Clinton Campaign Relies On Rumors And Dishonesty To Attack Sanders

[Lorien]

(snip)

Polls after the first few Democratic presidential primaries show Sanders beating Clinton among 18-29 year-olds by about sixty or seventy percentage points. His campaign, which promotes free college education, lowering interest rates on student loans, single-payer healthcare, raising the minimum wage to $15/hour, and a Wall Street speculation tax, resonates with young Americans. His campaign promotes the idea that we are all in this together while Clinton and her surrogates promote the idea that it is her time to be president.

Therefore, Clinton is potentially the Democratic Party establishment’s last stand against a rebellion within the base of the political party that has contributed to a sustained lack of enthusiasm for Democratic Party candidates over the past ten years.

While Sanders has a record of loyalty to the Democratic Party that might surprise those who tout him as a radical socialist, there is an energy and vision to his campaign, which Sanders may not be able to contain. The Democratic Party establishment, and the corporations which support Clinton’s campaign, look to Clinton to contain the grassroots insurrection before power has any chance to shift significantly.

Clinton recognizes she has a problem with Americans trusting her or believing she is honest. They have effectively worked to drag Sanders down by impugning his character and making it seem as though he cannot be trusted any more than her. The campaign has also sought to diminish his character in the eyes of non-white voters, particularly blacks and Latinos, who the establishment media crudely refer to as Clinton’s “firewall” because she needs them if she is going to defeat Sanders.

Now, with that preface, here are some of the attacks on Sanders and his supporters, which represent a pattern of sleaziness that has become a hallmark of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

More: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/02/24/clinton-campaign-relies-rumors-and-dishonesty-attack-sanders

[arcane1]

1. Now come on, let's at least be FAIR here!!!

Rumors and dishonesty is all they have! What else can they use?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

5. I agree... if that's all Hillary has, who can really blame her for takin the low road?

Bernie & Elizabeth 2016!!!

[hifiguy]

11. She started out working as a staff lawyer investigating Richard Nixon.

40 years later she has morphed into Nixon.

The cosmos has a sense of irony, I take it.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

14. Oh, I thought Hillary was fired from the committee investigating Nixon for unethical behavior. Am I wrong about this?

Bernie & Elizabeth 2016!!!

[Duval]

20. I have no idea! nt

[hifiguy]

30. She was fired. Can't recall the reason.

[BernieforPres2016]

24. She & Bill have been Nixon all along

Nothing new going on here. Hillary's numbers will never go up because people know her. The only thing she can do is try to drive Bernie's negatives up. But I think people are wise to it.

[hifiguy]

32. Driving up the opposition's negatives

when you have a candidate seen as untrustworthy is literally Lesson 1 in the Nixon play book. Nixon didn't have much choice.

[Jarqui]

2. Yep, that's a bunch of what has been going on nt

[dr60omg]

3. Truer words were never said before

I thought of the pattern that happened in the past and it is happening again and it is even more egregious since we no longer have a fourth estate to depend on/ Meanwhile the internet has been turned into the misinformation disinformation highway where memes and tweets substitute for a critical analysis.

But this is pure Clinton sleaze with the addition of David Brock et al while they triangulate and lie

[MisterP]

4. and on being made to look the bad guy if you insist on combating falsehoods

the truth is something you have to apologize for now

[PatrickforO]

6. A good article, and true based on what I've seen so far.

We've got to get Bernie through Super Tuesday, because those states will likely be his worst showing. Once through that, he'll start winning if we all stay strong. Bernie can do it and so can we.

[hifiguy]

10. The oddity of it all is that no Democrat will EVER win those states

in the GE. Any Dem will be lucky to crack 35%. Why should they have such a disproportionate effect on the nomination process when they are irrelevant to the GE?

[WillyT]

8. K & R !!!

[hifiguy]

9. The stink of Nixon and Nixonian tactics on HRH's campaign

grows stronger every day. By next week at this time it should be able to knock a buzzard off a shit-wagon.

[INdemo]

19. The Clinton campaign must have the whole damn library of Karl Rove/Lee Atwater books....

cause Hillary is following their tactics to A.... T

[BernieforPres2016]

25. I remember James Carville's line about Paula Jones and others during the '92 bimbo eruptions

"Drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find."

These are not new tactics by the Clintons.

[hifiguy]

31. No, they're not new, but it has

Traditionally been republicans who have used them.

[ucrdem]

12. From CommonDreams, which shares a common dream of defeating Clinton

with anyone who will click their bait.

[Fuddnik]

16. Ha ha

[Peace Patriot]

18. Now it's one of the most informative, progressive sites on the web--

--and has been that way for many years--that you spit on? You're blaming "them"--a site that publishes many progressive writers on numerous important topics--for wanting to defeat Clinton?

