Kirsten Powers

How do you solve a problem like Bernie?

Belatedly appreciating the Sanders threat, Hillary Clinton is trying everything to stop the septuagenarian socialist democrat from Vermont. She has attacked his position on guns, his support for a single-payer health care system and his idealistic penchant for believing that Washington can be changed. Nothing has proved to be the silver bullet that would take out the unlikely spoiler of the second almost-coronation of Hillary Clinton. So, what’s next? Sanders himself predicted at his New Hampshire victory speech that soon the kitchen sink would be coming his way.

The New York Times reported that Clinton’s flailing campaign is trying out a new line: that Sanders is a “one-note” candidate who is captive to an obsession with Wall Street and campaign spending. Clinton is determined to prove that Sanders is not ready for office, but that she is. “If we broke up the big banks tomorrow,” Clinton asked a group of union members, “would that end racism? Would that end sexism? Would that end discrimination against the LGBT community?”

Just so we’re clear: Sanders is an unserious pie-in-the-sky candidate because he wants to rein in campaign spending and institute a health care system that is commonplace in Europe. Clinton, on the other hand, will eradicate sexism and racism in America. Who’s the dreamer here? After all, Clinton can’t even keep her own campaign surrogates — Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright — from taking sexist swipes at young female Bernie supporters.

Clinton’s attack is, not surprisingly, dishonest. (There is a reason that among New Hampshire's Democratic voters who listed trustworthiness as their most important issue, Bernie won out 91%-5%.) Sanders’ platform is as comprehensive as Clinton's. But Bernie has focus. He is animated by the suffering of the vast majority of Americans who are struggling economically. He is no more of a one-note candidate than Bill Clinton was in 1992 when his campaign slogan was, “It's the economy, stupid.” Whereas Hillary is continually reinventing herself and her campaign, throwing things against the wall to see what sticks, Sanders appears to be driven by core values. He’s running because he wants to upend a broken system. She’s running because she thinks it’s her turn.

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In the surest sign of desperation, Clinton is also doubling down on her absurdist claim that Sanders has somehow been anti-Obama. She knows the only thing that will save her at this point is convincing African-American voters that she is the rightful heir to President Obama. On Saturday, Snapchats from the official Hillary Clinton account read, “President Obama doesn’t get the credit he deserves … but from a candidate in the Democratic primary?” A frightened cat emoticon highlighted the horror of Sanders’ alleged disloyalty in “criticizing (the Obama) presidency.” The Snapchats repeated Clinton’s complaints from the Democratic debate that Sanders referred to Obama as “weak” and a ”disappointment.”

This from a candidate who dissed Obama’s statement that America should not “do stupid (stuff)" in foreign policy. Quipped the ever-loyal former secretary of State in 2014 to The Atlantic, “Great nations need organizing principles — and ‘don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle.” In the same interview, she blamed Obama for creating a power vacuum in Syria to be filled by jihadists, calling it a “failure.”

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In its latest reframing of reality, the Clinton campaign is lowering expectations for the Nevada Democratic caucuses Saturday, claiming the state is “80% white” and thus will favor Sanders. Actually, Democratic caucus voters in 2008 were 36% non-white. Moreover, the demographics of the state are exactly the same as when Nevada was being cast as Clinton’s “Western firewall.”

Where the Clinton campaign might be right is that the state could end up favoring her opponent. Bernie is a problem Hillary can’t figure out how to solve, perhaps because he’s not the problem. She is.

Kirsten Powers writes weekly for USA TODAY and is author of The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech.

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