2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Hillary Clinton Is Now the Presumptive Democratic Nominee [View all]MADem
(135,425 posts)He thought marriage equality was "too divisive" for his OWN constituents in VT. Why? Because they let him know they weren't ready for it, and he wanted to win a Senate race. It's on video over at CSPAN--this isn't a secret.
You're really going to die on the "Who said it first" hill? He has changed HIS position, too--plenty of times, in response to his constituency.
Pro tip: It's what politicians do. They figure out what their supporters want, and they serve as a voice for them.
And all the BOLDING AND CAPITALIZATION AND UNDERLINING (AND HELL!!!! LET ME THROW IN SOME ITALICIZATION AND A SURFEIT OF EXCLAMATION POINTS, TOO!!!!!!) will not change that simple fact.
Look, Sanders has said some things (let's check those old newspapers, shall we?) that I consider to be massively uninformed to the point of utter stupidity, but I take his word when he says he's learned from his errors and doesn't feel that way anymore. I don't persist in beating him up over old stances, or call him "idiotic" or other names.
As someone who can speak to how Iranians feel, I have to tell you this--her remarks were aimed at the government, not the people. You might be a bit nonplussed to learn how many Persian-Americans support her candidacy--it's a massive number. And nothing, to my view, would be a better "lesson" to the ulema than a female POTUS of the nation that leads the free world. Even if you don't like it. It would send a huge signal to half the population of Iran that there are places in the world where their gender does not constrain them.