Former Clinton Adviser Predicts Bernie Sanders Will Beat Hillary Clinton

Bernie Sanders TV Clip

Bill Curry, a former counselor to Bill Clinton, predicts that,Hillary Clinton is going to lose: She doesn’t even see the frustrated progressive wave that will nominate Bernie Sanders. He initially looked at how Clinton avoided answering questions about her position on TPP, but then looked at her overall campaign. Besides economics, Curry discussed another major weakness for Clinton: “She’s weakest on the sleeper issue of 2016: public corruption and the general debasement of politics and government.”

I don’t think she can enlist Wall Street oligarchs and recruit an army of dewy-eyed volunteers. Above all, I don’t think she can spout populist rhetoric without any policy specifics to back it up. Clinton insiders also ingratiate themselves to reporters by dishing about her need to seem more authentic. Someone should tell them it’s hard to seem real when you won’t tell people what you really think.

A bigger problem for Clinton may be that we know what she thinks. Her platform is like Obama’s trade deal; she won’t say what’s in it, but we can easily guess. It isn’t populism and it isn’t reform. The TPP? She never met a trade deal she didn’t like. The minimum wage? She and Obama let McDonald’s get the drop on them. The surveillance state? Her handling of her emails told us all we need to know of her views on transparency. More war in Iraq? For 12 years as a senator and secretary of state she was John McCain’s best friend. If she gets to be commander in chief, get ready to rumble.

She’s weakest on the sleeper issue of 2016: public corruption and the general debasement of politics and government. Voter disgust is so deep even consultants who make their real livings off corporate clients tell their political clients to talk about it. In her speech Clinton vowed to “wage and win four fights for you.” The first three were jobs, families and national security. The fourth was “reforming our government and revitalizing our democracy.” She vowed to overturn Citizens United and fight GOP efforts to disenfranchise the young, the poor and people of color, but then drifted off onto technology and cutting waste. Unlike nearly every Republican announcing for president, she never mentioned ethics or corruption.

Democratic elites don’t want to hear it but Hillary Clinton’s in trouble. It isn’t in all the data yet though you can find it if you look. In a straw poll taken in early June at a Wisconsin Democratic convention she edged out Bernie Sanders by just 8 points, 49% to 41%. In a poll of N.H. primary voters this week she beat Sanders by 41% to 31%. An Ohio poll had her in a dead heat with the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. If Sanders can poll 40% in a Wisconsin straw poll in June he can do it an Iowa caucus in January. Imagine a Hillary Clinton who just lost Iowa and New Hampshire to Bernie Sanders. It’s still hard to picture but it gets easier every day.

You don’t win your next race running someone else’s last one. Trying to do so, Clinton repeats her big mistake of 2008: not sensing the times. There are smaller changes she can make right now: hire better speech writers, including at least one with a sense of humor; put her family foundation under independent management; tell her husband to stop giving speeches or else start talking for free. But her whole campaign model is wrong. ‘Clinton Democrats’ hate to admit there are issues you can’t finesse or that they must ever choose between the middle class and the donor class. Clinton better figure it out now. When the data’s all in it will be too late.

Clinton resists change. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is the only candidate in either party who seems to feel the tectonic plates of our politics shifting, perhaps because he’s expected the change for so long. His is still an improbable candidacy, but less improbable than it was a month or even a week ago. If he clears out the second tier, his battle with Hillary could become epic, forcing not just her but the Democratic Party to choose between the middle class and the donor class; between corporate and democratic rule; the battle over trade carried over into a presidential election.

While Clinton is weak on both economics and government transparency, she has additional weaknesses when facing Democratic voters. This includes how she helped George Bush lie the country into the Iraq war with false claims that Saddam had connections to al Qaeda, her continued push for increased military intervention as Secretary of State, and her conservative positions on civil liberties, the environment, and social issues. I hope Curry is right that Clinton can be beaten in Iowa and New Hampshire despite her tremendous lead in the polls.

