Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders: 'I am running for president'

[mikebike]

I find it cute that anyone actually thinks Sanders has a chance to be president. But enjoy it while you can!

Dudes ... he's labels himself openly as a SOCIALIST. The USA ain't Europe. Get a grip.

I think your comments regarding my prediction of Trevor Noah as Daily Show host were eerily similar... Time will tell.

Edited July 3, 2015 by mikebike

[willyumiii]

Just take the money you would lose on running and donate it to wounded vets.....that way you would be rememered as having compassion and not a fool

Vets who would not have been wounded if a Bush had not been foolishly elected?

I say go Bernie do anything you can to keep warmongering republicans out of the white house...forever!

[boomerangutang]

I find it cute that anyone actually thinks Sanders has a chance to be president. But enjoy it while you can!

Dudes ... he's labels himself openly as a SOCIALIST. The USA ain't Europe. Get a grip.

....as a Socialist - Democrat. He will also qualify for the Democratic primaries and debates.

Scandinavia is labeled 'socialist' as is NZ, and they're doing rather well. Granted, it's probably a drag to be making billions of dollars in those countries, because the taxman will take a large cut. But other than that, they're doing better than most other countries in terms of individuals' well-being, sanity, quality of life.

I think Americans are smart enough to listen to what a candidate says, instead of just making a knee jerk decision because of a political label. Younger Americans are less hamstrung by the Socialist label than elders - because elder Americans were brought up to think of Socialism as a watered down version of Communism.

I heard an recent online interview with Sanders, and the first thing he spoke about was the gross inequality of money distribution in the US. I don't have the transcript, and I can't speak for him, but it rang true.

In my words: When Bush Jr. was faced with the mess of an impending Wall St. implosion in 2008, he did what we'd expect any red-blooded Republican to do: He put billionaires in charge of cleaning the mess up, even though they were principles in implementing the mess to begin with. The one bad thing I can say about Obama is: He kept the same Goldman Sachs billionaires in the same power posts. In other words, Obama kept the same team as Bush Jr. appointed.

Just two of the policies that those insiders enacted: Goldman Sachs must get paid back 100 pennies on the dollar for all monies owed it by other Wall St. manipulators - even though all those smaller companies took big hits for their transgressions and active roles in the pyramid schemes. The same pyramid schemes GS was enmeshed with.

Here's the 2nd reason: The GS execs insisted that the biggest banks in the US all take tens of billions of dollars of federal hand-outs, even if (get this) ....EVEN IF THE BANKS DIDN'T WANT THE MONEY! So they make the banks take tens of billions of dollars which they don't want to take, ....the banks say 'ok,' and then loan that money out to ma and pop taxpayer and earn interest payments, and then later, the banks pay that money back to the American taxpayer.

To add insult to injury: Hardly any Wall Street wheeler-dealer has had any legal repercussions for all the sucker games (sucking in tens of billions of dollars) they pulled on the American public.

That's the sort of insider money schemes that Bernie Sanders would not allow. I can't speak for him, but I'd venture he'd get rid of 'too big to fail' nonsense. In other words, if a company is cheating or is badly run, let it fall. The people aren't all going to die. A better-run company will probably rise from the ashes. That's what Republicans are supposedly for ('let the marketplace decide') ....but in reality, Republicans and right wing democrats can't let a big fat company fail, even when it makes compound mistakes.

[Jingthing]

I'm just saying he can't win and y'all know that too.

[stevenl]

They're social democratic, not socialist. And agree, they're doing well.

Edited July 3, 2015 by stevenl

[boomerangutang]

I'm just saying he can't win and y'all know that too.

Remind me not to recommend you for being a coach of a team that's at the bottom of its league.

[Jingthing]

I'm just saying he can't win and y'all know that too.

Remind me not to recommend you for being a coach of a team that's at the bottom of its league.

Don't get your hopes up.

Elizabeth Warren could have been a contender, but that ship has sailed.

Edited July 3, 2015 by Jingthing

[mikebike]

I'm just saying he can't win and y'all know that too.

Remind me not to recommend you for being a coach of a team that's at the bottom of its league.

Don't get your hopes up.

Elizabeth Warren could have been a contender, but that ship has sailed.

