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Galindez writes: "Bernie has continued to draw massive crowds throughout the state. He drew 28,000 to a rally in Brooklyn Sunday and closed with thousands in Queens. Over the last 10 days he has drawn huge crowds throughout the state. Sanders also spent Monday walking the streets of Brooklyn."

Supporters at a Bernie Sanders rally in St. Mary's Park in the Bronx on Thursday. (photo: Todd Heisler/NYT)
Supporters at a Bernie Sanders rally in St. Mary's Park in the Bronx on Thursday. (photo: Todd Heisler/NYT)


New York Is Yuge!!!

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

19 April 16

 

ell, I guess you know the big apple is a very big place. Truman Capote called it “the only real city.” If you have ever been to New York, you know it’s loud and dirty, but you can feel a buzz in the air like no other place on earth. As if New York didn’t get enough attention, today it will hold a must-win presidential primary.

There is no suspense on the Republican side. Their loud and rude native son, Donald Trump, will win in a landslide. The Democratic Party, on the other hand, is having a very competitive race. Wait, that’s a pretty boring description. It has been a war, with both sides firing grenades.

One month ago Hillary Clinton was up by over 40 points. According to the latest poll she is only winning by 6 points now. I don’t know about you, but she looked irritated in the Brooklyn debate. Those damn transcripts came up again. Bernie doesn’t bring up the “damn” but he sure wants to see what Clinton said to Goldman Sachs.

Transcripts v. Tax Returns

Of course, Hillary Clinton does not want anyone to see what she said behind closed doors to any Wall Street bank, especially not Goldman Sachs. The Clinton campaign thinks she is being held to a higher standard. Hillary keeps saying that when all the other candidates release their secretive speeches to banks, she will as well.

The problem with that is Bernie Sanders, her only opponent, has already released his. He released them again in the Brooklyn debate when he threw his arms up and said that he made no speeches to Wall Street. The Clinton campaign then fired back and asked Bernie where his taxes returns were.

Sanders responded: “I don’t want to get anybody very excited, they are very boring tax returns. No big money from speeches, no major investments. Unfortunately — unfortunately, I remain one of the poorer members of the United States Senate. And that’s what that will show.” He released his 2014 tax returns on Friday, still no transcripts from the Clinton camp.

“It Was a Racist Statement”

Bernie really went there. When asked during the debate about Bill Clinton’s defense of the super predator statement by Hillary, Bernie called it a “racist term”:

Moderator: Senator Sanders, earlier this week at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, you called out President Clinton for defending Secretary Clinton’s use of the term super-predator back in the ’90s when she supported the crime bill. Why did you call him out?

Sanders: Because it was a racist term, and everybody knew it was a racist term.

It is interesting that Hillary Clinton didn’t respond.

Guns

Hillary returned to her favorite issue this campaign, guns. It didn’t work in the early states and Bernie has done a good job of defending himself on the issue. Maybe in New York the attack will stick. Instead of rallying her supporters though, Clinton angered her supporters in Vermont. Hillary claimed that guns from Vermont are killing people in New York. The facts don’t support her claim. Less than 1% of guns used in a crime in New York are purchased in Vermont. Vermont governor Peter Shumlin is still supporting Hillary, but criticized her for the statement. Vermont senator Patrick Leahy withdrew his support for Clinton and is now uncommitted after hearing the false charges leveled against Vermont.

Supporting the Party

Clinton alleged during the debate and from the stump that she is unsure if Sanders is really a Democrat. CNN asked Bernie why he wasn’t raising more money for other Democratic candidates down the ticket. Let’s make one thing clear here, Bernie is and has been a superdelegate to the Democratic convention for at least 20 years. Bernie is also drawing more voters into the party than Hillary. Tad Devine took issue with the charge from CNN.

African American Vote

Polling shows Sanders’s support in the African American community growing. I spoke to Ben Jealous before the Brooklyn debate on the generational divide.

Judgement

While he didn’t say that Clinton wasn’t qualified, Sanders did question her judgement.

“Does Secretary Clinton have the intelligence, the experience to be president? Of course she does, but I do question her judgment,” he said. “I question a judgment which voted for the war in Iraq, the worst foreign policy blunder in the history of this country; voted for virtually every disastrous trade agreement which cost us millions of decent-paying jobs. And I question her judgment about running super PACs which are collecting tens of millions of dollars from special interests, including $15 million from Wall Street.”

Sanders was more aggressive and debated like a New Yorker, according to his campaign manager Jeff Weaver.

Huge Crowds

Bernie has continued to draw massive crowds throughout the state. He drew 28,000 to a rally in Brooklyn Sunday and closed with thousands in Queens. Over the last 10 days he has drawn huge crowds throughout the state. Sanders also spent Monday walking the streets of Brooklyn. I’m guessing after seeing all the ads he is running that they are outspending Clinton in New York. I was in a cab when Spike Lee came on the radio telling New Yorkers to vote for Bernie. There are ads comparing him to FDR, ads with Harry Belafonte, with Rosario Dawson, and with Jane Sanders describing their partnership.

“This is a campaign that is on the move. With your help on Tuesday we’re going to win right here in New York,” Sanders told supporters in Brooklyn who cheered when he said he has won eight of the last nine contests.

“This is a campaign that is bringing millions of people into the political process. Working people and young people who are sick and tired of establishment politics and establishment economics,” he added. “We want a government which represents all of us, not just the 1 percent.”

Hillary Clinton’s advantage in New York is that she was elected here twice. She knows all the players, the power brokers, and she has done favors for most of them. Bernie still has the thick New York accent, which should play well here. The Sanders campaign believes he can lose New York and still catch Clinton as long as they keep it close. I think that is very optimistic and might even be unrealistic. A loss in New York would be a game-changer for Clinton. In boxing terms it would be a knockdown. So the stakes are huge in New York today. Don’t expect either candidate to go down without a fight.



Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

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