"I have seen the opposition book assembled by Republicans for Sanders"

[Qutzupalotl]

(by Kurt Eichenwald, article from Nov. 2016)

So what would have happened when Sanders hit a real opponent, someone who did not care about alienating the young college voters in his base? I have seen the opposition book assembled by Republicans for Sanders, and it was brutal. The Republicans would have torn him apart. And while Sanders supporters might delude themselves into believing that they could have defended him against all of this, there is a name for politicians who play defense all the time: losers.

....

Then there's the fact that Sanders was on unemployment until his mid-30s, and that he stole electricity from a neighbor after failing to pay his bills, and that he co-sponsored a bill to ship Vermont's nuclear waste to a poor Hispanic community in Texas, where it could be dumped. You can just see the words "environmental racist" on Republican billboards. And if you can't, I already did. They were in the Republican opposition research book as a proposal on how to frame the nuclear waste issue.

Also on the list: Sanders violated campaign finance laws, criticized Clinton for supporting the 1994 crime bill that he voted for, and he voted against the Amber Alert system. His pitch for universal health care would have been used against him too, since it was tried in his home state of Vermont and collapsed due to excessive costs. Worst of all, the Republicans also had video of Sanders at a 1985 rally thrown by the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua where half a million people chanted, "Here, there, everywhere/the Yankee will die,'' while President Daniel Ortega condemned "state terrorism" by America. Sanders said, on camera, supporting the Sandinistas was "patriotic."

The Republicans had at least four other damning Sanders videos (I don't know what they showed), and the opposition research folder was almost 2-feet thick. (The section calling him a communist with connections to Castro alone would have cost him Florida.) In other words, the belief that Sanders would have walked into the White House based on polls taken before anyone really attacked him is a delusion built on a scaffolding of political ignorance.

https://www.newsweek.com/myths-cost-democrats-presidential-election-521044

[handmade34]

1. Electoral College

the negative campaign and propaganda will hit the swing states hardest

[BootinUp]

2. This is no joke. Nt

[rainy]

28. I want to be for Pete but wonder if he can win the black vote?

How do you see that playing out?

[BootinUp]

30. He has been reaching out to the AA community. I'm no psychic but

just based on his demonstrated abilities, I give him a fair shot at making significant inroads there. He has good ideas just needs a chance and enough time.

[rainy]

31. I wish he could just name a VP now and choose

Stacey Adams. That ticket would win hands down

[Captain Zero]

84. Who is Stacey Adams?

nt

[Demsrule86]

45. He has made no progress and neither has Amy.

[blm]

3. First time I'm seeing this. Kurt Eichenwald is not the type

of journalist who would write this recklessly.

[squirecam]

5. Old article

But it’s still true.

[blm]

15. I noticed the date, but, still the 1st time I saw it.

Really tough stuff.

[betsuni]

4. "delusion built on a scaffolding of political ignorance."

Great article.

[Hav]

9. That's a brilliant summary of his "movement"

and a section of his followers. And that's not an insult, we simply have to deal with reality instead of naive make-belief.

[Cha]

44. Yes and it needs to be kicked to

the first page.

[calguy]

6. This is real political reality

So many Sanders supporters, not all of them, are so naive they have no idea of what would hitthem, and hit them hard. I know first hand, I worked on the McGovern campaign as a young naive 22 year old. I can still feel the pain.

[TwilightZone]

8. Some seem to not care (or know) what happened prior to 2015.

They just assume since they don't care, neither will anyone else.

For many, it seems that Sanders was their introduction into politics and they apparently haven't bothered to learn anything about political history or the history of their candidate. My favorite are those who think that Sanders can restore the Democratic Party to a liberal utopia that never existed.

[renate]

11. yep. Most of us were idealistic once, and that's wonderful, truly

My daughter is 1000% behind Sanders and nobody else. She'll vote for whoever the nominee ends up being, but that's because she is not just idealistic but very pragmatic (the two can coexist) and responsible.

I don't know how she'd react to this stuff coming out, which it certainly would. But I know how swing voters would react....

[UniteFightBack]

25. I was always practical first because I understood even as a 'dumb' kid that you need to win or you

got NOTHING.

[TwilightZone]

29. Right.

Before we can set the agenda, we have to win first. Give any of our top candidates a decent majority in the House and Senate and they'll all pursue very similar goals. The agenda can only be as progressive as can get through Congress.

