given and many times I see the Democrat Socialists. Don't get upset if someone brings this point to light.

Yes, the media will get a lot of mileage out of using the word "socialist." Same goes for "progressive," although I notice a tendency for some Dems to apply that term to themselves when they see an advantage in doing so.

Senate race,Todd Akin was leading her in the polls until he made some stupid remark about rape and pregnancy.(Republicans were trying to get a replacement to run against her but it was too late).

Being from a Red State McCaskill is certainly a Republican lite or she would never have gotten to the Senate.

As far as Hillary's mouth piece..Well I think this is the work of Bill recruiting McCaskill to do Hillary's dirty work for her

Unfortunately for her she can't name any of these extreme positions. Polls show the issue platform Bernie campaigns on is supported by a majority of Americans.

would not bet if needed to name any positions she does not agree with that she could not do this. In speaking about extreme positions, do you think Bernie has extreme positions?

I have been listening to every speech by him (recent speeches) that I can, and I honestly don't hear what I would consider socialist in the negative sense of the word, that is government confiscation of private property without due process or just compensation, ideas.

I think that he and Hillary agree as to what many of our problems are. They are in many cases identifying the same issues, but Bernie suggests solutions for the problems. That is one of his advantages and why people are so enthusiastic about him.

Also, Bernie is answering the questions of the media. Hillary seems to want to control her message to the extent that she doesn't answer media questions, at least not so far. I think she is a little weak when it comes to thinking on her feet. The direction her law career took suggests that to me too.

I really think that Bernie is the strongest, most charismatic candidate yet.

But we are lucky to have some good candidates. When I look at the Republican field, I am horrified at how weak they are. Now that is where the extremist candidates are. In the Republican Party. It's so scary, it almost makes me laugh. It's embarrassing.

Bernie is drawing huge crowds, and I am supporting him strongly.

questions and others he takes right back to his financial answer.

I support Hillary because I know she is strong, experience working on the president cabinet, has lots of foreign experience, a long time advocate of women's issues and children's issues and has been talking about the same financial issues and knows a president is also involved with trade issues.

about where she stands on them. Her remarks about the TPP thus far have been evasive. It looks like she is being less than honest about what she thinks about trade. She comes across with niceties, generalities that mean nothing to those of us who strongly oppose these agreements that cost us job and have run the dollar up to an unrealistic value.

Why do I strongly oppose the fact that we have allowed the dollar to rise so high that we have such a large trade imbalance?

Because what goes up must come down. As with housing prices, as with the value of the derivatives, sooner or later we will have to deal with a crashing dollar, and that is going to mean probably sudden and definitely devastating inflation for the American people.

Bernie's stances on economics would mean in the case of a sudden devaluation of the dollar that we could cushion the shock of the fall for ordinary Americans. Who knows whether Hillary has even thought of the repercussions of the overvalued dollar for the ordinary American?

Of course a dollar with a lower value would be great for our exports, but we no longer have the functioning factories and industry and skills to compete in terms of producing goods for export. Our balance of payment deficit proves that fact.

This is just one issue. Hillary recites the list of issues well -- not as well as Bernie -- but she does not propose concrete and what would be effective solutions to the issues many, many of which are, at this time, basically economic. "It's the economy stupid" to quote Bill and James Carville.

Rather than diss Bernie, Hillary should step up to the plate and answer the questions about what she really thinks about the TPP and what it really will mean for America and our industry.

Rather than use surrogates to go on TV, Hillary needs to step up to the plate and answer questions on the spot..

Her foreign policy experience includes voting for the Iraq War among other mistakes.

Sorry. She is a nice person. I'm sure the Clinton Foundation is doing good work in the world.

But I get a terrible feeling that Hillary Clinton is bound by her loyalty and dependence and gratitude to her donors and campaign contributors and that may be why she does not speak to some of these basic issues.

We need a trade policy that protects jobs at home while allowing us to be in the international marketplace. So far, no American president in recent years and certainly no candidate other than Bernie Sanders has acknowledged that our trade agreements are not striking the right balance between those values. That is one of the reasons that Bernie is rising and Hillary is dropping a bit in the polls.

Hillary should just speak for herself and not rely so much on campaign surrogates and advisers. She comes across as a bit controlled. I think it might be her personality. That is what I have come to believe. That is the way she is.

So the list of her qualities and qualifications is long. But then so is Bernie's. And Hillary did not make her way by herself. Much of her political record is actually the result of the man she married and not her own doing. As a woman slightly older than Hillary I understand why that is. But it is still a problem for me.

