General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Sanders brushes off Clinton criticism: 'Look forward and not backward' [View all]karynnj
(59,508 posts)Last edited Wed Sep 6, 2017, 03:06 PM - Edit history (1)
Did John Kerry argue that Howard Dean calling him a flip flopper gave Bush that meme? Did Al Gore attack Bradley who argued that Gore was too connected to Bill Clinton - which mirrors the GWB comment of bringing back honor and decency?
In any primary, the policy differences are slight - in fact, the Clinton and Sanders records were further apart than usual. So, differences are emphasized. Clinton called Obama inexperienced and unready to take the 3 am call. Kerry said Dean had no foreign policy experience; Dean said Kerry had no executive experience.
As to the corrupt claim -- Sanders said she was too close to Wall Street. That was not as bad as Dean saying Kerry was influenced by lobbyists. The difference is Kerry then immediately said he would put out every meeting he had with a lobbyist for the past 10 (15?) years and stated he could defend all of them - and within a week did so. (No candidate before that had done that and in 2008, none of the candidates followed this example when prodded to do so.) On DU, there were people angry that he didn't just detail the various lobbyists that were said to have influenced Dean. What he did and the fact that his reputation as basically clean was effective in killing the issue.