Clinton, Sanders trade barbs over special interest money from drug companies

Democratic presidential candidate Sen.

Bernie Sanders has closed a 31-point deficit against Hillary Clinton since December and now is in a dead heat nationally in a new poll released on Friday.

That performance comes just after Sanders barely lost to Clinton in the Iowa caucus Monday and just days before the second nominating contest in New Hampshire Feb. 9, where he is leading Clinton by more than 20 percent in averages of polls there. “I think it is time for you to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out”, Clinton said to Sanders. “I spoke to heart doctors, I spoke to the American Camping Association, I spoke to auto dealers, and yes, I spoke to firms on Wall Street”.

Clinton received 44 percent of support while Sanders can boast about 42 percent, his highest support in any national poll to date.

Hillary Clinton’s asterisk-heavy victory in Iowa might have been the narrowest of wins for her, but it was arguably the worst of all possible outcomes for the Democratic Party.

Many see Clinton and her husband, Bill, the former president, with a quarter-century history of being cozy with Wall Street interests, a reason she’s having trouble being trusted.

Fiorina has not been invited to the main stage debate, a move she says is rooted in the idea that “establishment candidates…are afraid to debate me”.

Mr. Sanders’ line of attack focused on the big vulnerability Ms. Clinton is trying to overcome – her connections with big banks and companies that have paid her millions in campaign donations and speaking fees.

Former talk show host and political commentator Montel Williams says John Kasich is the right “adult” among GOP contenders to occupy the White House. Clinton’s small lead is inside the poll’s 4.5 percent margin of error and it’s the smallest she’s ever had in the entire race, based on polls recorded by Real Clear Politics.

Poll director Andrew Smith said that in the so-called “horse race” question, likely voters are asked who they would support if the election were today. And they were fresh evidence of how the race for the nomination, once considered a sure bet for Clinton, has tightened in recent weeks. The easiest thing of course would have been to think of the headache the Wall Street speeches would give her in a presidential campaign and just not have done them in the first place. At the time, Hillary Clinton led by 61 percentage points to Sanders’ 30 percentage points in the national poll.

“I represent, I hope, ordinary Americans, who are not all that enamored with the establishment”, he said.

On the Democratic side, the gloves were officially off in a campaign that had shown more signs of comity than rancor – until now.

Sanders also leads in all geographical areas of the state, from 55 percent to 39 percent in the Connecticut River valley, to 69 percent to 22 percent in the Manchester area. In the first five years of the economic recovery, 2009-2014, the richest 1 percent captured 58 percent of income growth, according to Emmanuel Saez, a University of California economist whose research Sanders uses.