Bernie is a better candidate than Warren would have been. The GOP gunners are good at taking down rational democrats who campaign on financial reform and Hillary would have covered her by matching policy for policy - something she cannot do with Bernie. With Bernie they are like a deer in the headlights. At the moment they have no response to a candidate who is so far out there that his platform is actually built on what the majority of middle class americans want. With no name recognition, mostly no or negative media and a relatively tiny war chest the gains Bernie has made in the grass roots has been an eye opener. Hillary may well still win - Dems like the 'historic nominations' and the first woman press is a tempting plum. Yet she may also seem to much the same as her predecessor and her opponents. I think its gonna be a lot closer than most believe.

[boomerangutang]

"These are palmy days for Sen. Bernie Sanders and his improbable campaign for president. Thousands throng his events in Maine, Iowa and Wisconsin. He has raised $15 million in just a few months, and he polls better among Democrats than any one Republican is polling among Republicans."

source: NPR.org

[chuckd]

Biden will get Bernie out of the race. Probably will get Hillary out of the race as well.

I'm wondering who Biden will pick as his Vice President candidate.

[Jingthing]

Biden will get Bernie out of the race. Probably will get Hillary out of the race as well.

I'm wondering who Biden will pick as his Vice President candidate.

Hillary!

[Johpa]

Hillary just did herself a grand disservice in her recent live interview on CNN where she was unable/unwilling to answer most questions directly but gave mostly canned responses only marginally connected to the question asked by the less than insightful interviewer. Many voters no longer tolerate that type of response.

Sanders is continuing to gain momentum. the Republicans are already self-destructing, and Clinton is beginning to grate upon some of her supporters. Those who dismiss Sander's chances are speaking too soon in the process, guilty of premature ejections of opinion.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Johpa

[Jingthing]

Who's watching now? Basically only Fox News so they rip apart anything she says.

[sirineou]

I have listen to Sanders several times being interviewed and I have not heard him say anything I disagree with.

I listen to Hillary also give her first interview last week, she did not answer any of the questions put to her, I was disgusted by the interviewer for not following up after one of her long answers with a , Yes, very well, but that's not what I asked you.

Edited July 12, 2015 by Scott

[IMA_FARANG]

There are hundreds of reasons why he can't win.....but better to live one day as a Lion than a thousand years as a fat stupid sacrificial Sheep. Most people in the U.S. think that a "good life" is to be a nice normal fattened up sheep, ready for slaughter by the wealthy Corporate Capitalist rulers. Well, what ever, if that's your choice, go right ahead and chose it. But just remember, even living high on a pile of S- - T may seem nice now, but what you are living on in reality is still a pile of S- -T in the long run no matter how nice it seems now to you. Pick your own poison, then live and die with it.

[sirineou]

There are hundreds of reasons why he can't win.....but better to live one day as a Lion than a thousand years as a fat stupid sacrificial Sheep.

Most people in the U.S. think that a "good life" is to be a nice normal fattened up sheep, ready for slaughter by the wealthy Corporate Capitalist rulers.

Well, what ever, if that's your choice, go right ahead and chose it.

But just remember, even living high on a pile of S- - T may seem nice now, but what you are living on in reality is still a pile of S- -T in the long run no matter how nice it seems now to you.

Pick your own poison, then live and die with it.

Ohh Come on ImaFarang, dont be shy, tell as what you think

[NeverSure]

Who's watching now? Basically only Fox News so they rip apart anything she says.

Happy to hear that you are a faithful watcher of Fox News and keeping abreast of all that's happening over there.

[AYJAYDEE]

America doesn't deserve Sanders. Face it, they have been voting for these self serving thugs for decades. They got exactly what they wanted.

[boomerangutang]

Has Biden declared he will run? ....or hinted? I actually like Biden, but he seems too easy for wisecrackers to ridicule. Though I saw the photos of him steam cleaning his classic muscle car alongside the White House, while shirtless and grinnng.

Kerry would make a good prez, though he was shot down by the Republican Attack Machine in a prior prez campaign. I thought it was a dirty and unfair smear campaign, but who said political campaigns should be above-board? In the US, once a public figure has been shot down, it's near impossible for him/her to make a comeback. It happened with Colin Powell when he was put in front of the UN and the World as a sacraficial lamb - to convince us that Iraq had WMD. Powell was fed faulty data, and that's what he portrayed. If that hadn't happened, Bush Jr. would have probably lost to him in the primaries (if Powell had run). and Powell could have had a shot at being the US's first black prez. Ok, lots of could'ves and would'ves.

