Hillary and Sanders

Bernie Sanders keeps pushing Hillary Clinton. He may never catch up and she may get the nomination, but he is giving it a valiant effort. While there has been absolute craziness and novelty on the Republican side, the Democrats have been more staid and conventional.

Will a Low Key Campaign Hurt?

The question is, will the low key Democratic primary hurt the Democrats in the long run. People aren’t as energized. The Republican primaries are seeing a lot of interest and getting a lot of new people involved in voting and taking part. Will the divisiveness hurt them or will the emotions and fervor carry over and help them in the general election.

Moving Away From the Middle

The Republicans seem to be racing further to the right and away from the middle. They were already pretty far that direction before the campaign started. Bernie Sanders has surprised Hillary Clinton and his popularity has forced her to move more to the left than she would probably like. She has co-opted some of his message and blunted his surge because of that. But perhaps that was what he was hoping for.

Sanders Successes

Currently Sanders has won 7 primaries versus 11 that Clinton has won. Clinton has tended to win in more populous states with more electoral votes than Sanders has. Bernie Sanders crushed Clinton in New Hampshire. Most recently, he also won Kansas and Nebraska in what some called Super Saturday. Clinton won Louisiana. Prior to that though, Clinton had taken most of the Super Tuesday states. She dominated in the South and also won Massachusetts which was thought would go to Sanders in a close vote before the primary.

Clinton won Iowa, then Sanders won New Hampshire. Not just won, but crushed Clinton. Probably not a surprise because he is from Vermont next door. Then Hillary won Nevada and South Carolina. Next up was Super Tuesday.  Sanders won Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma and of course Vermont, his home state. Clinton won Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Sanders has won in whiter states and dominates in more rural areas. Clinton has done better in urban and suburban areas and in places that have a greater ethnic mix. Most recently, Sanders won Nebraska and Kansas while Louisiana went to Clinton.

Currently Hillary has 1123 delegates compared to Sanders’ 484. She is about half way to the number she needs to win the nomination. But it will be interesting to see as the elections move to other states with different demographics how Sanders will do. He isn’t out of it yet, but it is getting more and more difficult for him to overcome her lead.

Hillary on Jimmy Kimmel Talks about Jeb

Hillary Clinton made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s show recently and stayed on longer than most guests do. Kimmel asked her about what she thought of Bush’s struggles.

She was fairly gracious and said that she could identify and that running for President was tough and that there were bad days along with the good days. She said he was a very accomplished person and that he was trying to get his points across and make his case.

Then Kimmel asked her what she thought of Jeb Bush’s new campaign slogan, Jeb Can Fix It. In the clip she was obviously amused and trying not to laugh too hard. She said that running a campaign was hard and that campaign’s change all the time and that they won’t necessarily stick with the slogan.

Then Kimmel cracked her up by saying that it sounded like Jeb Bush was running a handyman business. Hillary Clinton said Bush had a number of options to fix things and then couldn’t resist and said maybe he could put his phone number on the side of a bus.

Kimmel then teased her and said he appreciated her leaving him for last after Steven Colbert and Jimmy Fallon. Then he started asking about Bill Clinton. He said that first ladies usually redecorated the white house. He asked if Bill would be picking out a new china pattern. Hillary said that she would use his expertise and ask for advice on increasing employment and raising wages.

Interestingly, she admitted that if it were possible, Bill Clinton would run for president again. Then Kimmel asked her if she had to run against Bill, who would win. Of course she said that she would beat him.

When asked about the Republican candidates she said that they seemed to be beholden to fossil fuel companies and that is why they were denying climate change. She wasn’t sure if they really believed it or if they just didn’t want to alienate a funding source.

Kimmel mentioned that Hillary had gone to Donald Trump’s wedding and asked what wedding gift she had given. She smiled and said “I went to the wedding”. She also pointed out that Trump supported her until he decided to run himself.

Then Kimmel spoke to 4 kids and asked them what they thought about a woman being president. The two boys were worried she would paint the White House pink and do other girly things. The girls liked the idea. Then he introduced the kids to Hillary. They chatted a bit and then he asked the boys if they had changed their minds. They said no. Hillary suggested that we needed a woman president so they would have some facts and insights to base their opinions on.