Bernie Sander’s is not allowing himself to be maneuvered by Clinton or NBC into a pre-New Hampshire debate. Instead he is using their strategy to prevent them from ‘cornering’ him to do what they want, when they want.

This is what he said:

While the DNC is unlikely to exclude all three candidates from future debates, Sanders added that he does not want to commit to an ad hoc schedule of debates set by networks. “As I have said from day one I want to see debates. I love debates. I think it’s good for the Democratic Party, I think it’s good for the people of this country, but you’ve got to do it in a rational way, you just can’t do it because some network says this and some network says that,” Sanders said. “I would hope that in the very short future we can develop a series of debates, and I think ... Illinois, Ohio, California, New York state are some of the states we might want to be looking at.” Bloomberg

I TAKE MY HAT OFF TO HIM FOR HIS ELEGANT SIDESTEPPING OUT OF THEIR TRAP, with his response saying in effect: ‘yeah, let’s do more debates, but let’s plan them, and not do them as an ambush attempt.’ Go Bernie!

What this means is that Sanders is not allowing the Clinton machine and their surrogates, (read MSNBC) to push him around by setting up times and agendas favorable to Clinton. By agreeing to go to this debate, he would set a precedent, that at any point that the Clinton machine wanted to invoke a debate to help her, she could recruit her allies in the MSM to set one up.

MSNBC is going full bore to push Sanders into the Clinton debate….they are doing nothing more than providing full campaign ads for Hillary. It is 24/7 Hillary Time. Watch the videos and you will see what I mean.

If you have any doubt that MSNBC is shilling for Hillary, take a look at this interview by Andrea Mitchell today with Brian Fallon, Hillary’s Press Secretary. Be clear: MSNBC did not provide air time for a Sander’s representative, or ANYONE with an opposing position to the Hillary staff person and he was barely challenged by Andrea. She just let him continue the memes which were negative about Sanders, which the campaign is hoping that some will stick.

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The essential points of the interview by Andrea Mitchell with Fallon are:

1. Sanders has not fared well in the spotlight; if you look at the tone he has been taking; quite disturbing, seen a pattern of Senator Sanders saying one thing and doing another; that he would shun the support of a SuperPac, now has one; said he wouldn’t attack Clinton, but now he has said that she was like Dick Cheney and third thing this debate next week, Sen Sanders said he would wanted to debate more, now he is not.

2. Today a new york times report said he bragging about running a negative ad; and now Sanders is weighing running a negative running the same kind of ad as Karl Rove did,

3. That Sanders was having a meeting to decide whether to take the core persona that Sen Sanders has cultivated of the first few months of the campaign and crumpling it in into a ball an throwing it into the trash… I hope he rejects it Andrea…. they, his advisors, are trying to turn Sanders into someone less Simon and Garfunkel and more Karl Rover and it is unfortunate…..

4. Fallon repeated the meme of comparing Sanders to Karl Rove instead of Simon and Garfunkel

Also follow this interview on Andrea Mitchell with none other than Tweety (Chris Matthews):

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Just watch this and listen to all the negatives they are trying to frame against Sanders. They are unleashing a very strong stream of negative memes against Sanders, just count them off.

What do I think about this? Bring it on! Bernie can handle them. But let us, as his supporters, be fully aware of who is doing what.

CONGRATULATIONS TO SENATOR SANDERS FOR SLIPPING OUT OF THEIR TRAP. And so elegantly!

And sure, let us have more debates, but not at Clinton’s whim. MSNBC can go back in their box from being used by the Clinton team to try to kneecap Bernie.

Big Win for the Sanders Team in my opinion!

I would like this man to answer that 3am phonecall. He can’t be bamboozled!

UPDATE:

Just to be crystal clear in the midst of all this maneuvering, DWS issued the following, saying that the DNC WOULD NOT SANCTION THE PRE NEW HAMPSHIRE DEBATE:

The Democratic National Committee says it is unlikely to sanction additional debates before the New Hampshire primary, a decision that could strike a blow to MSNBC and the New Hampshire Union Leader as they seek to host an event next week. "We have no plans to sanction any further debates before the upcoming First in the Nation caucuses and primary, but will reconvene with our campaigns after those two contests to review our schedule," DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. "We have consistently worked with our campaigns to ensure a schedule that is robust and that allows them to engage with voters in a variety of ways, whether through debates, forums, town halls, but also leaving them the flexibility to attend county fairs and living room conversations in states like Iowa and New Hampshire where direct voter contact matters so much." DNC throws cold water on unsanctioned New Hampshire debate

UPDATE TWO

I would like to thank commenter Knotlookin for pointing out so clearly that now, in their attacks, the Hillary campaign has been reduced to blaming Sanders FOR WHAT THEY THINK HE MIGHT DO. As she says, they are now acting like the Orwellian Thought Police.

KnotIookin Jan 27 · 08:01:19 PM At the end of the nightly trump type Phonecall to Chris Matthews WHERE HRC was OUTRAGED that Bernie sanders MIGHT BE THINKING ABOUT POSSIBLY RUNNING AN AD THAT MIGHT MENTION WALLSTREET and both HRC and Matthews said that THIS breaks Bernie's promise to NOT go negative… JUST THINKING Orwell wouLd be jealous that the thought police he only imagined has now become real and aired nightly on MSNBC oh right, at the end of that attack on Bernie for what he might be thinking Chris Matthews asked HRC is she was definitely going to show up for the msnbc debate and she said she would be “happy to do ONE debate, right before NH" thats it folks… hrc wants to debate Bernie but ONLY right before NH…. I wonder why bravo Bernie…. You no longer have to actually say or do anything…. The establishment is now freakin out just because U exist And you THINK BERNIE 2016 vive la resistance

and

I would like to thank King Bowser for making it so clear that by refusing to attend an unsanctioned debate, Bernie is potentially preserving the full schedule of debates going forward, and perhaps getting us more ‘sanctioned’ debates.

King Bowser vs1skos Jan 27 · 07:43:24 PM Sanders opposing unsanctioned debates allows more debates. In fact, the DNC is considering breaking their rule and having more than six debates because Bernie Sanders is holding his ground. If Bernie participates in an unsanctioned debate with the others, then no one is allowed in the future debates. So the participates would have to schedule debates with each other. Meaning Hillary can refuse debates in front of Nevada, SC, and Super Tuesday. We could actually have less debates than six this way. Bernie is getting us more debates. That was his mission and it looks like he is achieving it. Woooohooooo!

UPDATE THREE

Here is a comment from Kochbusters which highlights something important about Bernie and his style: how he negotiates. reminding us that Bernie has acted as a savvy politician before with another attempt by the HRC/DNC to scuttle him: (my bold)