Clinton confronts rival Sanders as Iowa polls tighten

[webfact]

Clinton confronts rival Sanders as Iowa polls tighten
By LISA LERER and KEN THOMAS

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Hillary Clinton has spent much of her presidential campaign looking past Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, focusing instead on Republicans and the November general election. No longer.

Three weeks before the lead-off Iowa caucuses and with polls suggesting a tightening race, she now is confronting the Vermont senator more directly, attempting to undermine his liberal credentials on gun control, health care and even the Wall Street regulations that have been the core of his insurgent campaign.

"It's time for us to have the kind of spirited debate that you deserve us to have," Clinton told voters on Monday. "We do have differences."

After months with a comfortable edge in most Iowa polls, the former secretary of state finds herself battling an underdog rival in a state that has a history of rewarding anti-establishment campaigns — a situation that brings back echoes of her 2008 loss to Barack Obama.

While she has locked up the vast majority of support from party leaders and large donors, Sanders has captured the hearts of many in the Democratic base with his unapologetically liberal economic message.

An NBC/The Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Sunday found Clinton with 48 percent and Sanders with 45 percent of likely caucus goers, representing a closer margin than past polls have indicated.

Sanders has maintained an edge in New Hampshire, which borders his home state of Vermont, making Iowa even more important for Clinton. The NBC/ Wall Street Journal/Marist poll showed Sanders with 50 percent and Clinton with 46 percent in that primary.

Clinton still holds a strong advantage among black and Latino voters who play a bigger role in the primaries in late February and March. But even if Clinton pulls out a win in Iowa, a narrow victory could set off alarms among Democrats about her strength against Sanders, who started the campaign as an obscure senator polling in the single digits.

Until now, Clinton has rarely mentioned Sanders by name at her campaign events, choosing instead to warn voters about the risks of electing a Republican. She has pointed to efforts by Republicans to repeal Obama's signature health care law — the president vetoed the most recent try — as a sign of what could come if Democrats lose the White House.

But on Monday, she widened her health care critique to include Sanders, saying he would "rip up" the law and put power in the hands of states. Sanders said during a town hall meeting in Perry that large numbers of underinsured and sky-high deductibles demand a better health care system, which he would seek through his single-payer, Medicare-for-all system.

Said Clinton: "I sure don't want to turn over health care to Republican governors for heaven's sake. I think it's a risky deal."

That's not quite the situation: While states would have some leeway under Sanders' plan, his office says they would not be allowed to opt out completely as Republican governors have done with the Medicaid expansion provided under the current health care law.

Clinton also announced a new plan that would impose a 4 percent fee on taxpayers making more than $5 million — an effort to match Sanders' focus on income inequality.

And she talked about guns.

When Obama said last week he would not support a Democratic nominee who didn't support "common-sense gun reform," Clinton's team quickly sought to turn it to their advantage, reminding voters that Sanders had backed legislation in 2005 that protected gun-makers from lawsuits.

Clinton — who's done only a select few national interviews since announcing her campaign in April — called in to MSNBC's "Hardball" on Friday night, invoking Sanders name six times during a short interview to criticize his vote on liability for gun-makers and his past opposition to the Brady Bill.

"Obama and I were both in the Senate and we voted no. Sen. Sanders voted yes. That is a big difference," she said Monday.

Sanders, during a town hall meeting in Des Moines, expressed his own support for Obama's use of executive actions to curb gun violence, suggesting little daylight between him and the president.

"What we need to do, bottom line, is to make sure that guns do not fall into the hands of people who should not have them," he said.

Sanders has long targeted Iowa and New Hampshire as places where he could trip up Clinton, who started the campaign with a commanding lead in national polls but has watched her advantage in the early states diminish. The senator has also pointed to favorable polls showing him outperforming Clinton in hypothetical matchups against Republicans like Donald Trump.

Sanders has held multiple events in the state since Friday. Clinton was back in Iowa after a two-day trip to the state last week but has also held fundraisers in California and plans to keep a lower profile later this week with closed fundraisers in Washington and New York.

