Bernie’s had an
interesting week, which culminated with his announcement that he has been
invited to the Vatican by the Pope. Wow –
he is riding high!
This week, Bernie finally found out how a candidate is “vetted”
Let’s look at the timeline of this week:
Questions arise about Bernie’s tax records and why he hasn’t released them yet. He replies “Of course, we have released them - in the past.” Fact checkers showed that, in fact, he only released “summary pages” of his 2014 taxes. WaPo gave him 4 Pinocchios for that statement. They pointed out that for a candidate who claims he is more honest and transparent than all other candidates, he appears to be avoiding releasing his taxes. The info he has released shows that he paid 19% on his “taxable” income (after deductions). When asked to release his returns, his excuse was, “My wife does our tax returns. We’ve been a little bit busy lately.”
Bernie did an interview with New York Daily News. When the interview was published, it became clear that Bernie had either completely forgotten everything he is campaigning on, or, as he said, “It's something I have not studied”
Then, on foreign affairs, “ Look, why don’t I support a million things in the world? I’m just telling you what I happen to believe…” and “I don’t know the answer to that”
Concerning Guantanamo, “Actually I haven’t thought about it a whole lot.”
When asked how he would break up banks (his promise is to
do that within 100 days of taking office) he was unclear, hesitant, and
appeared confused on the details. When asked about the consequences, Bernie did
not appear to have ever given that any thought. It is all about breaking up the
big banks. When pressed further about breaking up the banks and who and how it
could be done, he responded with “It's
something I have not studied, honestly, the legal implications of that.”
At this point, all questions about big banks and Wall Street resulted in his
stump speech rhetoric, regardless of the question.
Asked if he rode the subways in New York, he stated that Yes, he rode the subway about a year ago, and then proceeded to say that it took tokens to ride the subway. (Note: I have never been to NY, and have never ridden a subway, but I know that NY has a Metro Card and has had it for more than 10 years)
Talk turned to gun control where he has been promising a “comprehensive program”, however, there is NOTHING on his campaign website, and he was unable to give details.
So, not surprisingly, when the transcripts were published, there was a LOT of criticism. Headlines such as:
“This New York Daily News interview was pretty close to a disaster for Bernie Sanders”
“Sanders feeling media
heat after new interview”
“Did Bernie Sanders Botch An Interview With
The Daily News?”
“This New York Daily News Bernie Sanders Interview Is So Amazing”
Next, Bernie was publicly confronted by a Sandy Hook family
member about his history on gun laws.
And New York Daily News posted a
All this happened in just
a few days, and Bernie was feeling the heat.
Tuesday night, Bernie won the Wisconsin primary. Hillary immediately tweeted congratulations to him
On Wednesday, April 6, on
Morning Joe, Hillary was speaking with Joe & Mika. FOUR times, Joe asked
Hillary if she thought (or if the interview proved) that Bernie was “unqualified”. Hillary stated that he appeared to have “not
done his homework”, but even with repeated questioning, Hillary did not agree
with Joe, fall into Joe’s trap, or say Bernie was “unqualified” to run as
President
So,this week, Bernie is taking heat
about his Income Taxes, his poor delivery on an interview, his record on gun
legislation, and he is obviously, for the first time, feeling the kind of
pressure that Hillary, Cruz, and Trump have been facing for months. What does a
candidate do when so they are getting so much negative press?
Wednesday night, at a rally in Philadelphia, “Bernie’s Revenge” escaped. Speaking about Hillary, he said, “She has been saying lately that she thinks I am quote-unquote ‘unqualified’ to be president. Well, let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton, I don’t believe that she is qualified .. . . . . “
The next day was all about the media and the electorate trying to convince Bernie to walk back his statements about Hillary being unqualified. It was pointed out to him that Hillary NEVER said he was unqualified, and his response was that the headlines said so.
Bernie later claimed that “She attacked me first” (Haven’t we heard
After being confronted about him being wrong, that Hillary
had not called him “unqualified” he apologized and all was forgiven,
right? WRONG. He doubled down, kept
blaming Hillary, and then “corrected” his statement by using “Wall street ties,
corporate contributions, her vote on Iraq” ad nauseum. He finally admitted she was qualified, if
only to quiet the press. On Friday morning, Bernie announced that he had been invited to the Vatican to give a speech about income inequality, and what an honor this was, and he was on a new high.
Once again, he was optimistic and smiling. Immediately this became a controversy over
who invited him, whether he solicited the invite, and the fact that the Finally, his whole campaign - Bernie, his campaign manager, and Jane, his wife, have all been interviewed and started claiming that they were personally attacking Hillary because her “new campaign strategy is “Disqualify Bernie, defeat him . . . “
The
problem that I see with this explanation is that it is ONLY Bernie’s campaign that
has used this terminology. There has been no reporting about Hillary and her
campaign saying that. In fact, I personally, have seen Hillary state that their
goal is to “Defeat him, win the nomination, and unite the party.” Bernie’s campaign is the ONLY one to add the “disqualify”
term into that plan. What a nice “sound bite” to anger his supporters.
So, Bernie has decided to play “dirty politics”? As usual, Bernie has blamed Hillary for his negativity.
When Hillary was confronted with his accusing her of being unqualified, she laughed it off, and did not get nasty with Bernie. So, who is taking the high road?
Bernie is once again playing the victim. Just like when his team was caught stealing campaign data, he was the “victim” and is still suing the DNC even though he lost use of the database for less than 24 hours on the weekend before Christmas (Not a lot of people were concerned about politics that week”.
When the media is finally “vetting” him, he is once again
the
So, why do I say, “Smooth Move, Bernie”? Because he successfully pulled the attention away from his incompetence in the interview, his gun legislation record, and his tax returns. And, it’s All Hillary’s fault!! Even though she did NOT bring up the tax returns first, she did NOT send out the Sandy Hook family member to confront him, and she did NOT call him “unqualified” Bernie has managed to blame Hillary for his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.
If you don’t have any questions about Bernie’s ability to serve with dignity, under pressure, as President, after this week, you are not being objective. Has his behavior been Presidential this week? If being objective, you have to say NO, unless you believe that Trump & Cruz’s fight over whose wife was the hottest was Presidential behavior.
To Bernie, I say:
Welcome to the REAL World of Politics. Get Used to it, or GO HOME.
One little thing I came across. I have no verification, it keeps coming across my feeds, and has been presented to me by numerous people, just something to contemplate:
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