If Pee Wee Herman hadn't been caught in attendance at an XXX gay movie - he might still be a hugely popular entertainer. ....and so it goes.

Edited July 13, 2015 by boomerangutang

[Jingthing]

No, Biden isn't running and hasn't hinted. All he has done is not say definitely that he is not running and why should he do that? Anyway, I doubt he will run.

Kerry. No way. He had his shot.

Edited July 13, 2015 by Jingthing

[chuckd]

I am hearing that Biden might be considering it after the tragic death of his son, Beau.

From reports, his son wanted him to run so Joe might decide to do it in memorium, perhaps.

He would certainly be the sentimental favorite and, with Hillary taking it from all sides, might even come out the winner.

He has his own share of baggage but nothing like Hillary. She has more baggage than Samsonite.

[Jingthing]

Well, it's fine with me if he runs.

He's very likable.

I can understand how he might feel ... that he should have had a shot before and this is really his last possible chance.

[jdinasia]

The Sanders campaign had to change from a townhall event to a stadium event in Maine, just days after Maine's teabagger governor and Chris Christie met and drew less than 100

[GinBoy2]

Bernie is attracting a similar demographic to Ron Paul. My 26yo daughter has just signed up as a campaign volunteer in San Francisco, and no matter how much this jaundiced and cynical old Dad tries to tell her it's a hopeless cause, Bernie certainly seems to energize the young.

[Jingthing]

Bernie is attracting a similar demographic to Ron Paul. My 26yo daughter has just signed up as a campaign volunteer in San Francisco, and no matter how much this jaundiced and cynical old Dad tries to tell her it's a hopeless cause, Bernie certainly seems to energize the young.

That's sweet.

Well, if Bernie was running for president of Vermont or president of San Francisco, he'd be a contender!

[Neurath]

I'm happy he's running.

I don't know all his positions but of what I know I'm sure I agree with him on many issues.

From my POV, I see his running as a potential positive to revive the issue of REAL universal health care in the USA.

Yes the pre-Obama status quo was a mess and unacceptable.

Obama tried to fix it but failed because his "reforms" are too much of a welfare program for health insurance companies and big medical businesses, etc.

So COSTS weren't addressed ... that is only possible in a real universal program as in CANADA.

Also Obama didn't predict the pushback from right wing states not cooperating with expanded Medicaid.

The truth is more Americans are for REAL universal health care than most think. I'd say it's easily at least a slim majority. While rationally I see that the hope of this actually happening is very remote (universal health care program), I can see a Sanders run as at least keeping the idea alive.

Of course he won't be nominated and that's a good thing, a man who labels himself a socialist, not to mention that he is a Jew, has no chance of actually being elected!

I think you're right.

He has entered the race with too much baggage and he's too old to carry it.

Yes, far too much baggage: real convictions about economic and social disparity and the way to address it. Electoral suicide at the federal level. A bad news bear.

[SheungWan]

There are hundreds of reasons why he can't win.....but better to live one day as a Lion than a thousand years as a fat stupid sacrificial Sheep. Most people in the U.S. think that a "good life" is to be a nice normal fattened up sheep, ready for slaughter by the wealthy Corporate Capitalist rulers. Well, what ever, if that's your choice, go right ahead and chose it. But just remember, even living high on a pile of S- - T may seem nice now, but what you are living on in reality is still a pile of S- -T in the long run no matter how nice it seems now to you. Pick your own poison, then live and die with it.

The trouble with the 'live one day as a Lion' crowd is that it usually amounts to no more than carrying a placard and wearing a lifestyle T-shirt. And brown rice.

[boomerangutang]

According to a recent Boston Herald / Franklin Piece poll, Bernie Sanders leads Hillary Clinton 44% to 37%.

among likely Democratic voters. In the past few days, over 100,000 Americans have attended his stump speeches - far more than any other candidate on either side of the aisle. It would be cool to see Sanders and Trump battle it out next year. One candidate fully supports cushioning the super rich, the other doesn't.

[willyumiii]

I find it interesting and encouraging how much things have changed in the past few months since Bernie has announced his candidacy for President.

Internet campaigning needs to be taken seriously these days.

They provide much more information about candidates than the 15 second sound bites provided by corporate media.

[Jingthing]

A little humor for Curb Your Enthusiasm fans.

Speaking of which, anyone who actually thinks Bernie has a chance of being president ... do yourself a favor and Curb Your Enthusiasm!