clinton, who is favored, would further narrow Sanders’s path, while a loss in the state she represented as a senator would embarrass her and hand Sanders a rationale to continue campaigning until the final votes are cast in June.

Clinton had enjoyed a lead of roughly 300 in pledged delegates, but Sanders narrowed the gap Saturday with victories in at least two of three Western caucuses. In one of the most successful days of his campaign, the senator from Vermont easily won in Alaska and Washington state and was well positioned to carry Hawaii.

To capitalize on his fresh momentum, Sanders plans an aggressive push in New York, modeled after his come-from-behind victory a few weeks ago in Michigan. He intends to barnstorm the state as if he were running His advisers, spoiling for a brawl, have commissioned polls to show which contrasts with Clinton — from Wall Street to fracking — could do the most damage to her at home.

“We’ll be the underdog, but being the underdog in New York is not the worst situation in politics,” said Tad Devine, the chief strategist for Sanders. “We’re going to make a real run for it.”

The intensified and scrappy approach by Sanders comes as Clinton is eager to pivot to the general election. Clinton keenly understands the imperative to unite Democrats for the fall campaign and, thinking that the nomination is nearly locked up, wants to spend the spring building bridges to the Sanders wing.

A potentially ugly primary in New York threatens to derail those efforts. Clinton’s advisers are all but urging Sanders to lay off his attacks.

“We’re going to run to win delegates and run to win the primary,” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said in an interview Friday. “We intend to win this thing with a majority of pledged delegates. Senator Sanders is going to have to make up his mind about what he wants to do and what kind of campaign he wants to run.”

Podesta noted that Sanders took a more negative turn in the Midwestern states that voted on March 15 — Illinois, Ohio and Missouri — and lost all three. “It didn’t work,” he said.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/sanders-sharpens-attacks-for-ny-showdown-that-may-dash-clinton%e2%80%99s-unity-hopes/ar-BBqY3nf?li=BBnbcA1

[MattP]

1. So now news storys are hidden?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

12. So it seems

[SaschaHM]

2. I hope the Clinton campaign gets the memo...

and fights back hard. Even if the nomination is all but guaranteed, Sanders can't be allowed to get away with these things. It's time to tease a mutually assured destruction oppo dump and show him that he too will be severely weakened if he keeps up these attacks in an attempt to wrest the nomination away.

[BlueMTexpat]

3. I was more than a bit perplexed about that hide

too.

When did the NYT become a RW news source?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

20. New York's where Wall Street is

It has to be evil.

[upaloopa]

4. I hope Sanders blows a couple or three million in New York then has his hat handed to him.

Maybe he can get some pigeons to land this time.

Maybe Bernie can go to Wall Street and occupy the place and call out the employees for contributing to Hillary. Maybe he can find soap box to set up on the corner.

[Treant]

9. So far,

Bernie's blown wads in many states, in many cases to lose them.

On the up side, it's proven one thing--money actually doesn't influence politics that much. He's outspending her by outrageous margins and not winning this.

[upaloopa]

18. And he has outrageous crowds that don't vote.

[R B Garr]

5. Thx for reposting! Sanders looked desperate this morning on MTP with Chuck Todd.

Todd confronted him and showed him a rally clip where he shushed his supporters for booing Clinton after he mentioned her. That was back in February. Todd then said it's obvious Sanders' changed his strategy by attacking her and noted that he hasn't called on his supporters to quit booing her since he did in that clip. Sanders just hemmed and hawed, basically admitting that the attacks on Clinton are fair game now.

He's pathetic and desperate. In the meantime, Clinton has to treat him with kid gloves because of the irrationality and distortions from his campaign.

Bottom line: he's obviously seen he has to maintain he's a victim of Clinton while simultaneously berating her. That's his strategy. He's so phony. But he's obviously into his victim status, as that's a major theme of his "revolution".

[jsmirman]

6. Well, good luck with that

CLOSED primary. As in, enjoy filling your rallies with a bunch of people who can't vote.

Unless your independents got their act together back in October, the comparison of this to Michigan is a joke.

And we're also different in about a million ways from the Michigan electorate.

[Lucinda]

7. KNR

[jmowreader]

8. I think I understand Bernie's strategerie

First, rile up the BSS in New York State with his standard "Hillary is evil incarnate" stump speech.

Second, encourage all of them INCLUDING the ones not eligible to vote in this primary by virtue of not being registered Democrats, to go to the polls and demand ballots. Make sure they get there in batches so there are super long lines out the door everywhere all day long, which will discourage Actual Registered Democrats Who Can Vote In This Primary from staying around to vote.

Third, if his strategerie works and Bernie actually wins the popular vote, demand all the superdelegates from New York support him instead of Hillary.

The State of New York won't put up with Bernie's Ben Tre* campaign strategy.

* Ben Tre was a hamlet in Vietnam that was a Vietcong stronghold. On 8 February 1968 the US Army blew the shit out of the place to get rid of the VC. They also killed a lot of civilians. Peter Arnett asked an Army major about it, and was told, "it became necessary to destroy the town to save it."

[NastyRiffraff]

10. EXACTLY what happened in AZ

It didn't work then, it won't work in NY, except to harass and annoy. Bernie always brags he's running a clean campaign. That's so much BS (pun intended); he lets, even encourages by inaction, his supporters to do his dirty work.

[jmowreader]

13. It especially won't work in NY because the elections board won't put up with it

[SharonClark]

15. So true

[pandr32]

17. This has been going on for some time now

One of the reasons I can no longer stomach Sanders at all.

[LiberalFighter]

14. Hopefully a lot of Clinton supporters early vote or vote absentee.

[Princess Turandot]

16. New York doesn't have early voting..

You can get an absentee ballot, but only for a very limited number of reasons.

However, the law does not permit electioneering near polling stations, much less in them. At least in NYC, there is a police officer present at all times *in* each polling station. (I believe that goes back to the 19th century, when voting in NYC could be a contact sports.) Theoretically, they are there to guard the votes (since in the 19th century, stealing the ballot box was viewed as more efficient than influencing a voter here and there). Attempts to annoy other primary voters will not be well received.

Back in 2008, HRC won over 57% of the vote against another excellent candidate, then Senator Obama. (Sanders is no Obama.) In the 2006 senate race, she won 58 of 62 counties, including all but one of the upstate counties, where the voters are mostly white working class.

I look forward to 4/19, and voting for her a 4th time.

[SaschaHM]

21. That should spell disaster for Bernie.

Obama was the progressive's choice in 2008, but he was also the choice of African Americans, which helped him avoid a rout. Clinton should get her 2008 bases and a significant percentage of the minority vote. I'm hoping that she's in the 70s when all the votes are counted just so I can sit back, drink whiskey, and watch the explosion in GD-P.

[ucrdem]

19. Thought I was the only one who suspected LOL

they never miss a trick and I don't mean that in a good way

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. Thank you for the repost

[Jitter65]

22. Is NY fully closed primary or is it partial closed..meaning unaffiliated voters can request a

party's ballot at the voting site?