Sanders Running "Most Negative" Democratic Primary Campaign in History

[firebrand80]

according to a Clinton advisor

“It seems like once you’re not with him, you become a vocal point of his attacks. I do think it’s been extremely negative and I think it’s unfortunate.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/267539-clinton-spox-sanders-most-negative-dem-primary-bid-ever

[beam me up scottie]

1. .

[ram2008]

2. LOL, this is NOT THE ONION

Desperate.

[beam me up scottie]

8. The op needs a spittake warning!

[cali]

3. Bwahaha.

Ok, now they're on the crazy train.

[Scootaloo]

4. That's an impressive level of cognitive dissonance.

[TheBlackAdder]

42. Someone has a bad case of projection, not remembering this (esp. after the 7 min mark).

.

.

[djean111]

5. "according to a Clinton advisor" - bwahahahaha!

Remember, any campaign that does not support Hillary is, according to her supporters, negative.
Like Bernie is not the target of Hillary's attacks. FFS.

[Armstead]

6. Bring me my fainting couch. That horrid little man.

The aforemntioned Clinton advisory must have lived in a monastery for the last 50 years. And also hasn't been listening to his boss.

[cali]

7. Wow.

Benenson, formerly a top pollster to President Obama, said he doesn't recall the 2008 race being as contentious.

“I was on [President] Obama’s side then,” he said. "I don’t think we had the range of negativity on either side.”

[beam me up scottie]

9. Really, Benenson?

The Clinton Smear Campaign Against Obama

Unable to find much that Barack Obama himself has said or believes that is particularly alien to the thinking and values of most Americans, Hillary Clinton and her supporters in the media have chosen instead to engage in a campaign of guilt-by-association.

Not surprisingly, right-wing media pundits and prominent Republicans have thrown their weight behind Clinton's efforts, taken advantage of the New York senator's attacks to smear the likely Democratic presidential nominee. For example, North Carolina Republicans are readying a television ad on the eve of that state's primary which includes a photo of Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright together, a video clip of Wright making incendiary comments, with a voiceover telling voters that Obama is "just too extreme for North Carolina."

Clinton's guilt-by-association campaign has even moved to additional degrees of separation. For example, before tens of millions of viewers of the April 16 debate in Philadelphia, Clinton again brought up Obama's alleged "relationships with Louis Farrakhan," despite Obama's repeated and unequivocal denunciations of anti-Semitic statements and other controversial actions by the Black Muslim leader. The apparent extent of Obama's alleged "relationship" with the Nation of Islam leader which prompted Clinton's charge was that a magazine for which Obama's pastor's daughter serves as publisher granted an award to Farrakhan in honor of a successful program he had set up to rehabilitate ex-convicts.

During that same debate, Clinton went so far as to link Obama with the radical Palestinian Islamist group Hamas because the "pastor's pages" section of the weekly bulletin of the church Obama attended once included -- as part of a series of opinion pieces reprinted from various newspapers around the country -- an op-ed column from the Los Angeles Times written by a Hamas leader. Though Obama had already categorically condemned the decision to reprint that article, Clinton told the tens of millions of viewers that "we have a choice who we associate with and who we apparently give some kind of seal of approval to," such as the pastor who -- in Clinton's typically hyperbolic version of events designed to discredit her rival -- was guilty of "giving the church bulletin over to the leader of Hamas."

Hillary Clinton has even attacked Obama for having served on the board of the Chicago anti-poverty group known as the Woods Fund at the same time as former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers. Ayers, who was never convicted of any crime, is now a distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago and served as a former aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley. Clinton apparently saw it as irrelevant that, at the time of Ayers' involvement in the Weather Underground, Obama was just eight years old and living nearly ten thousand miles away in Indonesia.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2008/04/30/clinton-smear-campaign-against-obama

[Fumesucker]

10. I think I pulled something and I freaked the dog out

And that was before I clicked on the title.

GD-P is the best entertainment evah!

I've been using this more and more lately after avoiding it for years.

[onecaliberal]

11. The Clinton advisor is a pathological liar.

[Skwmom]

12. This doesnt even pass the smell test.

[Bjornsdotter]

13. Did he say it with a straight face? n/t

[Z_California]

14. The Clinton campaign is the definition of insanity

I really can't believe how inept, dishonest, and tone deaf these guys are.

I'm sure insulting everyone's intelligence will get you votes. Another epic fucking fail.

Come Wednesday, HRC would be well advised to clean house and bring some individuals in who have been outside the bubble and can bring some perspective. This is a sad sad campaign. If she is nominated our only hope is the opposing campaign is equally inept. Not a good bet.

[ejbr]

15. In history?

In history?

[Warren DeMontague]

17. ***

[ejbr]

32. Ha!

[Warren DeMontague]

16. He talks about ridiculous things like issues and voting records. WE talk about what is important

namely, what a bunch of doody-heads Sanders supporters are!

[MissDeeds]

18. According to a Clinton advisor???

OMG - That's rich. From that bastion of ethical campaigning.

[bigwillq]

19. That's politics.

And it works both ways.