It seems our party learned nothing from previous experiences.

not just "Socialist" as I see bantered about by Republicans and conservative Democrats. That being the case, do you feel there is some reason it is more beneficial to the Clinton camp to prefer to call him a "Socialist" as opposed to a "Democratic Socialist" as he describes himself? Do you feel that in doing so it conveys a different take on the Sanders campaign?

When the word is being used in an attempt to frighten people - it is a cheap attack. Secretary Clinton and her surrogates know that they can't defeat Senator Sanders on the issues. Therefore, they are using "boogie man" tactics, because they know that sometimes works on low-information voters (see FOXNews).

If people thought about it for two seconds, they would realize that we are all, Democrats and Republicans, already socialists. Because we all pay taxes which go to shared services like fire and police departments, public roads, the military, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, etc.

The Clinton camp doesn't want voters thinking for two seconds. That is why they are using their surrogates to launch these kind of cheap attacks.

It. Won't. Work. One look at social media proves that point. And the Clinton campaign is becoming afraid.

FEAR,....Republican candidates cannot campaign on the issues so they attack their opponent.
The "Swift Boat" style strategy.

So now Hillary's campaign has resorted to this same strategy?


Hillary has only made comments on safe issues. Other issues she is very careful how she phrases her comments so as not to piss off her Wall St and Corporate friends. The TPP is an example, the income inequality issue (very careful with her words)

On the other hand Bernie tells it like it is.

I think McCaskill is generally correct about the media giving Sanders a "pass," although our friends at NPR went after him viciously. Sanders is not the overwhelming front runner. He's an outsider, an underdog. The media like to encourage outsiders and underdogs, and they don't think he'll be president, so they don't see a need to question him closely. Clinton, on the other hand is the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic nomination, and probably the next president, so the media feel a responsibility to ask her "tough questions." You know the justification: "This is the next leader of the free world. As a journalist, it's my responsibility..." Also, the Clinton campaign is seen as some kind of giant bulldozer, relentlessly crushing all opposition. This impression is reinforced by people like McCaskill, who jump up and yell, "Get out of the way, little Vermont man. Hillary's express train needs this track!" The media see this as bullying, which is ironic, since they dismiss Sanders as the irrelevant fringe candidate. But Sanders remains calm through all of it, which is nice.

They don't take him seriously. At all.

That's not really giving him a pass.

If they are actively dismissing him, they are not giving him a pass. They are working against him.

They're very dismissive and disrespectful. At the same time, they're kind of "nice" to him because they think he's an interesting oddity, a bit of a sideshow freak, and they get some mileage out of the stories telling how this little Pekinese named Sanders is running around nipping at the heels of Clinton the bull mastiff. It's the usual, shallow infotainment we get from the corporate media. In reality, Sanders needs some "tough question" coverage, because it allows him to talk about issues, and he's quite good at that, although his approach is not what the media is used to.

that those vaunted 'tough' questions are asked to generate faux controversy, not to allow the candidate to elucidate their position on actual issues. I mean, think about some of the really dumb questions in the 2008 or 2012 debate cycles. What the media likes to do in fact is smother all candidates with meaningless 'faux controversy' questions so none of them can really get anything substantive out.

his strong point. That's certainly not a "pass". NPR pointed out that he was Jewish and stated that he had dual citizenship. The media didn't pass on telling the world that the DNC thought he was "crazy". And now this Clinton shill is using "socialism" as a club. None of these are "passes". How is he getting a "pass"?

that he has dual citizenship...

why must you call her a shill? is she not just a supporter as you are for Bernie? we, democrats should not be so dismissive to our opponents in the democratic party. let's save that for the general election.

A true shill would pretend to be on Bernie's side while saying things to discredit him.
She is a hit woman...sent out with a message to deliver.

that great minds think alike, but I know it doesn't apply in my case.

It comes from the gambling world...and the shill's job is to pretend he is on the side of the mark, but really is works for the house.

One can't be a bigger shill than that.

I believe this primary battle is a battle for lives. We can not continue to let the corporatists bleed us to death. They have no empathy for the poor, working Americans (e.g. The TPP), our vets, or our seniors (TPP may result in cuts to Medicare.

This isn't tennis and the billionaires aren't going to play fair. What Sen McCatskill did was Swiftboating ad did the NPR so-called journalist and the DNC henchman.

ask Hillary to tell us what her accomplishments have been

The HRC attack dogs have been given their marching orders. Take note that this corporate whore also voted for Fast Track.

I noticed on Tweety's show the other night David Axelrod ( or whatever his name) was using a very well worded script to "bash" Bernie.
And I noticed unlike previous shows where Mathews was going after Hillary's record and not so good subject matter, this particular show he toned it down, really toned it down, an obvious memo from the corporate execs with instructions to do so with Hillary.