Perhaps you ought to think, instead, about WHY "they" don't like Clinton. Hm? --instead of attacking a truly great resource for progressives?

And here goes: I haven't visited "them" in a while. Now I'm going to. A click-bait success for Common Dreams!

[Duval]

21. You are kidding, right?

It is a very progressive site! I've been going there since 2004.

[Peace Patriot]

28. Yes, I clicked the "bait" to Common Dreams and read the whole article. Very informative!

Well written, factual and, it seems to me, irrefutable, that the Clinton campaign has used completely unjust and lying smears against Bernie Sanders to sour his support among women, blacks and Latinos.

Instead of dissing this important progressive web site, you ought to read the article and try to refute it. I don't think you can. The facts are quite damning.

And, while you're at, maybe you should check out these articles on women's issues, and ask yourself, as a Clinton supporter, whose candidate claims to be for women, do you want to diss these writers and the web site that published them?

Healthcare Giant Ordered to Pay $72 Million Over Links to Ovarian Cancer
Lauren McCauley, staff writer
http://www.commondreams.org/us

Scott Walker Issues "Latest in a Long Line of Attacks" on Women's Health
Bills cut millions in funding to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin
byAndrea Germanos, staff writer
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/02/18/scott-walker-issues-latest-long-line-attacks-womens-health

Right-Wing Attacks on Abortion Access Driving Clinic Closures Across US
"At no time since before 1973...has a woman's ability to terminate a pregnancy been more dependent on her zip code or financial resources to travel."
byDeirdre Fulton, staff writer
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/02/24/right-wing-attacks-abortion-access-driving-clinic-closures-across-us

Zika is a Reproductive Rights Issue
Several countries afflicted by the Zika virus are asking women to delay getting pregnant. Yet local laws — and U.S. foreign aid rules — make it impossible for many to get a safe abortions.
byNathalie Baptiste
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/02/22/zika-reproductive-rights-issue

Go to Common Dreams. There is lots more and great information on many issues. And ask yourself about the "garden path" you've been led down, as a Clinton supporter, where you would deny information like the above to women and others and tell people that a citation from Common Dreams is "click bait."

I'm going back to Common Dreams now, to get better informed on more topics. It is a truly great website with facts and opinions that you will never get from the Corporate Media. And do be aware that, when you enter an open public venue like DU, in support of a candidate, your comments reflect on your candidate, whether fairly or not.

[HoosierRadical]

13. Their supporters behave the same way

I'm African American and subscribed to the AA group, I commented in a thread, and because I raise my discontent with how too many AAs are blindly supporting Hillary, I'm "warned".

[Peace Patriot]

29. I am sorry to hear that the AA forum is intolerant of such a mild criticism...

...of AA's. I hope it's not generally true. I don't see why African Americans should be exempt from criticism. We ALL need criticism, God knows. That is one important way that we learn and grow.

And I do hope you succeed in opening some eyes. I fear that 4 to 8 more years of Clintonism--that is, 4 to 8 more years of the corrupt, murderous, failed "war on drugs," of mass incarceration for minor drug offenses that hits AA and Latino communities the hardest, and of "neo-liberal" financial policy that has already destroyed a huge amount of wealth in the AA community, will be a catastrophe. It will be a catastrophe for us all, but it will be worse for AA's, as has always been the case.

[cantbeserious]

15. HRC - Duplicity Is As Duplicity Does - Need Any Citizen Say More About Character

eom

[a kennedy]

17. Not even sure this belongs here.....I'm going to blow........

Can't read ANY MORE HEADLINES ANYWHERE.......

[Duval]

22. K&R! nt

[PonyUp]

34. KnR back. n/t

[PatrynXX]

23. there is an energy and vision to his campaign, which Sanders may not be able to contain.

he's not trying to contain that. Why should he. He's trying to change the system bottom up. Whatever happens in November everything is forever changed if we start bottom up as well. If the system is rigged lets unrig it.

[Thinkingabout]

26. Wow, dishonesty and rumors.

[Bernblu]

27. That's all Clinton has. She is a very dishonest and dishonorable candidate.

[MaggieD]

33. Sanders has dissed the Dem party for decades

Called for a primary on Obama. Said JFK made him want to puke, etc. I don't think loyal Dems see Clinton has the problem. And I think the polling in the primary states shows that.

[PonyUp]

35. K&R

[Jefferson23]

36. Yes and this campaign is like her last movie, disgusting. They don't care and nor do her

supporters...not in any significant manner.

[Betty Karlson]

37. It's all they have. And the GE: Debbie would like to run on "who else are you gonna vote for?"

The DINO-saurs would also like us to know that their egos are to big to go extinct. Third Way or the Highway.