The Nation: Why Is Hillary Clinton Using Republican Talking Points to Attack Bernie Sanders?

[Omaha Steve]

In a troubling failure of imagination, her campaign paints Sanders as naive for wanting to pursue better relations with Iran.

http://www.thenation.com/article/why-is-hillary-clinton-using-republican-talking-points-to-attack-bernie-sanders/



 Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton during the Democratic presidential primary debate, Saturday, December 19, 2015, at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. (AP Photo / Jim Cole)


By Ali Gharib

Campaigning in Iowa recently, Hillary Clinton, who is facing tightening primary races in key early states, made a shift. She went after her rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, and she hit him on foreign policy. “Senator Sanders doesn’t talk very much about foreign policy,” Clinton told the crowd in Iowa. “And when he does, it raises concerns because sometimes, it can sound like he hasn’t really thought it through.”

So far, I’m in agreement with the former Secretary of State. Sanders doesn’t talk much about foreign policy. Who, for example, are Sanders’s foreign policy advisers? I pay some attention to these things, and I have no idea. When he’s asked about global affairs, Sanders often steers his answers back to his domestic bêtes noires, such as inequality, and applies the concepts abroad. Not the worst sin in the world—certainly, issues like inequality affect global and geopolitics as much or more than then do at home—but the lack of depth about the specifics of global affairs has long been on display.

The Clinton attack, however, went farther, hitting Sanders on the topic of Iran. Her campaign released an ad featuring Clinton foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan almost mockingly describe Sanders’s various position on Iran. The ad raises three issues: Sanders’s purported proposal to invite Iran to send more troops to Syria to battle the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS); his notion of an anti-ISIS coalition that would include Iran and Saudi Arabia; and his comments during last weekend’s Democratic debate calling for moving toward warmer relations with the Iranians.

Without delving into the details, on the first score, the Clinton camp is basically right; on the second, they’ve got a point. But they fail on the third point, which seems to be based on a willful distortion of Sanders’s position. Here’s what Sanders said on warming relations with Iran:

FULL story at link.

[Betty Karlson]

1. Because the needs the DINO vote in the primaries?

That Iran nonsense seems to have come straight from Debbie's agenda.

[beam me up scottie]

2. Is this a rhetorical question?

The right wing of the party is scared.

[asuhornets]

23. No. Just realistic.

Actually I believe it is you and your fellow Bernie supporters who are scared. But you try and project your fears onto Hillary supporters.
We are very comfortable and excited about supporting Hillary and so are a million others. And she was awesome in the Town Hall Monday night.

[beam me up scottie]

27. Scared that your candidate will veer even further right, sure.

That's why we support the progressive, I'm glad it's so obvious, we get tired of having to explain it to you guys.

[Proserpina]

3. If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck....

[Warren Stupidity]

4. Why wouldn't she?

What is hysterical is the willingness of her supporters to march lock-step with her off into rightwing-world.

You could support Clinton and agree with Sanders that single payer universal health care is a better policy.

[RoccoR5955]

5. Because she is no Liberal.

She would be better suited to be a RepubliCON.

[Motown_Johnny]

6. Her mindset is that of a Conservative. She is just liberal on a few social issues.

I expect her to act like a Republican most of the time, and I am usually right.

[pangaia]

21. That's exactly it.

By being allowed by TPTB to support a few 'liberal' social issues here and there, one can give the appearance of being something one is not.

In fact, I believe she actually does support liberal positions on a few social issues.

But that does not make her a progressive, or even a liberal.

And last night when asked by a "Sanders supporter" ( hummm), why many younger people think she is dishonest, she actually, AGAIN, referred to herself as a progressive.

BELCH !!!

[cali]

7. Because that's who she is.

[jalan48]

8. Perhaps she learned them while making millions giving "speeches" to Wall Street.

[Herman4747]

9. To think in November I'll have to vote for her!

Ugh!!!

[Odin2005]

10. Once a Goldwater Girl always a Goldwater Girl.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. It's funny that any effective attack against Sanders is simply dismissed as a "Republican talking

point"

[AlbertCat]

14. any effective attack against Sanders is simply dismissed as a "Republican talking point

As is pointing out Clinton's record.

[Vinca]

12. Because she's half a Republican?

The party has moved right over the years as the wingnut Republicans have gone off the edge of the flat earth and we're now somewhere to the right of Dwight Eisenhower. I think it's time to bring the party kicking and screaming back to its roots.

[raouldukelives]

13. She helps pay for them so why not use them? nt

[Cryptoad]

15. Better Question is...

Why would anybody that calls themselves a Democrat. create a Federal tax plan that taxes people who are living in poverty???? Bernie Has! Check out his new tax plan!

[PoliticAverse]

17. You mean like Social Security? n/t

[Cryptoad]

25. No, Like Federal Income tax

[AgingAmerican]

20. Because it's markedly cheaper than what they pay now

As has been explained a gazillion times already

[Cryptoad]

24. must not be able to read his new Federal income tax plan

Bernies Plan not mine. if u make $1 to $18K , u will be taxes 10%. People who live in poverty should not be taxed on what little income they have.

[andrewv1]

16. You have to have a Clear Distinction from your Opponent in the GE

to win....

Hillary does not & if she is the Nominee, I expect the true Republican to carry the election.

[restorefreedom]

22. exactly. when you an authentic version,

no reason to settle for a facsimile

[7962]

18. Because "whatever it takes". They'll do ANYTHING.

Waiting for some kind of corruption accusations to appear out of nowhere

[AgingAmerican]

19. Because she believes them?

Would be my guess...

[Jarqui]

26. Another replay from 2007

Clinton: Obama is naive on foreign policy
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/19933710/ns/politics-the_debates/t/clinton-obama-naive-foreign-policy/#.VqeTn5owhiw

Barack Obama’s offer to meet without precondition with leaders of renegade nations such as Cuba, North Korea and Iran touched off a war of words, with rival Hillary Rodham Clinton calling him naive and Obama linking her to President Bush’s diplomacy.

“I thought that was irresponsible and frankly naive,” Clinton was quoted in an interview with the Quad-City Times that was posted on the Iowa newspaper’s Web site on Tuesday.

In response, Obama told the newspaper that her stand puts her in line with the Bush administration.