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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders: 'I am running for president'

    Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders: 'I am running for president'

    Published April 29, 2015 Associated Press

    MONTPELIER, Vt. – Promising to fight what he deems "obscene levels" of income disparity and a campaign finance system that is a "real disgrace," independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said Wednesday he will run for president as a Democrat.

    In an interview with The Associated Press, Sanders confirmed his plans to formally join the race Thursday.


    The self-described "democratic socialist" enters the race as a robust liberal alternative to Hillary Rodham Clinton, and he pledged to do more than simply raise progressive issues or nudge the former secretary of state to the left in a campaign in which she is heavily favored.


    "People should not underestimate me," Sanders said. "I've run outside of the two-party system, defeating Democrats and Republicans, taking on big-money candidates and, you know, I think the message that has resonated in Vermont is a message that can resonate all over this country."


    As he has for months in prospective campaign stops in the early voting states, and throughout his political career, the former mayor of Burlington, Vermont, on Wednesday assailed an economic system that he said has devolved over the past 40 years and eradicated the nation's middle class.

    "What we have seen is that while the average person is working longer hours for lower wages, we have seen a huge increase in income and wealth inequality, which is now reaching obscene levels," Sanders told the AP.

    "This is a rigged economy, which works for the rich and the powerful, and is not working for ordinary Americans. ... You know, this country just does not belong to a handful of billionaires."


    The son of an immigrant from Poland who sold paint for a living in Brooklyn, Sanders has for decades championed working-class Americans. He lost several statewide races in the 1970s before he was elected mayor of Burlington in 1981, and went on to represent Vermont in the U.S. House for 16 years before his election to the Senate in 2006.


    An independent in the Senate, he caucuses with Democrats in Washington and he is likely to attract some interest from voters who have unsuccessfully sought to draft Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to join the race.


    But Sanders rejected the idea his appeal is limited to voters on the left, boldly predicting Wednesday that his message would appeal to both fellow independents and Republicans.


    Sanders said he would release "very specific proposals" to raise taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations, as well as offer tuition-free education at all public colleges and universities. He touched on his past opposition to free-trade agreements, his support for heavier regulations of the Wall Street and the nation's banking industry, and his vote against the Keystone XL oil pipeline as a preview of his campaign.


    "So to me, the question is whose views come closer to representing the vast majority of working people in this country," Sanders said.

    "And you know what? I think my views do."


    The 73-year-old Sanders starts his campaign as an undisputed underdog against Clinton.


    Sanders said he has known the former first lady, senator from New York and secretary of state for more than two decades. "I respect her and like her," he said.


    He noted he has "never run a negative ad in my life," but still drew a distinction with Clinton in the interview, promising to talk "very strongly about the need not to get involved in perpetual warfare in the Middle East."


    "I voted against the war in Iraq," he said. "Secretary Clinton voted for it when she was in the Senate."


    Clinton is hosting a series of fundraisers this week, starting what could be an effort that raises more than $1 billion. Sanders said he will make money and politics a central theme of his campaign, including a call for a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which he blames for unleashing a torrent of money from wealthy donors into politics.


    "What you're looking at here is a real disgrace," he said. "It is an undermining of American democracy.


    "But can we raise the hundreds of millions of dollars that we need, primarily through small campaign contributions to run a strong campaign? And I have concluded that I think there is a real chance that we can do that."


    Sanders is the first major challenger to enter the race against Clinton, who earlier this month became the first Democrat to formally declare her intention to run for president. He is likely to be joined in the coming months by former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and ex-Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015...for-president/

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  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Bernie Sanders Raises $3 Million In Four Days

    Posted: 05/06/2015 1:59 pm EDT Updated: 2 hours ago

    With the help of a crew of former aides to President Barack Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) campaign has raised $3 million in four days for his presidential campaign -- a dramatic indication that he won’t be confined simply to a long-shot role in the Democratic primary.

    Sanders, who is running for president as a Democrat, announced on Wednesday that he has retained the services of the firm Revolution Messaging to run digital ads and online fundraising. The staffers with the firm who will be working on Sanders’ campaign include Revolution Messaging’s founder, Scott Goodstein, who ran the 2008 Obama campaign's social media and mobile programs; Arun Chaudhary, who was the first official White House videographer; Shauna Daly, who served as deputy research director on Obama’s 2008 campaign; and Walker Hamilton, who was a lead programmer for that campaign.


    "Like a lot of Obama supporters, we were looking for a candidate with a track record of doing the right thing -- even if it meant taking on Wall Street billionaires and other powerful interests. A candidate who could inspire a movement," said Goodstein. "Bernie Sanders is that candidate."

    Due to his long-standing criticism of the influence of big-money interests on government, Sanders has strong online and grassroots appeal, which he hopes to leverage to raise the money needed to fund a presidential campaign. And so far, the strategy looks savvy. The campaign has received roughly 75,000 contributions, and the average amount is $43.

    According to a campaign adviser, 99.4 percent of the donations have been $250 or less, and 185,000 supporters have signed up on the website BernieSanders.com.


    Bringing on former Obama aides to help amplify that momentum is, perhaps, by design. Months before Sanders formally announced, his longtime adviser Tad Devine told The Huffington Post that he saw Obama’s 2008 White House race as the template for the type of campaign the Sanders camp would have to run to prove successful. By that, Devine didn't mean raising historic amounts of funds and utilizing new technologies when it comes to organizing. Rather, he was talking about appealing to a broader pool of voters, not just down-the-line Democrats.


    "I think ultimately, if he gets into this thing, he is going to look for support across a broad spectrum of groups," Devine said at the time. "If he gets into this thing, I think people will find out that Bernie Sanders’ politics are not traditional."


    This article has been updated to reflect that Revolution Messaging's involvement with Sanders' campaign pre-dates the announcement Wednesday.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...n_7224630.html

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  3. #3
    Senior Member vistalad's Avatar
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    Sanders is sometimes referred to as a socialist, but he's really more in the European tradition of Social Democracy.

    Two of his talking points are that true unemployment is more than 11% and that we need a trade policy which benefits American workers, tho he doesn't seem to have a position on immigration, as such.
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