This Week In Polls: Hillary And Bernie Going Down To The Wire

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is finding herself in a heated contest against insurgent rival Bernie Sanders reminiscent of her 2008 face-off with then-Sen. In theory, there’s a lot to like about some of his ideas. “A president has to deal in reality”. “He introduced his healthcare plan nine times, but he never got a single vote in the House or a single Senate cosponsor”. But you gotta be really, really, really good to get $225,000 a speech. “The people who I’ve met can’t wait”.

“Senator Sanders and I share numerous same goals, but we have different records and different ideas about how to drive progress”, Clinton said during a tour of Iowa college campuses, where she painted Sanders as too impractical to be president. At the same time she is painting Sanders as a neophyte who doesn’t have a grasp on the complexities of the world.

Her campaign has seized upon Sanders’ suggestions that the USA should normalize relations with Iran, saying it makes him an outlier compared with Obama and Clinton.

“He has suggested that we invite Iranian troops into Syria”, Clinton said.

“That is like asking the arsonist to be the firefighter”, he asserted.

Clinton’s pivot to foreign policy may appear to be a smart move – after all, it should be her strongest issue.

“We are concerned that Sen. And we are concerned that Senator Sanders has not thought through these crucial national security issues that can have profound consequences for our security”.

“His lack of a strategy for defeating ISIS – one of the greatest challenges we face today – is troubling”.

While her main opponent, Bernie Sanders, seeks to separate himself from the Obama administration and all things establishment, Clinton is embracing Obama.

“No. They aren’t. They’re standing up and fighting the important fights that have to be fought”, he said.

With all eyes on Iowa Caucus on February 1, which would formally kick off the 2016 presidential elections, followed by New Hampshire primary a week later, candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties have virtually stormed the two crucial states, fanning to small villages and cities in their last-minute efforts to convince voters to support them.

Sanders said he would raise the current $118,500 limit on taxable Social Security earnings and use the money to expand benefits to seniors.

“I think Bernie is more of a Howard Dean than a Barack Obama”, said Buffy Wicks, a veteran of the Dean and Obama campaigns. “You have to have both the experience and the judgment”.

Pamela Engel contributed reporting.