Politico: Vermont's Favorite Underdog

[brooklynite]

As the sun sets Tuesday over Lake Champlain, Bernie Sanders plans to join Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential race during a rally at Burlington’s Waterfront Park filled with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and music from Vermont’s best Cajun band, Mango Jam. It’s an unlikely, long-shot bid for the nation’s highest office—but it’s not entirely Quixotic. “Bernie,” as everyone in this state knows him, has after all made a career out of unlikely, long-shot bids for public office.

And, if Sanders’ presidential bid is going to go anywhere, he’s going to have to do it the way he’s always done it: as the outside candidate, winning over voters one town hall meeting at a time.

Over a forty-year political career, he’s gotten pretty good at it. Bernie Sanders wasn’t even up for reelection in 2014, but at a late October campaign rally last year in small-town Bristol, Vermont, he was clearly the headline act. The incumbent governor and Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor and state legislative seats filled the front of the room. But who was the biggest draw to the town hall brunch? Sanders. “Oh god, yeah,” said Bristol resident Suzanne Boyle, who enthusiastically supported his push for universal health care.

The wild-haired, filled-with-outrage Sanders has long had a rock-star status in Vermont that is envy of fellow politicians. And it follows him to the polls. He won 71 percent of the vote in 2012, his most recent election. That’s better than President Barack Obama fared in the state.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/vermonts-favorite-underdog-118269.html

Now, why would POLITICO run a positive piece on Sanders? I was told (here) that they're a RW rag...

[cali]

1. I've never said that about Politico, but a the majority of HRC supporters here

say it a lot. Politico just strikes me as another run of the mill MSM outlet.

[dsc]

3. I am sure you have evidence to back that statement up

first a few questions. One, how many Hillary supporters are there here? It seems to me if you can't answer that question then you have no idea what a majority of them think or don't think. What is the definition of a lot? Are you using percent of posts to define it? Is it some sort of number?

[cali]

6. just type cali, hillary politico into search. or just Hillary Politico

[dsc]

11. again do you even know how many Hillary supporters there are?

I don't. How can you possibly know what a majority of them think if you don't even know how many of them constitute a majority.

[leftofcool]

2. Sounds like a nice piece praising Sanders to me.

Maybe they ran a past piece Bernie's supporters didn't like. You do know that the Vermont Governor is now under the bus because he supports Hillary?

[eloydude]

4. If you read what cali wrote about Shumlin

I wouldn't want his endorsement..... and it's toxic on Clinton anyway.... more Vermonters prefer Bernie over Shumlin and give very little credence to Shumlin...

[leftofcool]

5. Then how did he get elected?

[eloydude]

7. Barely. Way I heard it,

it had come down to the Vermont Legislature to decide between Shumlin and a Republican businessman.

[leftofcool]

9. Aha!

[cali]

12. lol. love how you're ignoring my proof that Vermonters

are none too fond of shumlin

[cali]

8. it was thrown into the legislature.;

He ran against a guy who had never run for anything before, and couldn't get enough votes to avoid it going to the legislature to decide- the dem supermajority held legislature.

[cali]

10. just for you: What the Hell Happened in Vermont?

In an election cycle of shocking surprises—Larry Hogan’s win in Maryland, Mark Warner’s near-death experience—none are greater than the slap in the face Vermont voters gave Governor Peter Shumlin. Ten days after the election, Shumlin, who as Chairman of the Democratic Governor’s Association was tasked with helping elect other Democratic governors, still has not been declared winner in a race no one thought was a contest.

<snip>

Shumlin is not helped by his general reputation of mean spiritedness. Last year he was severely criticized for his handling of a land deal with a neighbor in financial distress. After the unemployed neighbor fell behind in taxes, Shumlin, who’s worth north of $10 million, purchased his land for a one fourth its appraised value while failing to inform the man, who never graduated from high school and has been hospitalized with mental issues, that there were state programs available to assist him in trying to keep his land. When the story surfaced in the press, Shumlin backtracked and said it all been a misunderstanding.

While there is no party registration in Vermont, for an incumbent Democrat to fall under 50 percent requires a lot of Democratic-leaning voters to turn the other way. Had there not been a Libertarian in the race who received over 8,000 votes, Shumlin likely would have lost. (Some Tea Party types who felt that Republican Scott Milne was too moderate supported the Libertarian.) Vermont holds gubernatorial elections every two years, and while 2016 in a presidential cycle should be a better year for Democrats, this near-death experience for Shumlin may very well encourage a serious challenger in the Democratic primary and if Scot Milne choses to run again, he certainly will start with great credibility after his near upset.

<snip>

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/13/what-the-hell-happened-in-vermont.html

[Cha]

13. Rw rag except when they have a positive article on Bernie.

[whatchamacallit]

14. How about you tell us why

[hootinholler]

15. They are a RW rag

At least a right leaning rag.

Why would they like Bernie? Maybe they suffer the same delusion as Hillary supporters, that Bernie can't win the general election and Hillary can.

[fadedrose]

16. What time and will it be televised?