Late Monday morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) offered a final assessment of his chances in that night’s Iowa presidential caucuses.
“We got a tie ballgame,” he told volunteers assembled in his Des Moines headquarters. “That’s where we are.”
Twelve hours later, when Sanders emerged onstage at his campaign’s watch party, the score hadn’t changed a lick. With the vast majority of precincts reporting, he and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton remained neck-and-neck.
“Tonight, while the results are still not known, it looks like we are in a virtual tie,” Sanders said to ecstatic cheers. “It looks like we’ll have about half of the Iowa delegates.”
It took the Iowa Democratic Party until 3:30 a.m. to declare that Clinton had prevailed by the slimmest of margins — 49.9 to 49.5 percent — and claimed 23 national delegates to Sanders’ 21.
Still, for a man whom few took seriously when he joined the race last April, the result amounted to nothing short of a home run.
“Nine months ago, we came to this beautiful state,” he said Monday night. “We had no political organization. We had no money. We had no name recognition. And we were taking on the most powerful political organization in the United States of America.”
But the people, he said, were receptive to a different message: that the economy was rigged and the government bought off by billionaires and corporations.
“The people of Iowa have sent a very profound message to the political establishment, to the economic establishment and, by the way, to the media establishment,” he said. “What Iowa has begun tonight is a political revolution.”
Fifteen minutes before Sanders took the stage, Clinton’s own speech appeared, briefly, onscreen. When Clinton called herself “a progressive who gets things done,” the crowd booed.
“She’s a liar! She’s a liar!” some chanted. “Feel the Bern! Feel the Bern!”
Later that night, as Sanders supporters left the party with the final result unknown, many expressed feelings of exultation.
“Oh, I’m so happy,” said Michael McKinley, a retired Des Moines resident who had been volunteering for the campaign since last July. “As far as I’m concerned, Bernie’s won big. Wow!”
Though 49 states had yet to cast a ballot, McKinley was ready to offer a prediction: “He’s going to go on to get the Democratic nomination.”
Grace Hemsley, a college student from Charlotte, N.C., agreed. She and a dozen friends had driven 16 hours to spend the weekend knocking on doors in Iowa for Sanders.
“He’s here to stay,” she said.
Soon after the party ended, Sanders, his staff and a contingent of reporters headed for the airport across the street and boarded a chartered jet bound for Manchester, N.H. There, through the next eight days, Sanders and Clinton were preparing to battle again — this time in a more conventional primary voting system.
What had begun as a five-way race for the Democratic nomination became a two-way race Monday night, after former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley announced he would drop out.
At one caucus, in the northwestern Des Moines suburb of Urbandale, a robust gathering of Democrats crowded into Rolling Green Elementary School.
After caucus chair Jerry Tormey opened up the proceedings, a man called out for all first-time caucus-goers to raise their hands. Several dozen did, eliciting cheers from their neighbors.
Rich Duncan, a telecommunications worker and union member, stood to one side of the room with those who, like him, planned to caucus for Sanders.
“I’d just like to see money out of politics,” he explained. “Let’s get our government back in the hands of the people.”
Bonnie Kohl, a retired administrative assistant, stood on the other side of the room. She said she planned to back Clinton.
“I really feel like she’s got the best experience,” Kohl said. “I don’t know how much [Sanders] can get done, dealing with the Congress.”
Tormey and caucus vice chair Suki Sanford quickly set about counting attendees in order to determine the ratios necessary for candidates to accrue delegates. Within 10 minutes, they’d counted 310 people. The crowd cheered again.
It was clear early on that O’Malley supporters would not reach that precinct’s viability threshold of 47 supporters — or 15 percent of those present. Just 17 Urbandale residents backed O’Malley. That meant each would have to choose another candidate.
To determine how many people supported the remaining candidates, Tormey asked Sanders supporters to file out into the hallways.
“Close the door!” a Clinton supporter yelled.
Three Urbandale residents were undecided at first. One of them was Mike Peake, an insurance agent who called Sanders the candidate of his “hopes and dreams,” but Clinton the more experienced choice.
According to an initial count, 156 caucus-goers supported Clinton, while 137 backed Sanders. After those results were announced, an O’Malley supporter shouted out that all 17 would be defecting to the Sanders side. It appeared, for a moment, that Sanders could still take the lead.
But, minutes later, another O’Malley supporter clarified that, in fact, several of them would shift their support to Clinton.
Tormey and Sanford pored through the numbers and tried to make them add up. Though they’d initially tallied 310 voters, they were now counting 311.
“I just can’t think,” Sanford said. “I’m too hot.”
Eventually, the caucus organizers agreed on final numbers: Clinton had won 159 votes in this Urbandale precinct, while Sanders claimed 148. Four stubborn O’Malley supporters refused to budge. Of the district’s nine county delegates, Clinton would get five and Sanders four.
Peake, the previously undecided voter, said he had decided to support Clinton.
“You know, I weighed a lot of stuff,” he explained. “In the end, I just felt that the challenges that Hillary’s going to face, she probably will be able to overcome them sooner. What Bernie’s gonna face would be in the national election, come September, October. I’ll be honest, it may be another modern-day red scare. In other words, the conversation becomes, ‘He’s a socialist.’”
