Clinton Machine on the Ropes as Sanders Takes Momentum to New York

[imagine2015]

Clinton Machine on the Ropes as Sanders Takes Momentum to NY
New York primary has become 'the war to settle the score' after Sanders sweeps seven out of eight recent match-ups
by Lauren McCauley, staff writer
April 6, 2016

Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton is on her heels having now lost seven of the past eight presidential nominating contests, thrusting the upcoming primary in New York front and center.

"Clinton now faces the unavoidable fact that she must win New York by a convincing margin or face a barrage of questions about whether her campaign is faltering," Politico's Gabriel Debenedetti reported Wednesday.

Debenedetti explains:

Nothing short of a cushioned victory in the state she represented as a senator is likely to calm persistent Democratic questions about why the front-runner is still losing states—some of them by landslide margins. While she retains a comfortable lead of roughly 250 pledged delegates even after her Wisconsin loss, the campaign’s repeated insistence that Sanders can't catch up may be accurate but it won't be enough to inspire confidence in her strength as the party nominee in November.

Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver late Tuesday accused the Clinton camp of trying to "tear the party apart."

"Don't destroy the Democratic Party to satisfy the secretary's ambitions to become president of the United States," Weaver told CNN. "Let's not denigrate each other's supporters and tear the party apart."

"The senator has tried to run an issue-oriented campaign; obviously the contrast has become sharper of late," he added. "We're fully prepared to engage in that environment if they want to."

Eighteen thousand people turned out to hear Sanders speak in the Bronx last week and the progressive Working Families Party, which endorsed the Vermont senator in September, has been campaigning aggressively in New York on his behalf.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/06/clinton-machine-ropes-sanders-takes-momentum-ny

[KPN]

1. And the Clinton machine isn't smart enough to play rope-a-dope ...

Instead, they are coming out swinging with all guns engaged. Too bad for them. The exact opposite of what real leaders and winners do -- remain calm, patient, hold fire until you have a perfect shot.

[firebrand80]

2. No, it's Bernie that needs to win by a large margin in NY

Anything close to a tie might produce a negative media narrative for Hillary, but it would be devastating to Bernie's chances of catching her in the delegate count.

[imagine2015]

3. No he doesn't. She is suppose to have New York in the bag by at least 70-30. Remember that?

[firebrand80]

5. If he actually wants to get more delegates than her, he does nt

[GeorgiaPeanuts]

6. No its about the momentum...

If he trounces her in her "home state" it will call into question her whole campaign and will build momentum as we roll into delegate rich California and push hard for a knockout punch.

[firebrand80]

7. You don't win the nomination by finishing on a high note

You win by getting more delegates.

[GeorgiaPeanuts]

8. California has over 500 delegates.

A knockout punch similar to all his other West Coast performances would be devestating, and should work out well in the math.

[firebrand80]

10. It also has proportional allocation

So while a 200 delegate lead might look small when a 500 delegate State is on the calendar, in reality getting +200 delegates is a very tall task.

And counting on Bernie winning California just like he won Idaho, Utah and WA, just because it's on the "West Coast" is like claiming New York is similar to Vermont.

[roguevalley]

4. she is reinforcing why people hate her

[Yurovsky]

9. You mean you don't enjoy being told to fall in line OR ELSE???

Gee I thought everybody liked to be threatened to carry water for Goldman Sachs or suffer the wrath of the Emporer... 😖

Hillary didn't have to take all that dirty corporate money. She didn't have to take 6-figure speaking fees from colleges where students were drowning in debt. She didn't have to flut the law and set up an off-the-books private email server instead of using the secure .gov account THAT WAS ALREADY PAID FOR BY TAXPAYERS.

She has, IMHO, operated in a manner that is inconsistent with the values of the party and the men and women, especially the working class and poor, who make up the lion share of the Democratic voting base. And for her and her minions to tell Bernie supporters that we're not being realistic to ask for living wages or for corporations to be treated as corporations (not people) or for sanity to be introduced to defense spending...

Tell me "no", and I'll try 10x as hard to prove you wrong. That's what HRC & Co. don't understand about progressives. We will not follow orders from a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs. We will follow our hearts and minds and deliver a victory to the best candidate running, Sen. Bernie Sanders!!!

[SheilaT]

11. Clearly her campaign telling the world last night

that the gloves have come off, and they're going to do everything they can to destroy and disqualify him, screw party unity (Wait! Haven't we heard this before? PUMAs andyone?) shows exactly how scared they are.

If their polling showed her potentially getting 70% of the vote -- and with two weeks to go Bernie has made up similar deficits in the past -- they could just sail on. She behave calmly and presidentially, and just attend as many fundraisers as she needs to.

But if they're this terrified of him, he must be polling within no more than five points right now, and as he continues to pull in huge crowds, it's going to get worse from their perspective.

Yes, NY is going to be a bit more challenging because it is a closed primary, and the deadline to change one's party affiliation was back in October, which is beyond ridiculous, but that's what it is. Nonetheless, from the NYS Board of Elections website, as of April 1, 2016, there are nearly 5.8 million registered Democrats, 2.7 million registered Republicans, and all other registration amount to a whopping 716,000 voters. So the Independents would not be a factor in that state in any meaningful way, in my opinion.

If Bernie wins NYS, and it's already looking as if he will, then Hillary will go down in flames, even though I fully expect her to stay in the race through June 7, and possibly into the Convention as well.