At the Democratic Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa Saturday night, Bernie Sanders showed the crowd that he is really closing in on his approach against Clinton as a response to her recent rise in the polls and the approval she got at the first Democratic debate. He began responding piece by piece to each of her actions throughout her political career, explaining exactly what was wrong with them and why his views on each issue were the right ones, despite being unpopular at the time. He performed the same analysis on Bill Clinton's actions while in office.
The article makes it seem like because Sanders is disadvantaged by Biden's choice not to run and Clinton's revitalized campaign, he is beginning to attack her more directly and campaign more passionately than ever. His new approach now includes an echoing of President Obama's campaign strategies during the 2008 election, something he recently implied he would not do. In fact, it seems both Clinton and Sanders are taking some elements of Obama's past campaign tactics and adding them to their own.
I don't know that a more aggressive approach against Clinton would be advantageous for Sanders. I think one of Clinton's advantages has been her more calm and collected strategy, and at this point, aggressive criticism against her might make the public think that Sanders is trying too hard to put her down. I've supported Sanders up to this point on a lot of his policies because they are clear and reasonable, and I think if he begins to attack Clinton too much now it might actually take away from his policies and paint him in a more negative light. Furthermore, the accusations and criticism he brings against Clinton are based on policies she supported from decades ago--if he's going to point out something he believes she did that was wrong, he should point to something more recent.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/clinton-iowa-215133
I think that Sanders is wasting time by attacking Clinton's views on policies she supported years ago. He is commenting on issues that aren't relevant to the current election and that nothing can be done about. Throughout his campaign, Sanders has prided himself on not attacking other candidates and I think this is a reason for many of his supporters. If he continues to attack Clinton, he could lose much of his support.
ReplyDeleteOne of Bernie Sanders' strongest platform is that he went against the status quo at certain times in history (civil rights, anti-Iraq War) that were ultimately decided to be in his favor. I think Sanders is forced to point out Clinton's past mistakes; after all, he has to reinforce the fact that his decisions in the past were correct and his opponents were incorrect.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Sanders is wasting his time listing off and criticizing Clinton's views from many years ago, and that if he continues to do so, he will be seen in a more negative light. I think that rather than taking a more aggressive approach in attacking Clinton, Sanders should focus on taking a more aggressive approach in presenting potential in his views on political matters. As Trump is constantly seen in negative light when criticizing others rather than showing people what he can do for our nation, I think this may give the same negative effect to Sanders as it is giving Trump.
ReplyDeleteI think that although Sanders should be focusing in on Hillary's views of the current, he does make a point to look back on how she has acted in comparison to how he did in the past. Sanders has always been a man with firm beliefs and opinions, an Hillary in comparison obviously does not given her now changed views on several topics including homosexuality and war, Yes, it does make him look bad because he is attacking her directly, but when you look at what he's saying, he is making a point with the fact that Clinton's decisions from the past can in turn reflects her future decisions and actions.
ReplyDelete