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Hillary is a progressive? Is there anything she won’t say to get elected?
Hillary will say or do anything to get elected. Despite her impressive qualifications and unquestionable ability, this is a big reason she turns off voters. It’s ironic that her single-minded pursuit to be the first woman president may be her undoing. #feelthebern
Promising free healthcare for everyone without admitting that it would slam the entire middle class — yes, the middle class — with huge tax increases? Is there anything he won’t say to get elected?
Promising free healthcare for everyone without admitting that it would slam the entire middle class — yes, the middle class — with huge tax increases? Is there anything he won’t say to get elected?
–is there anything he won’t say before being informed?
Go Bernie!!
“Promising free healthcare for everyone without admitting that it would slam the entire middle class — yes, the middle class — with huge tax increases? Is there anything he won’t say to get elected?”
Are you saying this isn’t true? Analysts agree on this, and Bernie has quietly admitted that it would require raising taxes on the middle class, not just “the rich.” He just conveniently leaves it out of his speeches, saying only that we’re going to pay for universal healthcare and free college by taxing the rich. He knows that’s not the complete truth.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/ar…
http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/16/news/econo…
http://nypost.com/2016/01/31/bernie-and-th…
Either prove that the above is false, or don’t make uninformed or false accusations about other people being uninformed.
You’ve said it right in your post. Bernie has admitted it would increase taxes which stands in contrast to your first post. Bernie also said the tax increase would be offset by a decrease in health care premiums. Slam the middle class becomes your opinion and not a fact. You can pick and choose what you want to hear but make sure your information is accurate before you speak.
Wrong. Read carefully, if you can. I said he quietly admitted it. And that was only to a reporter, and only when confronted on the issue. And his admission was grudging and annoyed. As opposed to his public stump speeches, where he always omitted that inconvenient fact.
So, yes, he’ll say anything to get elected. And that includes his first election to Congress in 1990, when he accused the incumbent congressman, Pete Smith, of being in favor of gun control, to gain the gun nut vote. Which happened.
And you accuse me of indulging in opinion, as opposed to fact. Your ridiculing of Hillary for calling herself a progressive is exactly that, your opinion that she is not a progressive, not a fact. In fact, she is way more progressive than Bernie on gun control.
You can’t have it both ways. Either Bernie promised everyone healthcare without admitting… as you state in your first post or he quietly admitted it as you state in your second post. By the time you read this I suspect you will remember Bernie flat out stating it during the Iowa town hall meetings when directly asked. You may have any opinion you want but perhaps you should know your facts and not just assume them.
As far as Hillary, out of one side of her mouth she aligns herself closely with Obama, whom I would not necessarily call progressive, and out of the other she claims to be progressive to capture the Bernie voters. Out of one side of her mouth she is against big corporations and out of the other she takes their campaign contributions and speaking fees.
You’ve reduced your argument to silliness. You don’t dispute that Bernie’s been going around the country for months telling mass audiences that they will get free healthcare and free college tuition by taxes on the rich, without mentioning the across-the-board taxes that he knows will be required. That’s called lying in my book. That is doing exactly what you started this thread by accusing Hillary of doing: saying anything to get elected. A trait that Bernie has a long history of doing. Yet you argue that he wasn’t lying because, when finally confronted by a reporter, he came clean and admitted that middle class taxes would be required? That’s just silly.
And as for Hillary not being a progressive, in the 90s she was already sticking her neck out for universal health care and being savaged for it by the Republicans, while your progressive hero was shilling for the gun lobby and voting against the Brady Bill. This morning on NPR no less a true progressive than Madeline Kunin called Hillary a progressive. Are you saying that Madeline is lying, too?
You’re entitled to your opinion that Hillary isn’t a progressive because you love Bernie. But that’s all it is, your questionable opinion.
Other than my first post, really all that I do is point out that you contradict yourself in your posts. My first post is largely an opinion that can be supported by facts but so can the converse. I did not change my story throughout my posts like you did.
“Free healthcare for all and free college for all by just taxing the rich.” A lie. Bernie lied. And you’re desperately desperately trying to pretend he didn’t lie, while you’re throwing stones at Hillary. Keep up the good work.
Actually, Bernie didn’t lie about healthcare or college. He’s been pretty consistent on his message. Hillary, on the other hand, has not. For example, how does she intend to take on Wall Street, or the establishment, or whatever you call it, and accept money from it? That seems more slippery than not being able to outline the details of an entire plan in a stump speech.
Also, I’m with Mark. You have changed the tone of your message, back and forth. Bernie lied, he actually told the truth, he only told the truth when asked, no he didn’t, yes he did. I haven’t seem him lie at all. In fact, I did see the Iowa town hall that Mark references where he explained how he intended to pay for healthcare and what it means for the middle class.
“Pretty consistent”? No, the only thing “consistent” about his public statements on this issue is that he leaves out the fact that it’s not just “the rich” whose taxes will go up, but every member of his audience’s. The consistency of this deliberate omission is documented.
Bernie will say anything to get elected.
Oh. I get it. You’re a troll. I’ve seen you on here bashing progressives and now you want Hillary to be one. You’ll say anything for a response, right or wrong. Well I’ll let the next word, I’m assuming you won’t be able to help yourself but to comment after me, to be the last word.