Former President Bill Clinton returns this week, accompanied on Saturday by the couple's daughter, Chelsea, while four female senators — Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Claire McCaskill of Missouri — will campaign on Friday and Saturday.
___

Thomas reported from Washington.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-01-12

[NeverSure]

"After months with a comfortable edge in most Iowa polls, the former secretary of state finds herself battling an underdog rival in a state that has a history of rewarding anti-establishment campaigns — a situation that brings back echoes of her 2008 loss to Barack Obama."

Hillary can't campaign against anyone. So far she's had no competition just like in 2007-2008 until Obama came along. If she had any now she'd be long gone.

The polls she should be watching are against Trump. The latest shows him beating her in the general. Why do the Dems keep choosing this proven loser who got beaten so badly last time?

Cheers.

[phantomfiddler]

Personally, even though not american, I find the prospect of Clinton becoming president quite terrifying Still, after the last one anything is possible ! There is an old american saying, mainly aimed at the advertising media, to the effect that "No-one ever lost any money underestimating the intelligence of the american public"

Edited January 12, 2016 by phantomfiddler

[stevenl]

Could history be repeating itself and HRC be surprised by a nobody? One can only hope.

[Scott]

A post with an aberrant spelling of a politician's name has been removed. Please use the correct spelling of names.

[chuckd]

Hillary has been taking some rather severe hits of late. Perhaps she should try and put her little stagecoach back on the old wagon trail and continue towards her coronation.

Then maybe not...

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Sanders campaign endorsed by MoveOn.org

By KEN THOMAS

Jan. 12, 2016 8:53 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Tuesday received the endorsement of MoveOn.org, a grassroots organization that has been at the forefront of liberal causes.

MoveOn says the Vermont senator was supported by 78.6 percent of its membership in an online vote of more than 340,000 members. Hillary Clinton received 14.6 percent and Martin O'Malley received 0.9 percent with the remaining members urging no endorsement.

"MoveOn members are feeling the Bern," said Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action. "We will mobilize aggressively to add our collective people power to the growing movement behind the Sanders campaign, starting with a focus on voter turnout in Iowa and New Hampshire.

http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/51a6be097cf34fa9a965bd84dbacc028/sanders-campaign-endorsed-moveonorg

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Clinton declines to answer questions about women involved in sex scandals

Jennifer Jacobs, [email protected] 9:07 a.m. CST January 12, 2016

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton declined on Monday to say if she has been in communication with any of the women involved in the sex scandals during Bill Clinton’s presidency.

Asked if she has had any interactions with them, or feels empathy for any of them, Clinton told The Des Moines Register: “No, I have nothing to say and I will leave it to voters to determine whether any of that is at all relevant to their decision.”

More here: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2016/01/11/clinton-declines-answer-questions-women-involved-sex-scandals/78656396/

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...and just one more from today's not-the-main-stream-media...

'150 agents' working Clinton Foundation probe: Ex-U.S. atty

By SARAH WESTWOOD

1/11/16 2:56 PM

A former U.S. attorney said the FBI's reported investigation of "public corruption" at the Clinton Foundation has actually been going on for months, although it made headlines for the first time Monday.

Joseph DiGenova, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, said the FBI's foundation probe "has reached such a proportion of inquiry that it's starting to sneak out," but that it was sparked months ago by information pulled from Hillary Clinton's private server and from the tax filings of corporations that have donated to the charity.

"There are now, I am told, 150 agents working on this case," DiGenova told the Washington Examiner Monday, noting that was "a very unusually high number" of investigators to be working on one case.

Talk of Clinton's legal woes returned in full force Monday with reports that the FBI has expanded its investigation to include the alleged exchange of favors between Clinton Foundation insiders and State Department leadership under Clinton.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/150-agents-working-clinton-foundation-probe-ex-u.s.-atty/article/2580136

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If she has lost George Soros, Moveon.org, she may be about to be thrown under the bus. And it won't even be a clown car that runs over her.