[Demsrule86]

46. Me too. And too many times we lose because we picked the wrong candidate.

[Blue_true]

95. Actually, in three elections that I remember, we lost because

the left spent precious capital shitting on our party nominee (Carter, Gore, Clinton).

[Demsrule86]

96. I would add Kerry to that list as well.

[Blue_true]

97. I wonder whether any of the people that were fooled by the Sarandons, Naders, Moores

in past critical elections regret how they voted, or didn't vote?

[Demsrule86]

103. I wonder too.

[Blue_true]

94. I was for McGovern, though I was too young to vote for him.

I liked his ideas, but the character assssination that republicans put on him burns to this day, as well as the anguished feeling of watching him get crushed on Election Day that just won't go away.

[Blue_true]

93. Your daughter will wish that she had supported Warren instead.

Unfortunately hindsight is useless once a brick has hit a person up side the head.

So many Sanders faults are being papered over by his supporters. His voting history on guns is abysmal at best, yet his supporters and others are all over Bloomberg for stop and frisk, an attempt to corrall the guns that Sanders voted to allow on big city streets. Sanders think that racial discrimination will magically go away once people have more take home pay. The cluelessness is almost lamb-like.

[Blue_true]

92. And wasn't McGovern a war hero? Yet, didn't they call him a communist?

People that think Bernie's past won't be used against him big by republicans in North Carolina and Florida are completely deluded, ALL OF THEM!!!!

[redstatebluegirl]

7. I believe it.

[calguy]

10. I forgot about Bernie living on unemployment until his 30's

And stealing electricity from his neighbors. Republicans will have a heyday exploiting that little gem of reality. "The freeloading liberal who thinks society owes him a living". I don't really think that statement describes Bernie Sanders at all, but republicans will paint it in such a way that most of America will believe it.

[jmowreader]

20. No, no...they'll never call him a "liberal"

They will call him a "leftist," a "radical," a "socialist" and a "communist."

[calguy]

21. True That

[yonder]

53. Nailed it.

[Still In Wisconsin]

90. ...and, sadly, they'd be right, except maybe for the "communist" part.

Bernie is above all else a political vandal. He just wants to burn it all down.

[treestar]

48. I don't see how he could get unemployment

unless he had been employed for at least some period of time. You aren't in the system until you've worked.

[Scurrilous]

80. Free juice!

And then there are the absurd promises. He’s going to create 20 million new union jobs. (No he’s not, unless he also creates 20 million new human beings.) He’s going to eliminate fossil fuels by 2030 at the latest. (I don’t think even the most optimistic environmentalist thinks we can build out solar and wind that fast.) Electricity will be “virtually free” by 2035. (Oh please.)

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/08/bernie-sanders-gets-a-d-for-his-climate-plan/

[brush]

12. No Sanders defenders? That hard truth is tough to slough off though.

[Qutzupalotl]

13. I was a Bernie supporter in 2016.

Mostly I was worried that Clinton was too hated, even if irrationally.

DUer Steven Leser tried to warn me about all the oppo research on Sanders. I didn’t want to believe him. That was before all this Russia shit played out, and IIRC before the election. (I went looking for his post but couldn’t find it.)

I believe him now.

Our task is to coalesce around one strong candidate to keep Sanders from claiming momentum, but I don’t know who that should be. I like all the other top contenders, but too many choices dilute the anti-Bernie vote.

[blm]

24. Warren was keeping Sanders numbers down till Joe and Pete spent all fall

targeting her as dishonest and stubborn. They completely laid off Sanders after his heart attack, and they resented that Warren’s popularity was rising rapidly.

So.....They got Warren’s numbers down and ..... Sanders started rising again.

Warren was best positioned to unite the divides in the party. She is also the best corruption fighter in the Dem party....and Joe and Pete camps tagteamed against her....for 3months.

[obamanut2012]

62. This

Huge mistake, driven by hubris n/t

[obamanut2012]

61. I forgot about Steven

[aikoaiko]

98. What's to defend? Bernie did those things and its already out there.

If Eichenwald knows more he has a journalistic obligation to tell the truth.

[aikoaiko]

99. All this information is out there and Bernie is rising in the polls.

[brush]

100. It's out there but most people don't know it. And there's much more.

[Cha]

108. It's not "out there" like it would be Out there..

[brush]

14. K&R

[Zolorp]

16. K&R

[Cha]

17. Mahalo for posting, Q.. Bookmarked!

[MH1]

18. "scaffolding of political ignorance" -- why Eichenwald gets paid to write, and

I never will.