[GreatGazoo]

20. The dude who said that, Benenson, helped knock out Hillary in 2008

The next section was headlined, “The Fault Line: Hillary’s the Problem, Not the Answer,” and the strategists laid out the case against Clinton in stark terms, explaining that everything in Obama’s campaign, including his slogan—“Change you can believe in”—was meant to provide a contrast with Hillary, not on policy, but on character:

“Change you can believe in” was intended to frame the argument along the character fault line, and this is where we can and must win this fight. We cannot let Clinton especially blur the lines on who is the genuine agent of change in this election.

• The reason Clinton can’t be trusted or believed when it comes to change is that she represents, to a great degree, the three sources of discontent formulated in our premise.
• She’s driven by political calculation not conviction, regularly backing away and shifting positions on issues ranging from war, to Social Security, to trade, to reform.
• She embodies trench warfare vs. Republicans, and is consumed with beating them rather than unifying the country and building consensus to get things done.
• She prides herself on working the system, not changing it—rebuffing reforms on everything from lobbyist donations to budget earmarks.
...
Hillary learned a lot of lessons from the 2007-2008 battle with Obama. In fact, one of the first decisions she made this time around was to hire Joel Benenson, the pollster who helped write the memo on how to beat her.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-to-beat-hillary-clinton

So If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. ?

I understand highlighting contrasts with one's opponent but it is sad that Team Clinton has chosen to try and distort Sanders' positions in their desperation to hold back the tide.

Considering that Benenson is a pollster, he may know how well Sanders' positions are favored over Clinton's. He can't change Clinton's positions so they change Bernie's. Disgusting.

[NurseJackie]

21. That's an interesting observation. I'm not sure if I agree completely with the spokesperson.

But, when one considers how dreadful Bernie's national poll numbers are, and that Hillary has an embarrassment of riches with regard to her union endorsements, and political endorsements from governors, senators and congresspersons ... well ... I guess it makes sense that the Sanders campaign might be feeling a little frustrated about right now. I know it's just human nature and all, but often times, someone's frustration manifests itself in ways that aren't necessarily productive.




Note to Jury: It was the Clinton spokesperson who made those comments. I did not make those comments. What I did say is that the spokesperson's observations were interesting and that I haven't yet formed an opinion on whether or not I agree with the spokesperson. I also offered a brief analysis regarding the possible underlying reasons that make have caused the spokesperson to reach their stated conclusions about Bernie's campaign. No candidate or candidate's supporters were smeared or attacked or insulted.

[cali]

46. Lol. It's a crazy, desperate lie. The Clinton campaign is hopelessly tone deaf

[Z_California]

22. Quandary: To Rec or Not to Rec

The HRC campaign is so over the top insulting that I believe they help my candidate in the primaries.

Does a rec indicate approval of the content? Help me with this fellow Berniebros.

[AgingAmerican]

23. Most pathetic case of projection I have ever seen

And a sure sign the wheels are coming off over at Camp Weather vane.

[m-lekktor]

24. omfg ROFL!! nt

[SheenaR]

25. The spin is strong right now with them

Pay no attention to the e-mails on the private server.

Even though you or I would go to jail for such a violation without thought.

[bkkyosemite]

26. Since when is the truth negative.

[draa]

27. Does anyone need further proof she's a Republican.

Projection is the GOP's stock and trade. It doesn't work but hey, can't blame an idiot for trying.

[Champion Jack]

28. LULZ!!!

[applegrove]

29. Those are GOP trolls starting the worst of the attacks. Not real Bernie supporters.

Just paid gop trolls whose bosses don't want to face Hillary in the general.

[ypsfonos]

30. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[HereSince1628]

31. Clinton advisores must be feeling like winners...

everyone knows the victor get to write history.

[frylock]

33. The fuck?!

[Matariki]

34. ...

[mhatrw]

35. The "vocal point" of his attacks?

I realize that with Clinton supporters we must curve our expectations, but that quote was so out of bounce that it gave me an outer body experience.

Sadly, we must now take it for granite that Clinton's cronies will always try to make Sanders the escape goat for their own rampant negativity.

For all intensive purposes, this advisor cut off his nose despite his face. Hopefully, this will be their death nail.

[Luminous Animal]

36. Hahahaha!!!! Nice post.

[firebrand80]

38. +1

[islandmkl]

37. it appears the Clinton camp has adopted the Republican calendar to make historical claims:

THERE IS NO TIME BEFORE JANUARY 2009

[winter is coming]

39. My God, how bad *are* her internal numbers?

[ljm2002]

40. It seems the Clinton team thinks...

...that not going negative means Bernie should be running positive ads about Hillary.

[RobertEarl]

41. H deserves to be exposed

She's not on our side. Feel the Bern!!!

[cali]

43. What gets me is how stupid they think we are.

[Volaris]

44. "... I do think it’s been extremely negative and I think it’s unfortunate.”

LOL!
Now you know what it looks like when vampires attack sunlight.

[jfern]

45. The projection is amazing

[Skwmom]

47. They lie so much I think they have forgotten how to tell the truth. n/t