Addendum April 2016
There is once again a large amount of traffic from Facebook to this post, which is unusual for a post this old. It must be due to a large group adding a recent link. Could someone tell me where they saw this link in the comments? Plus as this post is several months old, please check out the more recent posts on Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.  Some recommended posts below:

Related Posts:
Sanders’ Views Becoming More Mainstream Than Clinton’s Conservative Views
Bernie Sanders Contrasts His Views With Those Of Hillary Clinton
What Bernie Sanders Believes
Hillary Clinton Gets Her Do-Over But Liberals Desire Someone Better
Red Dawn In Vermont? The Real Results Of Bernie Sanders As Mayor
Bernie Sanders Answers Questions And NBC Advises Not To Count Him Out
Former Clinton Adviser Chastises Hillary For Her Smear Campaign Against Sanders
The Vast Ideological Gap Between Hillary Clinton and Supporters of Bernie Sanders
Why Millenials, And Older Liberals, Support Sanders Over Clintonm
No More Clintons: Thomas Frank & Howard Zinn Expose Bill Clinton’s Conservative Record
Clinton’s Latest Deceitful Statement: “I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me.”
Mainstream Media Gangs Up On Bernie With False Claims Of Botched Interview

127 Comments

  1. 1
    Jeff says:

    Very prescient article, that's why it got rehit now.

  2. 2
    Andrea says:

    saw the post on the page of a facebook friend, Bernie Sanders supporter.

  3. 3
    claude miller says:

    just saw it on facebook along with stories about the panama papers, lolol. "sleeper issue of 2016: public corruption and the general debasement of politics and government." rather fitting i must say!!!!!

    didn't her heinous support the panama trade deal that made it all possible????

    i guess she can distance herself from that, too.

  4. 4
    Ron Chusid says:

    Yes, she supported it and Sanders opposed it.

  5. 5
    Jim says:

    Liberalvaluesblog

  6. 6
    Carla says:

    Bernie Sanders Public Discussion Group on Facebook 

  7. 8
    Tina. Tilapia says:

    Eric DeCoster page on FB.

  8. 9
    Tia says:

    I just saw this on Facebook.

  9. 10
    Andre says:

    I saw it on "Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Stash"

  10. 11
    Ben Gelhaus says:

    It's funny how you were spot on!

  11. 12
    Alyne says:

    THis link was given on the "Bernie Sanders is My Hero" page

  12. 13
    Alyne says:

    The link to this post/article was given on the "Bernie Sanders is My Hero" page

  13. 14
    Ethan Peace says:

    saw it in Bernie Sanders is my hero…. 50 thousand people in that group… and I think they appreciate people being right before other people (Bernie) lol

  14. 15
    Anonymous says:

    The group I saw it on is Bernie Sanders is my Hero

  15. 16
    Annie says:

    A FB friend shared it via other FB friends – showed up on my news feed today. The fact that it was before Iowa and NH makes Curry's take even more spot on.

     

  16. 17
    Macbev says:

    I just saw this post on Facebook, linked to by a Bernie Sanders supporter. I am amazed at how prescient this was.

  17. 18
    Laura Ice says:

    Saw it on Facebook on a post from North Bay For Bernie.  I agree with pretty much everything that was said (actually can't think of anything I don't agree with). I am a strong Bernie supporter. Cannot vote for Hillary…

  18. 19
    Athena Melville says:

     Because your opinion as a former adviser to Clinton , this article from June 2015 is very relevant.  I found it on a Bernie Sanders page, that supports his election to be the President of the United States .. Go! Bernie.. and thank you for this article.

  19. 20
    Annette R Floystrup says:

    I saw this posted on the "Bay Area for Bernie" page. It's a pretty active page based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
    I would urge you to uddate this post. The conclusions are even more timely in light of the momentum Bernie Sanders has achieved since this was written.

  20. 21
    Ron Chusid says:

    While there is no specific update to this particular post, there have been many subsequent posts on Sanders and Clinton which include the issues here.

  21. 22
    Elizabeth says:

    this was linked to on r/SandersForPresident . Considering that well he still has a steep path to climb I was interested in why you were saying he would beat Clinton. I would love for that to happen, but I know it's going to be an uphill battle with NY as one major battleground.

  22. 23
    Phil says:

    It's rolling through the Facebook still. Also, us Bernie Supporters are digging through everything with his and Hillary's name on it.

  23. 24
    YVONNE LE FORT says:

    Newsfeed @FB today….interesting analysis. Hoping the chicken is not being counted before it is hatched!

  24. 25
    Michaelbarker says:

    Was in my FB feed. Not necessarily a Bernie supporter. But am leaning g more towards him. 

  25. 26
    AL Epding says:

    I saw this posted on Facebook today,. Enjoyed the article and the author was in many ways already proved correct as regards the unfolding events and reasons behind them over the last several months.

  26. 27
    tsk says:

    It was posted this evening on democraticunderground.com

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