REHM: How do you believe President Obama’s relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu has affected our relationship with Israel? SANDERS: Well, I gotta tell you, I am not a great fan of President Netanyahu I did not attend the speech that he gave before the joint session of Congress. I think it was opportunistic. I think he was using it as part of his campaign for re-election. I think he was being used or did use the Republicans to go behind the President’s back. And I think in that region sadly on both sides I don’t think we have the kind of leadership that we need. And so you know I think the President is trying to do the best that he can in enormously difficult circumstances. Sanders did not call for ending the sizable diplomatic, military and economic support that Israel receives from the United States. He didn’t match the position of his brother, Larry Sanders, who ran for Parliament in Britain under the Green Party ticket in calling for boycotts against Israel. But it is unusual for a major party candidate seeking the presidency of the United States to criticize Israel’s government during the campaign. Hillary Clinton strongly defended Netanyahu during a summer 2014 interview with the Atlantic and never offered any criticism of his attempt to sink the Iran negotiations.

Let me be the first commentator to state explicitly what many Democratic insiders fear and many of the most progressive activists in the party yearn for: There is a very real prospect that Senator Bernie Sanders wins an outright victory in the Iowa caucus and pulls off one of the most stunning upsets in modern political history. At this moment I would put the odds that Mr. Sanders upsets Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucus at nearly 40 percent. As someone who can fairly be called a Democratic insider myself, I can report that some of the smartest Democratic strategists in national politics privately believe this but will not publicly state it. I just did. The reason that Bernie Sanders has a viable chance of defeating Clinton in the Iowa caucus is that caucus elections involve a far smaller pool of voters than primary elections. In the caucus variation of “one person, one vote,” the candidate who can best inspire fervent supporters to attend a caucus on a frigid Iowa evening is the candidate who will win. A student at an Iowa college has the same “one vote” as the chair of the Democratic Party of an Iowa county. In Washington Elizabeth Warren has seized the mantle of being the progressive conscience of the United States Senate, while in Iowa and other states Bernie Sanders is seizing the mantle of being the progressive conscience of the campaign for the Democratic nomination for president at a time when the progressive movement is on the ascendancy in national politics. Mr. Sanders is the ultimate conviction politician in American politics. He is the epitome of authenticity. You will never see Mr. Sanders give paid speeches to big banks or Wall Street firms. Nor do his supporters dream of making their financial fortunes as highly paid lobbyists for special interests in Washington. When the evening of the Iowa caucus arrives it is very possible that political experts and insiders will be astonished and confounded by the sudden appearance of new caucus participants who have never attended party meetings or caucus votes, and trudge through frigid cold and piles of snow to cast their caucus vote for Bernie Sanders.

As the Democratic presidential field descended on Iowa this weekend, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s visit generated more headlines -- but Democratic rival Bernie Sanders drew more people. The independent senator from Vermont, who rails against greedy corporate interests ruining the country’s democracy, drew overflow audiences nearly everywhere he went here over the weekend. That included Des Moines, where close to 800 people streamed to a university auditorium on Friday night, and Waterloo, where more than 500 people gathered in a theater on Sunday afternoon. .. Kathleen Murrin, who came to see Sanders Friday night in Des Moines, said she can envision Sanders as the Democratic nominee, dismissing talk by pundits that Sanders would have a hard time winning a general election. “Have you looked at the Republicans who’ve come into this state?” asked Murrin, 68, who works for a nonprofit organization focused on mental health issues. Sanders, Murrin said, has “got real solutions that he’s talking about. And he’s got real heart.”

In a trio of new polls in early primary states, Hillary Clinton leads Democratic rivals in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire. It’s in the Granite State, however, where the former secretary of state’s standing is the least rock-solid, according to new polls conducted by Morning Consult. Among Democratic voters who say they will participate in the state’s primary next year, 44 percent back Clinton. Next up: independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, the self-described socialist from neighboring Vermont, who grabs 32 percent. Vice President Joe Biden, who has shown little inclination to run, claims 8 percent of likely Democratic voters.

Clinton holds solid lead, but Bernie Sanders could be surging.

Hillary Clinton enjoys a strong lead in the three states that kick off the presidential primary contests -- Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina -- but she might want to be a bit cautious about Sen. Bernie Sanders sneaking up behind.

Bernie Sanders is drawing some large and enthusiastic crowds. In New Hampshire at the Keene Recreation Center, the place was packed to capacity with an overflowing crowd outside eager to hear him speak. This comes as a surprise. After all, Sanders has been a Democratic socialist for much of his political career. It would seem he is too far left on the political spectrum to be taken seriously. The senator from Vermont is gaining attention among candidates and the press. Although some observers have explained the Sanders phenomenon as a product of Democratic politics shifting to the left, the truth is that much of what he has to say resonates with a broad spectrum of middle-class voters. Even if some of his solutions are far too much government for a broad portion of the electorate, what he's saying about American politics is resonating with voters. A brief look at Sanders' stump speeches quickly reveals the senator is not always as "radical" as many people believe him to be. In many ways, he is as American as apple pie.

