Sanders calls Clinton "unqualified" megathread

[Ebsy]

But guys, Bernie Sanders is running a positive campaign!

[Ebsy]

Hillary Clinton is clearly unqualified to be President.  Blaming Sanders for the Sandy Hook deaths when she has supported an endless stream of war is reprehensible.

She should be ashamed, indeed, she should drop out ASAP.

Are you serious Ebowed?

[Ebsy]

The headlines said she questioned whether he was qualified to be president, but that is not what she actually said.

"I think he hadn't done his homework and he'd been talking for more than a year about doing things that he obviously hadn't really studied or understood, and that does raise a lot of questions."

Nowhere does she actually say that he isn't qualified to be President. So he was essentially misquoting her, then attacking her for his interpretation of his misquote.

[Ebsy]

She's obviously not. Clinton's attacks on Sanders have been disgraceful and to spin it and say how dare he bring up Iraq while you are accusing him with his Gun Record and bringing Sandy Hook victims into this. You should be ashamed especially because of this attack of Obama in 2008:



Terrible.

Blatant red herring.

[Ebsy]

there goes his primetime speaking slot at the convention...i hope team clinton moves him to a low energy afternoon slot

He's not going to speak at the convention.  He lost that privilege in March when his campaign started promoting GOP clinton conspiracies.

Like I said, he's going to have enough delegate control to have some control over the convention, like his speech.

Yeah, not only is he going to have "some control over the convention", he very well may have the control over the convention...especially when you get down to brass tacks about the platform et al. He's practically guaranteed at this point to have at least 40% of the delegates (pledged + superdelegates).

When you take the percentage of Democratic voters who agree more with Sanders on broader policy and ideology than they do with Clinton - which includes a significant number of people who voted for Clinton because of concerns over electability and party loyalty - it is a majority. When you measure that same dynamic among party delegates - who are ideologues, activists and the like - it's an even larger majority. Sanders is going to get his way with the party platform up and down the line: I don't even think a "minority report" is going to be necessary in this case. Any decision that requires the input of a majority of delegates is going to favor Sanders over Clinton.

Add to all of that the fact that there are going to be plenty of Clinton delegates who understand the need for Sanders to play a prominent role in the convention (perhaps even to just avoid the "minority report" platform issues, which I still think won't be necessary for Sanders to get his way unless it's used as a tool for leverage) and Clintonland is going to be hard-pressed to be vindictive about any of this.

No one really cares that much about the platform though.

[Ebsy]

This is exactly why I don't see Sanders endorsing Clinton. You simply cannot say something like this and later endorse someone. Same goes in reverse.

Must nastier things were said in 2008, and Clinton did the right think and not only endorsed President Obama, but nominated him on the floor itself. Do you think Sanders is really a lesser man than Hillary Clinton is as a woman?

[Ebsy]

If Bernie Sanders or his supporters really thought they had a shot at the nomination, they wouldn't need to go negative on Hillary, would they? They know she's favored in the next round of states and want to take her down a notch. What's missing is that they assume she's been attacking him full strength for the past few months. That's a pretty clear miscalculation.

Frankly, the gun issue is pretty terrible optics for him. He's literally spent his entire career bashing "corporate America" for X, Y, and Z... for him to jump to the GUN MANUFACTURER'S defense makes him look really shady. And pretending that the former Secretary of State, NY Senator, First Lady of the US is "unqualified" is an unforced error too... no every question he will get for two days will start with him on the defense. He never really had much of an opening, and now he's going to be off message for at least two days about this comment. Not smart.

Hillary implied he wasn't qualified first.

Where exactly did she do that? The interview I watched this morning had Joe Scarborough repeatedly press her into saying he isn't qualified, and she repeatedly refused to say as much, saying that it was up to the voters to decide. How does that translate into "quote unquote not qualified?"

[Ebsy]

Honestly, Hillary Clinton is out of her depth.  I remember her Nevada victory speech included a reference to wealth inequality, saying it doesn't matter how low you go in America, what matters is that you get back up!!  That's a complete misunderstanding of systemic poverty - a symptom of policies that she supports - and the fact that she doesn't seem to understand why this has become an issue only exacerbates how little she relates to the average person.

Hillary Clinton has spent the last several months flabbergasted that she would even have to fight for this nomination.

She has repeatedly demonstrated poor judgement, not just politically in supporting perpetual war, citizen surveillance, and mass incarceration, but seems to not understand why people would be skeptical of how she has made a fortune from being a political celebrity.

