Hillary Clinton Attacks Bernie Sanders On Gun ‘Flip-Flop’

In New Hampshire, some people said that while Bill Clinton was still a compelling messenger for his wife, they just weren’t sold on her quite yet. “But it’s a real race”.

They praised him in a news conference afterwards, but also made a point of saying they were not endorsing Sanders.

“I think it is a new phase of the campaign”, said Joel Benenson, Clinton’s chief campaign strategist.

Clinton lambastes Sanders over his record on gun control – one area where he may be vulnerable with Democrats – especially for voting to shield gun manufacturers from lawsuits. “The reality is, if Mrs. Clinton loses Iowa and New Hampshire, that could create new and real problems for her here”. Sanders has closed the gap between them more recently in early primary states, although Hillary still leads nationwide.

Still, more than 7 million tuned into the last Democratic debate in mid-December, and more could watch this time as primary contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and SC loom. This young generation of voters is thrilled with his willingness to engage in some of the most prevalent issues in our country and the solutions he proposes to fix them.

But the new aggressive approach makes sense to Charleston’s Knotts.

In a piece endorsing Clinton, Katha Pollitt, one of The Nation’s most prominent columnists, wrote about the seeming apathy of even wealthy, educated, white feminists to Clinton’s campaign.

“Hillary struggles to convey honest passion with issues that matter to the general public, unlike Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren”, the Democratic senator from MA, said Lawrence Taylor, a superdelegate from Oregon. Clinton is now ramping up criticisms of Sanders’s platform in an effort to remain ahead in Iowa. Harris has settled on Clinton – but her passion lies with Sanders.

Even Chelsea Clinton joined in, arguing that Sanders “would strip millions and millions and millions of people off their health insurance”.

There are several reasons why Bernie Sanders could easily be seen as the more electable candidate than Hillary Clinton, making a Bernie Sanders presidency, some believe, inevitable.

The debate stage will be down the street from “Mother Emanuel”, the AME church where nine African-Americans were slain in June during a Bible study, thrusting SC into the national spotlight and the gun control debate.

But Rick Wade, Obama’s 2008 black vote director, said the Vermont senator may simply be too late. Bill Clinton never mentioned the liberal Sanders during his 40-minute speech in Marshalltown.

Clyburn, who is not endorsing a candidate before his state’s primary, said Clinton aides in SC had expressed misgivings to him about the state of her campaign. But asked about what differentiated Clinton from Sanders, Ford said it was really more about timing – about his view that, this year, she is the more qualified to be president. The Clinton campaign might just be doing what it takes to win an election.

Meanwhile in Iowa, Clinton’s once solid lead is dwindling and it seems the Hawkeye State is up for grabs. She conducted the recent Register poll, which shows lopsided support for Sanders over Clinton among those groups. She has an edge in Nevada, the first caucus state with a significant segment of Latino voters, and in SC, where black voters make up more than half of the electorate.

“If [Sanders] comes out of Iowa and New Hampshire with big victories – if it’s close in both places, that’s one thing – but if he comes out of there with big victories, hey, man, it could very well be a new day”, Clyburn added.