Former Senator Scott Brown (R-Northeast) took a swipe at 2016 Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) oft-remarked upon schlumpy demeanor, something he said he noticed during his hot minute in the Senate. “Will you tell him to comb his hair please?” Brown said on Outnumbered. “When he was in the Senate, you look at him, and it was like,’Bernie stop spitting and comb your hair, man.'” “Well his bed head seems to be working,” host Andrea Tantaros said. “He had bigger crowds over the weekend [than Hillary Clinton].” Brown, meanwhile, is doing just fine as senator of his local bike shop.

Almost a quarter of baby boomers said they have difficulty paying for a mortgage or rent in the past 12 months, according to the IRI survey, and 36 percent said they plan to retire at 70 or later, up from 19 percent in 2011. The GOA report shines a light on the problem of Social Security funding, as the program's trust fund is set to run out of money in 2034, when incoming payroll taxes won't be able to cover all scheduled benefits. About 40 percent of households age 65-74 receive most of their income from Social Security, according to the report, at an average of about $1,287 per month. America's oldest population — those 75 and older — rely even more on Social Security, for 61 percent of their income. Senator Bernie Sanders, who is running on the Democratic ticket for the presidential nomination, had requested the report. "This report makes it clear that there is a retirement crisis in America today," Sanders said in response to the report. "At a time when half of all older workers have no retirement savings, we need to expand, not cut, Social Security benefits so that every American can retire with dignity."

"A black male baby born today, if we do not change the system, stands a one-in-three chance (of) ending up in jail. This is (an) unspeakable tragedy." When we took a closer look, we found that the statistic may not be far off -- but it’s hard to know for sure, because the data Sanders relies on is so old his calculation, while it’s the most recent one available, is 14 years old, and changes in the underlying data suggest that the actual odds of incarceration may be somewhat smaller today. Still, other evidence suggests that blacks have a disproportionate likelihood of ending up in prison. On balance we rate it Mostly True.

Pro-Israel lobbyists have been among those to find Sanders elusive. “He’s someone who’s sort of avoided everyone,” said Ben Chouake, who leads the hawkish pro-Israel group NORPAC. “He’s one of the few offices that, when we try to get an appointment to come talk to him, we just can’t get in… I don’t think he’s antagonistic or anything like that.” In Vermont, a small group of AIPAC-linked Jewish activists do have Sanders’ ear on Israel-related matters. Yoram Samets, a Burlington businessman and a member of AIPAC’s national council, said that he has been in touch with Sanders for the past decade, but that Sanders does not sign any AIPAC-backed letters. His Vermont colleague Senator Patrick Leahy does not, either. This relative silence on Israel-related issues, however, seems to have broken during and after the 2014 Gaza conflict, during which 72 Israelis and over 2,100 Palestinians were killed, the majority of them civilians. In an undated statement on his Senate website , Sanders decried “the Israeli attacks that killed hundreds of innocent people – including many women and children,” calling the bombings “disproportionate” and “completely unacceptable.”

Someone else comes to the realization that Bernie Sanders Can Win The Iowa Caucus:

The Washington Post wants you to meet the people coming to see Bernie in Iowa:The word Surge may now mean a good thing for progressives:Another outlet examines Why Bernie Sanders Wins The Crowds Meanwhile, Scott Brown is still an ass:Bernie gets highlighted on Social Security Politifact takes on Bernie's 1 in 3 stat:Another examination of Sanders and Israel

Can Hillary Match Bernies Frenzied Fans?:



Can Hillary match Bernie’s frenzied fans?

On the campaign trail, there's a contrast in styles — and some reasons for Clinton to be concerned. From the street, the only evidence that a presidential candidate was in town was a sidewalk emblazoned with chalk: “Bernie —>.” But inside the Drake University arena, on a stage more accustomed to string quartets and flute recitals, Bernie Sanders was rocking the house. Attendees crammed the 775-seat Sheslow Auditorium here Friday, spilling into the aisles and clogging the balcony. The slightest crescendo in Sanders’ pitch — a call to address climate change, a plea for single-payer health care — brought them to their feet for a standing ovation. It’s like a bad movie for Hillary Clinton, the grass-roots fervor for her rival underscoring the trouble she’s had connecting with her party’s base. Clinton’s campaign is battling the perception of an enthusiasm gap, fueled partly by concerns that she’s out of sync with the newly aggressive liberal wing of the Democratic Party. How deep that chasm is was hard to discern. As she crisscrossed Iowa all weekend — and moved on to New Hampshire on Monday — her events were more heavily orchestrated, high on stagecraft, light on ad-libbing. It all raises questions about just how deep enthusiasm for her candidacy runs.

Sanders: Time to tell 'billionaire class' enough

