Sanders ad with Obama raises eyebrows

[left-of-center2012]

Sen. Bernie Sanders is embracing former President Obama in a new video that underscores the Vermont independent’s need to win over black voters. The video, which shows the former president with his arm around Sanders walking into the Oval Office, was released after the Vermont senator was routed by former Vice President Joe Biden in a series of Super Tuesday primaries where Biden handily won the African American vote.

The ad includes a passage from a 2016 interview Obama gave in which he said Sanders has the virtue of “saying what he believes, great authenticity, great passion, and is fearless.” It also includes audio of then-Sen. Obama saying that Sanders is someone who will fight for people, a clip taken from a speech delivered while he campaigned for Sanders and another congressional candidate in 2006. And it concludes with video of Obama saying at the 2016 Democratic convention that people should “feel the Bern.” Obama’s speech was aimed at getting all Democrats to back the party’s presidential nominee Hillary Clinton after a bitter primary.

Former Obama officials and Biden supporters have ripped it for suggesting a false closeness between the former president and Sanders, whom Biden’s team has criticized for contemplating a primary challenge in 2012 against Obama. “It reeks of desperation,” said one former Obama White House aide who is unaffiliated with any campaign.

A second aide who worked for Obama added, “I know everyone wants to cozy up to him but it seems so obvious what Bernie is trying to do and it seems dishonest. He’s spent most of this campaign slamming Obama policies and the status quo.” Sanders even thought about posing a primary challenge to Obama in 2012, The Atlantic reported last month.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/486222-sanders-ad-with-obama-raises-eyebrows

[democrattotheend]

1. Did Bloomberg and Warren's Obama ads get the same level of scrutiny?

Because Bloomberg had a so-so relationship with Obama and Warren was more of a thorn in his side than Sanders was. Why is it only Bernie who is getting criticized for this kind of ad?

[Tarheel_Dem]

3. Did Bloomberg EVER suggest that Obama be primaried?

[TwilightZone]

5. Do they spend a lot of time denigrating Democrats?

Sanders ramped up his attacks on Democrats - the "establishment", mostly - causing a backlash. Subsequently, he gets thumped in several states with a significant AA population and places like MA, ME, and MN. After the attacks, backlash, and thumping, he suddenly releases an ad with a prominent figure from said "establishment".

Looks kind of transparent, don't you think? And nothing like Bloomberg or Warren.

[padah513]

6. Maybe

Because neither one of them wanted to primary President Obama or maybe because Sanders snubbed African American voters by not going to Selma or maybe because he only did the ad after of the Super Tuesday beatdown or maybe all of the above.

[honest.abe]

2. This is yet another reason for voters not like Sanders.

He criticizes the Obama era and then embrace him only when he is desperate to attract more votes.

Extremely hypocritical.

[msongs]

4. bernie turns his back on mostly black voters in misssissippi nt

[George II]

9. Coincidentally (?) the Mayor of Jackson Mississippi, where the cancelled events were to take place..

.....endorsed Sanders just last week. I guess he got what he needed, time to move on.

[George II]

7. That ad did more harm than good. Not a smart move.

[Cha]

11. I would hope to god so!

[Gothmog]

8. This is a better ad of Bernie & Obama

Link to tweet

[Cha]

10. it raises more than "eyebrows" around here.

[betsuni]

12. "They should not be using the black president as their prop to try to seduce the African-American

community. Stand on your own record." Nina Turner last month about candidates' ads. Oops.

[MustLoveBeagles]

13. That quote didn't age well did it?

[betsuni]

14. I would be embarrassed.

She was pretty emphatic about it.

[Hortensis]

15. :) The little the Sanders campaign had to work with is SO revealing,

and the dishonest manipulation and misrepresentation even more so. SOP for Sanders.

I especially appreciate the need to include the “saying what he believes, great authenticity, great passion, and is fearless.”

Good grief. Sounds like an obligatory statement for Scalia's obituary from a Democratic official who knew exactly what illicit business he was involved in when he dropped dead. No indication of agreement with what is believed, no admiration for what is authentic, acknowledgement of great passion but not of validity and wisdom of its subject, and no indication of positive benefit from how fearlessness is directed.

Or how about: "Your fearless statement is noted, and no one could doubt its authenticity. You clearly put great passion into the words and believe every one of them." As something that fired Olive Garden restaurant manager could have said to that horrible woman shouting at black staffers.