Again, it's not what's in the speeches- although a transcript would be great- it's that she doesn't seem to see what's wrong with accepting $225,000 for a speech in the first place.

Out of touch.  Out of her depth.  Completely unqualified.

Stop baiting jfern and progressivecanadian.

[Ebsy]

No wait, do people actually think that quote this merits anger and hostility? Hillary Clinton, and her allies, have been implying this about Bernie Sanders from the very beginning of this year. Hillary Clinton, and her allies, have suggested that Bernie Sanders isn't a real Democrat, that he's "a liar", that he's opposed to the Affordable Care Act, that he was opposed to the auto bailout, that he's responsible for Sandy Hook etc. To me, that's a pretty dirty campaign rooted in deception and spin.

In contrast, I think that Sanders' attacks have been fair and above the board: yes, it's reasonable to draw a contrast between him and Hillary on campaign finance because he's disadvantaged by not having a "PAC". It's reasonable to draw a contrast between him and Hillary on the Iraq War because she spoke in favor of the war on many occasions and refused to apologize for this for years.

The Clinton campaign's problem is that there are very few ways to hit Sanders in a substantive manner. She can't hit him from the right, that would destroy her candidacy. She can't effectively hit him on policy issues because Democratic primary voters love his policy stances. The only effective campaign strategy, on her part, is to emphasize non-economic issues and try her hardest to "play the gender card" at every turn.

It's really hard to believe your false indignation. But to respond to your first question, Bernie stepped in it and he's going to pay the price.

[Ebsy]

She clearly doesnt have the time to look at every single donor and determine who gets what kind of kickback.. they'd be mutually exclusive 90% of the time!

If only Hillary Clinton agreed with you - I assume there was a good reason she stopped taking donations from private prisons.

Yes, the critique of political funding applies to other Democrats.  Hillary Clinton represents a particularly egregious case because she has repeatedly used her influence and clout to improve her wealth.  Let me break it down this way - the only way you get paid $225,000 for a flimsy, content-free speech is by being incredibly wealthy to begin with.  But to say that Clinton would not be able to compete without money from gun, oil and gas lobbyists is ludicrous.  There happens to be a candidate who relies on small donations - if he can do it, why can't she?

This is on its face absurd, and you know it.

[Ebsy]

Obama didn't take lobbyist money. Hillary does.

Are you serious?

[Ebsy]

Obama didn't take lobbyist money. Hillary does.

Are you serious?

Of course Obama took lobbyist money.

I mean, only 3 of the top 20 places of employment for his contributors in 2008 were lobbying firms.

 

And 3 of his top 20 in 2012.

[Ebsy]

The only naive people here are the people defending Saint Bernie and actually agreeing with him that Hillary Clinton is unqualified to be President. I for one think both are qualified, as is our President, and that Sanders' comments are the result of a desperate campaign that has no hope of winning the nomination.

At the end of the day, Sanders deliberately misquoted her, and used that as a basis for a personal attack against her. I would expect a reinvigorated Clinton campaign out of this (from what I have seen/heard, fundraising has spiked) and that Sanders is going to turn off a lot of people with these grumpy gutter attacks that really are above him.

[Ebsy]

OH DEAR! Clarie McCaskill just played the race card with this

Who will likely be Claire McCaskill’s Republican Party challenger in the 2018 Missouri U.S. Senate race?

I’m definitely interested.

Likely Ann Wagner, Representative for Missouri's 2nd Congressional District.

Also, from the clip I saw, McCaskill more said something along the lines of Sanders' comment smacking of sexism, not racism.

[Ebsy]

Why does the title of this topic sound like something out of Buzzfeed?

I think you may have cracked the code.

[Ebsy]

I agree, we don't need multiple threads for this.

[Ebsy]

www.politico.com/story/2016/04/obama-clinton-qualified-president-221685#ixzz45APbF7vk

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Barack Obama disagrees with Bernie Sanders: He thinks Hillary Clinton is qualified to be president, according to a top administration staffer.

“Yes,” White House principal deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said simply Thursday afternoon when asked whether the president thinks Clinton has what it takes to be president. “The president has said that Secretary Clinton comes to this race with more experience than any other non-vice president in recent campaign history.”

[Ebsy]

Apparently they sent Jane Sanders on Maddow to do damage control and attack Hillary Clinton.

[Ebsy]

The Washington Post is funny.

Sanders wasn't quoting the Washington Post, he was misquoting her. He obviously believes what he said, otherwise he would be apologizing.

[Ebsy]

Now we know what his internal polling showed.