That is a perfect description.

[highplainsdem]

19. This backs up what I've been saying re the GE polls showing Sanders doing well against Trump:

The Republicans had at least four other damning Sanders videos (I don't know what they showed), and the opposition research folder was almost 2-feet thick. (The section calling him a communist with connections to Castro alone would have cost him Florida.) In other words, the belief that Sanders would have walked into the White House based on polls taken before anyone really attacked him is a delusion built on a scaffolding of political ignorance.

[Cha]

22. Exactly.. and what many of us

have been saying, too.

[Qutzupalotl]

23. Exactly. They had to pressure someone to MAKE STUFF UP about Biden,

because he’s done nothing wrong besides hug people too much. Whereas with Bernie, apparently they have a pile of stuff ready to go. No wonder they’re pushing Republicans in SC to cross over for Bernie.

Push comes to shove, I’m probably a Biden guy for that reason, but there really are a lot of good candidates this time.

[Fresh_Start]

26. dont forget his Castro love and kissing florida goodbye nt

nt

[RazBerryBeret]

27. I'm 100 percent sure

there is opposition research on all our candidates, no one is going to get off easy. If they can't find anything they will make up shit.

[empedocles]

32. BS is the easiest target.

[Dream Girl]

33. Of course, but the Sanders stuff is juicy! No wonder Trump is pushing him and trying to bump off

Biden. Sanders doesn't care if he makes us lose the GE as long as he has a sliver of a possibility. My advice is take heed!

[brush]

34. They don't have to make this stuff up. It's devastating and will doom the party

[Cha]

38. Exactly.

[Qutzupalotl]

35. True, but all they have on Biden is made up.

And I’m not sure the other candidates’ folders are anywhere close to 2 feet tall.

[blm]

39. This is going into battle with a broken kneecap.

[Demsrule86]

47. Not like this -the socialist freeloader attack...we will lose 35 states.

[Azathoth]

36. This is critical. Bernie's appeal outside his base is due to his likability and perceived sincerity

If the GOP have enough dirt on him to really sour voters on his character, he's absolute toast.

[fallout87]

37. The establishment knives

are out for Bernie...

[blm]

40. This info has not been spread by 'establishment' sources.

And Kurt E is a solid journalist.

Today is the First I heard of this.

[Cha]

42. NO.. this is Reality.

[Demsrule86]

49. Yeah the Establishment..people who want to win.

Sanders would be disastrous for our party as the nominee. We would vote for him. But many won't.

[obamanut2012]

63. lulz

[Cha]

89. This is called Vetting

[Cha]

107. Vetting.

[Cha]

115. The gop has the research on BS.

[Corgigal]

41. Amber alert?

Voted against the amber alert? Crazy..

And of course, all the rest.

[Stallion]

43. I Love the Sanders' fans Who Point to Close Electoral College Losses by Gore, Clinton and Kerry...

but fail to recognize the landslide losses of Adlai Stevenson, George McGovern, Pete Dukakis. Many of us have experienced these catastrophic losses and aren't going to fall for it again.

[Demsrule86]

50. Also we probably won...cheating GOP.

[Still In Wisconsin]

91. Dukakis actually won a few states.

Bernie might be as low as six electoral votes when the Rs are done with him (DC and Vermont).

[Mister Ed]

51. Important information to take into consideration. n/t

[Fiendish Thingy]

52. Then why aren't any of Sanders Dem opponents using this negative info? Nt

[Dream Girl]

54. Because we don't do that inside the party

[Qutzupalotl]

56. Republicans compiled it and are keeping it close

until we nominate him and it’s too late for us to change.

[Fiendish Thingy]

58. This info is available to anyone who looks hard enough - why hasnt MSM used it?

Other than Sanders honeymoon in Moscow, I’ve heard no MSM mentions of potentially damaging “commie” oppo info. It seems like Establishment Dems like Chris Matthews, Claire McKaskill, etc. Would jump at the chance...

[Qutzupalotl]

60. We don't know what else they found. Kurt only got a glimpse.

I think DUer Steven Leser has seen it too, but only briefly.

You are correct, much of the info is out there, though I certainly never saw the video mentioned in the article. Remember, Republicans paid a lot of money to dig up anything they could on Sanders, with an eye toward painting him and all Democrats as Commies. That’s not something that would occur to our side. So we can point to this or that, but we really have no idea how they would spin it in the Fall.

