Bernie Sweeps Super-Weekend with Landslide Victories: Maine, Kansas, Nebraska and Seventh Debate
March 6, 2016. Flint, Michigan. Bernie Sanders finished off a super-weekend landslide by wining the seventh debate by another landslide margin, according to viewer polls. The polls showed that as many as 50,000 or more viewers considered Sanders over Hillary Clinton the landslide winner of the Seventh debate by margins of 87 to 13 percent in the Time poll to above 98 to under 2 percent in the Detroit News Poll
Viewers were troubled by Clinton's ties to trade agreements that had cost Michiganders devastating losses of jobs and had practically turned Flint into a broken down, poverty stricken ghetto. Viewers were also unhappy with Clinton's support for fracking, which has poisoned water across the United States. Sanders stated very clearly that he is opposed to fracking and to the free trade agreements that have cost and will result in the loss of millions of American jobs. In the last few days, multiple news outlets exposed Clinton's vote against clean water regulations what would have protected the water in Flint. Her ties oil and gas polluters also were acknowledged in the debate.
Clinton's attempts to convince the people of Flint that she would take action with respect to their water crisis came up short and unconvincing to viewers while Sanders made it clear that, as President, he would take strong, decisive federal action and fire anyone under him in the federal government who knew about the crisis and did not act.
Hillary failed to explain away her support for her husband's Welfare to Work program that pushed Blacks and others who had lost their jobs as a result of NAFTA into extreme poverty. Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine documents a school shooting in Flint, Michigan that in part resulted from that Welfare to Work legislation. Clinton tried to defend her ties to Wall Street and again refused to release the Wall Street transcripts of her speeches. Observers of those speeches have reported she sounded like a Goldman Sachs executive.
Viewers were troubled by Clinton's ties to trade agreements that had cost Michiganders devastating losses of jobs and had practically turned Flint into a broken down, poverty stricken ghetto. Viewers were also unhappy with Clinton's support for fracking, which has poisoned water across the United States. Sanders stated very clearly that he is opposed to fracking and to the free trade agreements that have cost and will result in the loss of millions of American jobs. In the last few days, multiple news outlets exposed Clinton's vote against clean water regulations what would have protected the water in Flint. Her ties oil and gas polluters also were acknowledged in the debate.
Clinton's attempts to convince the people of Flint that she would take action with respect to their water crisis came up short and unconvincing to viewers while Sanders made it clear that, as President, he would take strong, decisive federal action and fire anyone under him in the federal government who knew about the crisis and did not act.
Hillary failed to explain away her support for her husband's Welfare to Work program that pushed Blacks and others who had lost their jobs as a result of NAFTA into extreme poverty. Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine documents a school shooting in Flint, Michigan that in part resulted from that Welfare to Work legislation. Clinton tried to defend her ties to Wall Street and again refused to release the Wall Street transcripts of her speeches. Observers of those speeches have reported she sounded like a Goldman Sachs executive.
Clinton came out weak on protection of Blacks against police violence while Sanders made it clear that he would use his Presidential authority to end the militarization of the police and conduct a federal investigation into any death of anyone in police custody. Clinton's support for the private prison system from which she has taken major campaign contributions, her plan to continue incarcerating drug users and her consistent support for the death penalty also did not go over well. Sanders opposes the death penalty and plans to end incarceration for drug use offenses He promised that, once he is President, the United States will no longer have more people in prison than any other country in the world.
In Maine, caucus-goers gave Bernie Sanders more than 65% of the voters chose Bernie Sanders. He finished more than 30% above the total votes received by Hillary Clinton. There were again reports of attempts by the Clinton campaign to cheat in Portland, Maine. A spokesperson for the Clinton campaign tried to convince Sanders supporters to simply turn in caucus ballots and leave. Sanders voters concerned about fraud took to Facebook and were advised to stay until the final count. There have been ongoing problems with cheating on the part of the Clinton campaign since the first caucuses in Iowa. Much of the cheating has been captured on video. Sanders supporters are starting to be better informed about the problem and are exposing more and more incidents, recording irregularities and taking more precautions. A change.org petition, containing over 111,000 Democratic signatures has called for the arrest of Bill Clinton for election law violations in Massachusetts.