So its not just people like McCaskill....And this is going to get more intense with the negative BS as Bernie gains in the polls.
Iowa is 5+ months away and look where Bernie is in the polls. Same with NH and its primary is 6 months away.
Hillary could not compete right now on a one on one debate over the issues with Bernie.

Yep..the attack dogs have been released from their cage.

eom

"above the fray!" Not unexpected. We just worry about getting Bernie and his message out so they can judge for themselves, the rest will take care of itself. Once people listen to Bernie, just listen, they will understand how hollow any attacks are.

Bernie's plan is people centric, it requires a very large number of strong supporters and volunteers to win and then use our support to put pressure on the Congresscritters, their continued relevance hanging by thread, to push through Publicly Funding of Elections! There is an urgency in organizing and growing the movement to push Bernie up, let's get after it!

They are going to self destruct their candidate by attacking Bernie this way, it's very transparent.

Not a bad gig if you can get it. And if you have no principles

He is showing us what a real Progressive looks like and the comparison is making the other Democrats look pretty bad!

on which she disagrees with Sen Sander's "socialism". Corporate Democrats are against socialism like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Vote for the people's candidate and not the corporate candidate.

Plus she got the con talking point about deficits rolled in there.

She looked very bad when all she did is insult and could not disagree with one of his positions. She used socialist as an insult not a political description.

She's also one of the traitors who voted for fast track.

Those folks are not going to sit idly by while Bernie gains momentum. McCaskill is just one of many willing to sell themselves for money.

They can't get Bernie on anything. He's as true blue as they come.
And his message will prevail.

The corporate media's and RW Republican's long time vilification of the word Socialist can't be denied. Claire McCaskill is using this misnomer much like a RW Republican would to make Bernie seem like some Bolshevik radical and scare potential voters. When in reality all of the issues that Bernie is campaigning on most Americans agree with.

The other point is Hillary Clinton doesn't have the guts to come out and attack Bernie in person. She can't compete with him on the issues so we get typical Hillary gutter politics.. Hopefully most people either see right through this or couldn't care less what McCaskill thinks...

it totally reinforces the public discourse (it's how that 30-years-for-miscarriage law stayed on the books in El Salvador)

The original video speaks for itself, as does the near panic in her voice when she was called to provide examples (listen to the ends of her sentences). To me that shows she hadn't thought out the talking points she had been tasked with putting out there.

She's earned her notoriety. She got caught out as being a concern troll, she's provided some cruel amusement to her colleagues, and other observers.

That's the silver lining, she's exposed that there are people tasked with being a surrogate for the HRC campaign, and to smear Sanders as being too much the Democrat (that's what it boils down to). So now that's hanging over all the other surrogates pushed out the door with these tawdry talking points.

The shame of it all is now presumed, rather than something to prove. Who next will be sent out to do "a McCaskill"?

To be honest I've never given a rat's ass about what McCaskill had to say, and I sure don't care now.

You have totally nailed her though. Here's hoping the next smear is just as shrill and ineffective.

I've really learned to dislike Claire McCaskill, especially since her vote on TPA, and she's my senator! Well, the senator from my state.

....came from LIBERALS!!!!! I hope a real DEMOCRAT steps up to the plate and sends her to the Lobby firms where she'll feel right at home. Unforgiveable!

And McCaskill is a solid Dem in a tough state for Dems.

With friends like these...

That's the problem with wishy washy Dinos. They lose! The list is long.

but Socialism is the only foil we have against Fascism. Yet few will speak that word.

service or social security?

Citizens United sucks.

...and not with my corporate masters", Claire McCaskill. OK, not what she actually said, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that's what she thinks. Hell, her blue dog rear end held on to her seat only because Akin was nutty and out of touch with reality.

Hillary leaves it up to her flacks and shills...

you might need those folks come November 2016.

Does she dare say that? I'd love it if she did.

while telling those she speaks to exactly what she believes they want to hear. She even changes her accent and mode of speaking based on the who believes the audience to be. I don't think that in the 45 plus years I have been voting, I have ever seen a politician as phony as hillary. Luckily she is a disaster we have time to avoid.

Bernie has sociological studies to back him up.ALSO I guess its fair for us to start using memes like political aristocracy,totalitarian lite ect.Or pelebrity (thats political celebrity)apprentis refering to Senator McCaskill.The other subliminal thing she(McCaskill)put into the soundbite was Entitlements.Socilism entitlements she needs to explain what she means by that dog whistle.

to also read Albert Einstiens Why Socilism.There are many of us who do not understand ,or cannot afford formal edjucation.The Pundits attack us call us low info voters.Please inform yourselves before you become fearfull.