[Pacifist Patriot]

55. It's disheartening that Eichenwald told us this almost four years ago...

and so many people haven't paid attention. I'm still battling the myth of the omnipotent DNC with my own son!

[blm]

73. Yikes

[Pacifist Patriot]

83. I think I'm making head way.

Iowa helped.

[Peacetrain]

57. I did not see it, but I sure as heck have heard about it.. and he has not been vetted

While everyone else has and is being vetted to the bone

[Mike 03]

59. This sentence got my attention:

His pitch for universal health care would have been used against him too, since it was tried in his home state of Vermont and collapsed due to excessive costs.

Is this true?

I'm trying hard not to say anything negative about any our candidates (Bernie gave two tremendous speeches yesterday), and I'll support Bernie 100% if he's the nominee, but this seems like a legitimate area of concern.

[Qutzupalotl]

65. It is, and was brought up in 2016.

At the time, I remember defending it as being tried in a small state without a lot of resources. Vermont is basically Burlington plus a bunch of small rural communities. I believed that utilizing the whole of the U.S. would give better results. Also the governor at the time was a Republican IIRC, who did not try hard to make it work.

At this point I favor adding a public option to ACA, restoring the mandate, and gradually expanding medicare to cover everyone. I don’t know for sure that it will work, but incremental change would allow various market sectors like insurance companies to adjust to the new reality vs. flipping a switch; it would also allow us to make adjustments in our strategy, speeding up or slowing down as needed.

[subterranean]

104. Vermont actually had a Democratic governor at the time who supported the plan.

The governor, Peter Shumlin, was fully on board with the single payer plan, but ultimately decided to abandon it because the cost was just too high for the state to manage.

I agree that a more incremental approach like you described is a more prudent approach right now. It would be an easier sell to the public, partly because it wouldn't require large tax increases while the other side is promising another huge "middle class" tax cut.

[ancianita]

64. Compared to who? Remember: oppo research (that we CAN find) on Trump could literally fill ROOMS.

For every single argument used against Bernie,

100 retorts could be laid out in elevator pitch form against Trump.

You don't think the damning NDA's, videos and phone transcripts won't be leaked against Trump this year? Puh-lease.

For ANY argument made against Sanders, just pick the best five from Trump's towers of oppo research to squash this "perfect being the enemy of the good" approach to all our candidates.

[mike_c]

66. Sanders can't win because Americans won't vote for someone with skeletons in the closet....

Oh, wait.

[myohmy2]

67. don't care...

...doesn't matter...

...Bernie can handle it...

...there's tons and tons of shit on trump...if he wants to start slinging crap, we can match him...

...we'll start by calling trump-crap all lies and make-believe from the pathological Liar in Chief...we'll show trump the fraud how we do lies and make-believe better with honesty, integrity and delicious 'facts'...if trump wants to go there, let's go...

...no matter who our nominee may be, trump will pull shit from his ass and smear them...but only Bernie I believe will take the fight to trump by any means necessary to save our great country...

...what counts, is that the energy, policies, programs and future vision are all with us and Bernie...Bernie is strong, compassionate and safe...trump is threatening, cruel and dangerous...put them both on stage together, Bernie will tower as he smacks trump down with trump's own bullshit...

...the 20% will be watching...the 20% will like what they see...the 20% will be with us and Bernie...

...Bernie can do it, trust me...

[Cha]

71. We Do Care.

[doc03]

78. Everyone knows all about Trump but about 40% don't believe it

and never will.

[IluvPitties]

81. You are naive.

If all of this is partially true, they will have a field day with him.

[CalFione]

109. Enough voters WILL care

Bernie won't beat Trump.


He'll have my vote if he gets the nom, but he won't beat Trump.

[Gothmog]

68. sanders is a very weak general election candidate who would be destoyed by trump

I am very worried about down ballot races. sanders is a very weak candidate and would be easy for trump to destroy. In addition to the well written 101 page memorandum with oppo on sanders with a 1000 pages of backup from the Clinton campaign trump has his own oppo file on sanders that would destroy such a weak and divisive candidate like sanders.

