Bernie Sanders: ‘We Would Lose’ If The Election Were Held Today

Bernie Sanders’ campaign released a series of new ads on Friday that focus more on his platform as a candidate than his background.

The sharpening of the debate between the candidates on a key policy issue comes at a time when Sanders is ramping up his rhetoric and organizing efforts.

Meanwhile, 46 percent of Clintons supporters say they cant be persuaded by another candidate, compared with 36 percent of Sanderss backers.

Casting off his initial reluctance to become known as the candidate who attacks his opponents, O’Malley did not hesitate Saturday.

Sen. Sanders has been very successful in shaping the agenda and moving former Sec. of State Clinton to the left. “I will not deny that if the election were held today, we would lose”, he told reporters after his speech.

Sanders zeros in on Wall Street donations to Clinton in an aggressive new television commercial that started running in Iowa and New Hampshire on Saturday: “The truth is, you can’t change a corrupt system by taking its money”, he warns. She understands that single payer healthcare is still a toxic issue.

During his remarks to the crowd, Sanders also reiterated his support for legislation pending in Congress that would mandate that employers provide three months of paid leave after a family has a child. Kirsten Gillibrand’s Family and Medical Leave Act which is supported by 19 other Senate Democrats and more than 100 House Democrats. Clinton has vaguely opposed any legislation that would increase taxes on workers. Sanders has been criticizing “the corrupt economy symbolized by Wall Street greed” for decades, she said. “Some people may think the cost of that legislation – $1.39 a week – is too much”. “I go after not just the banks, ” Clinton told the crowd, pledging a tough approach to regulating the industry despite receiving tens of millions of dollars in speaking fees, donations to the Clinton family foundation and campaign cash from Wall Street in her career.

Since the last Bloomberg Politics National Poll, Clinton has faced her chief rivals, Sanders and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, in two nationally televised debates and won positive reviews for her performance during a day-long grilling by Republicans investigating her handling of 2012 terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, including a USA ambassador.

“There are differences in this race”, O’Malley said.

“My parents had a saying in Spanish – “Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres” – which means, ‘Tell me who you’re hanging with and I’ll tell you who you are, ‘” said Alma Gonzalez, an uncommitted superdelegate from Florida. “And we are not such a poor party that we can’t afford to have three choices”.