Clinton counters Sanders with ad barrage in Minnesota

Bernie Sanders came out with guns blazing for the sixth Democratic Party debate, held on February 11 in Milwaukee, and moderated by Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff of PBS.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (VT-I), Democratic Presidential Candidate: That is…

And I’m not saying Barack Obama isn’t a great president, I support him, but we can do better. He regularly notes his ability to generate a large voter enthusiasm among young people, one of Obama’s main draws in 2008. This, Benen asserts, “reinforces an important difference between Sanders and Hillary Clinton: the former thinks big and bold, without too much concern for realism or practical limits, while the latter is nearly preoccupied with not over-promising”. People aren’t dumb. Why in God’s name does Wall Street make huge campaign contributions?

Clinton pushed back, defending her relationship with Kissinger. “But it seems like every time we try to talk about black people and us getting something for the systematic reparations and the exploitation of our people we have to include every other person of colour… can you please talk about specifically black people and reparations?”

“His opening up China and his ongoing relationship with the leaders of China is an incredibly useful relationship for the United States of America …” Clinton ended the debate by criticizing Sanders for saying in an interview with MSNBC that Obama had failed the “presidential leadership test”.

Clinton also stated her goals to “deporting criminals, not hard-working immigrant families who do the best they can”.

Though the ad does not directly mention Sanders, it is aimed at drawing a contrast with him and propping up Clinton as more qualified. Clinton, who remains the favorite for the Democratic nomination, has a political incentive to keep her disagreements with Sanders focused on policy. President Obama’s approval rating among black voters has remained consistently high throughout his two terms in office, with 91% of African Americans expressing approval of his performance in a CNN/ORC poll from June 2015.

The race turns now to Nevada, South Carolina and other more diverse states including Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas. This week, the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed her. However, she’s having a hard time with Millennials, who appear to be enthralled with the 74-year-old senator from Vermont and who say they’ll make sure a woman wins on her merits, not gender.

Sanders didn’t put a price on his policies, but neither did he shy away from the notion that he wants to expand the size of government.

In her closing arguments, Clinton said that Americans live in a “single-issue country” with many barriers needed to be broken, including racism, sexism, and discrimination: “We’ve got to stand up for unions and working people who have done it before, the American middle class, and those being attacked by ideologues and demagogues”.

During the two-hour showdown, one of the most heated exchanges was over the issue of wall street ties and campaign finance reform. She asserts that Sanders needs to do more to extend his message to minority voters and that not doing so could ” come at his own political peril”.