The Guardian: How Bernie Sanders is winning over Democratic voters

[portlander23]

The outsider: how Bernie Sanders is winning over Democratic voters

This grizzled veteran is proving a surprise hit on university campuses and social media, blending old-fashioned rallies with an online buzz that compensates for his lack of support from the party machinery.

Sanders is the longest-serving independent in Congress, representing Vermont in the Senate and House of Representatives since 1991. His non-conformist streak was apparent as mayor of Burlington in the 1980s, when he wrote letters to world leaders urging nuclear disarmament, and built on a reputation forged as a civil rights activist at the University of Chicago in the 1960s. While critics may dismiss him as a relic, it is this experience of the last great revolutionary period in American history that shapes his ambition, encouraging him to resist cosy compromises and seek to build a new counter-culture to support his quixotic bid for the presidency. To the shock of many Democrats, frontrunner Hillary Clinton has slipped behind him in polling conducted in the first two, influential states that will indicate their preference for the party nomination.

The last three polls in New Hampshire have all shown Sanders ahead – by an average of 7.6 percentage points – and his gradual whittling down of Clinton’s lead in Iowa appeared complete on Thursday, with the first survey showing him winning there too, albeit by a narrow one percentage point that was within the poll’s margin of error. Even more alarming for Democrat party officials, who still overwhelming favour Clinton, she has also lost her lead over potential Republican competitors in the general election – polling behind Jeb Bush and Ben Carson in the latest survey and drawing level with Donald Trump.

Many of Clinton’s troubles are homegrown. Her advisers admitted this week that they need to work on making her seem a more spontaneous candidate with more humour and heart on display. The former secretary of state also apologised for her decision keep professional emails hidden on a private computer server while she was in office.

“This is an incredible moment in history,” says RoseAnn DeMoro, director of National Nurses United, the first big labour union to endorse Sanders. “The self-organising is off the charts. It is hard for Bernie’s staff to keep up, but that is how political revolutions happen. This is what a revolution looks like,” she says.

[nichomachus]

1. Wow -- with advisers like hers, you don't need opponents

Her advisers admitted this week that they need to work on making her seem a more spontaneous candidate

So, not be more spontaneous -- just seem more spontaneous. I didn't know you could script spontaneity.

It's like sincerity. If you can fake sincerity, you've got it made.

[rhett o rick]

2. I caught that also. They want to work on making her seem different than she is. nm