Link to tweet

trump had a two foot thick book of oppo research on Sanders http://www.newsweek.com/myths-cost-democrats-presidential-election-521044

They ignored the fact that Sanders had not yet faced a real campaign against him. Clinton was in the delicate position of dealing with a large portion of voters who treated Sanders more like the Messiah than just another candidate. She was playing the long game—attacking Sanders strongly enough to win, but gently enough to avoid alienating his supporters. Given her overwhelming support from communities of color—for example, about 70 percent of African-American voters cast their ballot for her—Clinton had a firewall that would be difficult for Sanders to breach....

So what would have happened when Sanders hit a real opponent, someone who did not care about alienating the young college voters in his base? I have seen the opposition book assembled by Republicans for Sanders, and it was brutal. The Republicans would have torn him apart. And while Sanders supporters might delude themselves into believing that they could have defended him against all of this, there is a name for politicians who play defense all the time: losers....

The Republicans had at least four other damning Sanders videos (I don’t know what they showed), and the opposition research folder was almost 2-feet thick. (The section calling him a communist with connections to Castro alone would have cost him Florida.) In other words, the belief that Sanders would have walked into the White House based on polls taken before anyone really attacked him is a delusion built on a scaffolding of political ignorance.

sanders was such a weak primary candidate that the Clinton campaign did not use its oppo but trump would have fun destroying such a weak candidate like sanders

I will vote for the nominee of the party but I fear that the nomination of sanders will lead to a Speaker Kevin McCarthy

[Cha]

75. REC!

[lees1975]

69. Not gonna happen...

I don't care what the opposition book says, there is not a Democrat in the field now who would lose to Trump. There's no nominee yet, but all of the current candidates are beating him in head to head polling. Most of the people who are primed to vote Democrat aren't going to be scared away by the republican opposition book tactics.

My biggest fear is some kind of massive voter fraud, hacking machines or channelling foreign cash to candidates. There is a heightened awareness that such activity is likely, and hopefully that puts the CIA in a position to something about it

[Qutzupalotl]

72. The Republicans have not used the opposition material yet.

They won’t until we nominate him. Polls before then are not very meaningful.

We need to nominate someone — anyone — who will not poll close enough after a bruising GE for them to steal it again, which means picking someone without a pile of potential negative ad material almost ready-made.

Remember, Republicans are also blocking election reform bills to do things like remove modems from voting machines and bar foreign election interference. In other words, they’re counting on doing the same things again. So we need a hefty margin to actually win.

[Cha]

106. We don't want to give them a chance

[Gothmog]

70. If sanders is the nominee, trump will easily win Florida

Link to tweet

[OliverQ]

74. No Democrat is going to win Florida.

[evertonfc]

76. wanna bet

What makes you think that? Biden will.

[Scurrilous]

77. Unemployment ran out. What to do?

'In subsequent Liberty Union campaigns he advocated for “the doing away with all time limitations for unemployment benefits.”

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/bernie-sanders-vermont-119927

[doc03]

79. Of 77 posts only three Sanders supporters weighed in, are they like

Trumpsters that don't want to hear facts and refuse to believe facts if they do?

[Horizens]

82. The Few Sanders Supporters Here

all argue that trump is worse than sanders.

"Our guy is horrible but you guy is even worse" does not make a good campaign slogan.

[brutus smith]

85. Well, if the repubs have a "book" on Bernie, they had a whole library on Hillary.

Joe should have run in 2016. He would have been President now instead of trump.

[blm]

86. My gut always told me that Biden would have won easily in 2016.

I really thought that was his year and that he would have been welcomed as a continuation of Obama.

[Cha]

110. Hillary isn't running.

[brutus smith]

111. I said had.

[Scurrilous]

87. ...

[Cha]

88. Kick to the top..

[dewsgirl]

101. I have wondered if that isn't why they were pushing so hard for him.

[Bleacher Creature]

102. I still think Trump has only a limited path to re-election. It's called "Nominate Bernie Sanders"

This positively terrifies me.

[Cha]

112. K

[Qutzupalotl]

113. What finally did it for me

was Russia gloating about their pro-Kremlin people in the U.S.:

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

114. Bloomberg Campaign Hints at Damaging Sanders Info

This intrigues me. I have seen a ton of the oppo on sanders but would love to see more https://politicalwire.com/2020/02/18/bloomberg-campaign-hints-at-damaging-sanders-info/

Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey tweets: “The opposition research on Bernie Sanders could fill Donald Trump’s empty Foxconn facility in Wisconsin.”

“It is very damaging, perhaps even disqualifying.”