Obama also made a point of saying that as president, “you don’t have the luxury of just focusing on one thing”, a jab of sorts at Sanders, who has focused nearly exclusively on his selected domestic themes.
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And to fund it, he pledged, “We will raise taxes”.
The polls back up the questioner’s data: A recent Des Moines Register poll showed that Sanders has 59 percent support from Democratic caucus-goers 45 and under in Iowa, compared to 27 percent for Clinton.
And like Sanders and O’Malley before her, Clinton was peppered by hard questions from the audience, beginning with a skeptical young voter who demanded an explanation for why his friends find the former secretary of state so untrustworthy and immediately followed-up by another young voter seeking assurances that Clinton’s leftward tilt in the primary will continue through the general election and into a potential Clinton administration. “If you are paying, now, $10,000 a year to a private health insurance company and I say to you, hypothetically, ‘You’re going to pay $5,000 more in taxes – or actually less than that – but you’re not going to pay any more private health insurance, ‘” Sanders said.
“I’ve been around a long time”, Clinton said, dismissing the attacks against her as politically motivated. Polls show Mr Sanders competitive with Ms Clinton in the February 1 Iowa caucuses, the opening contest in the nomination race, and leading in New Hampshire, which holds a primary the following week.
Though Clinton remains the Democratic front-runner in many national polls, and leads among older Democratic voters, Sanders remains far more popular among younger Democratic voters.
Sanders is an independent senator from Vermont.
That left Sanders scrambling to reassure voters that he is the new Obama – and take direct aim at Clinton even though they never occupied the stage at the same time.
Weaver said that Monday night’s event would showcase Sanders’ retail politics skills and flair for interacting directly with voters who are “ultimately the decision makers”.
Reflecting the views of liberal Democrats, he sees the government as a vehicle that supplies Americans with the basic tools they need to achieve economic security. And while Sanders typically avoids veering into personal topics, preferring to focus squarely on policy, he spoke emotionally about what his late parents would think to see their son running for president. “It affects everybody, but especially women”, Sanders said. Hillary Clinton gave this answer as she tried to win over a skeptical Bernie Sanders supporter. “They come up with these outlandish things, they make these charges, I just keep going forward because there’s nothing to it, they throw all this stuff at me and I am still standing”. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It’s exactly the attractive kind of package her campaign has struggled to project in the final week before Iowa holds its caucuses. He argued that climate change is the issue young Americans should be more concerned about than any other – and then he pivoted right to his plan to address it and perk up the economy at the same time.
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O’Malley was pushed on what his supporters should do on caucus night if – under the quirks of the Iowa process – they don’t reach a minimum level of support in their local precinct.
