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The NY Daily News didn't just endorse Hillary, they ripped Bernie apart
and gave a preview of the type of assault he would face in the GE if he were to be the nominee (and why all those head-to-head polling numbers don't mean that much to some of us):
Here then the moment has arrived to reckon, instead, with truths about Sanders and his programs:
Subjected to meaningful scrutiny for the first time, the senator from Vermont proved utterly unprepared for the Oval Office while confirming that the central thrusts of his campaign are politically impossible.
Which, paradoxically, is good news, because some of the most prominent Sanderisms would likely wreak epic economic damage.
As a basic premise, Sanders calls for enormously expanding the federal government’s role in American life, supported by equally huge tax increases — most of them falling on the wealthy but also hammering average middle-income earners to the tune of $4,700 a year.
On that score, he assumes that wage earners would happily shell out big bucks year after year because, trust him, health care would be free.
And trust him, raising government spending by 40%, perhaps by more than 50%, would be a boon to America — never mind that the prospect of smothering the economy frightens even left-leaning experts.
And trust him, the government would have enough money to provide free public college education to all — never mind that credible studies say he would fall short of financing all of his ideas by more than $3 trillion over 10 years.
And trust him, he would arrive in Washington as leader of a “revolution” powerful enough to bulldoze congressional Republicans — even in a time-wasting drive to replace the Obamacare they hate with a still more hated full government takeover of health insurance.
And trust him, he would end income inequality by launching an all-out assault on America’s largest banks — never credibly explaining how forcibly breaking up the likes of JPMorgan Chase and Citibank would add a dime to a single paycheck.
As would happen with any ideological phenomenon, close inspection of Sanders’ thinking clarifies that trust is misplaced. So it was when he appeared before the Daily News Editorial Board.
Although Sanders has vowed a shock-and-awe bank-busting campaign that would risk global financial chaos, he was at a loss to show how he would execute the assault or to cite legal authority for such sweeping and unprecedented exercise of presidential power.
Although Sanders has repeatedly said, “It is an outrage that not one major Wall Street executive has gone to jail for causing the near collapse of the economy,” he was also at a loss to say what specific criminal statute the execs might have broken.
Similarly at sea on foreign affairs, Sanders asserted that Israel had killed 10,000 civilian Palestinians in a 2014 military operation — more than five times the true number. Still more, he answered: “Actually I haven’t thought about it a whole lot,” when asked where a President Sanders would imprison or interrogate a captured ISIS terrorist.
Finally, Sanders’ ideological purity has found a boundary in political convenience. He roundly and repeatedly denounces corporate America for destroying the fabric of America, yet, representing a Second Amendment-friendly state, he voted to grant the gun industry near total immunity from lawsuits.
Subjected to meaningful scrutiny for the first time, the senator from Vermont proved utterly unprepared for the Oval Office while confirming that the central thrusts of his campaign are politically impossible.
Which, paradoxically, is good news, because some of the most prominent Sanderisms would likely wreak epic economic damage.
As a basic premise, Sanders calls for enormously expanding the federal government’s role in American life, supported by equally huge tax increases — most of them falling on the wealthy but also hammering average middle-income earners to the tune of $4,700 a year.
On that score, he assumes that wage earners would happily shell out big bucks year after year because, trust him, health care would be free.
And trust him, raising government spending by 40%, perhaps by more than 50%, would be a boon to America — never mind that the prospect of smothering the economy frightens even left-leaning experts.
And trust him, the government would have enough money to provide free public college education to all — never mind that credible studies say he would fall short of financing all of his ideas by more than $3 trillion over 10 years.
And trust him, he would arrive in Washington as leader of a “revolution” powerful enough to bulldoze congressional Republicans — even in a time-wasting drive to replace the Obamacare they hate with a still more hated full government takeover of health insurance.
And trust him, he would end income inequality by launching an all-out assault on America’s largest banks — never credibly explaining how forcibly breaking up the likes of JPMorgan Chase and Citibank would add a dime to a single paycheck.
As would happen with any ideological phenomenon, close inspection of Sanders’ thinking clarifies that trust is misplaced. So it was when he appeared before the Daily News Editorial Board.
Although Sanders has vowed a shock-and-awe bank-busting campaign that would risk global financial chaos, he was at a loss to show how he would execute the assault or to cite legal authority for such sweeping and unprecedented exercise of presidential power.
Although Sanders has repeatedly said, “It is an outrage that not one major Wall Street executive has gone to jail for causing the near collapse of the economy,” he was also at a loss to say what specific criminal statute the execs might have broken.
Similarly at sea on foreign affairs, Sanders asserted that Israel had killed 10,000 civilian Palestinians in a 2014 military operation — more than five times the true number. Still more, he answered: “Actually I haven’t thought about it a whole lot,” when asked where a President Sanders would imprison or interrogate a captured ISIS terrorist.
Finally, Sanders’ ideological purity has found a boundary in political convenience. He roundly and repeatedly denounces corporate America for destroying the fabric of America, yet, representing a Second Amendment-friendly state, he voted to grant the gun industry near total immunity from lawsuits.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/vote-hillary-clinton-article-1.2598171
23 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
but some of us have known what Bernie is all about since the last millennium. It isn't particularly hard to figure out. 
p.s. that's not to say I wouldn't welcome Sanders on the campaign trail if he wants to make a contribution. And I've said all along that I'd welcome a Clinton-Sanders ticket in either combination. But one of them has to have a clue.
