Bernie Sanders signals possible 2020 presidential run

WASHINGTON, United States — Bernie Sanders is talking and acting like a once and future US presidential candidate, telling a magazine he will "probably run" in 2020 if he sees himself as the Democrats' best chance to defeat Donald Trump.

The popular US senator and self-declared Democratic socialist also has just written a book, entitled "Where We Go from Here," that lands Tuesday, the same night he delivers a speech at George Washington University in the capital.

Sanders, 77, launched an extraordinary run for the 2016 Democratic nomination, and while he came up short against Hillary Clinton many Sanders supporters express confidence that he could have beaten Trump for the White House.


Sanders said he still believes his ideas are best for the nation, but is not openly campaigning for the nomination.

"I'm not one of those sons of multimillionaires whose parents told them they were going to become president of the United States," he told New York magazine in a piece released late Sunday.

"I don't wake up in the morning with any burning desire that I have to be president."

Sanders is widely thought to have popularized liberal positions such as Medicare for all, in which the national health insurance for people 65 and over is expanded to everyone, and a $15 minimum wage.

And who else would be as effective a messenger for such a platform as Sanders himself?

"If there's somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, I'll work my ass off to elect him or her," he said.

But "if it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run," Sanders added.

The 2020 election is still 101 weeks away. But many candidates announce their intentions early in the year prior to the election.

Sanders would likely face intense competition. Several other Senate Democrats are considering presidential bids, including Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren.

Mayors like New York's Bill de Blasio and Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles are also in the mix, as are former vice president Joe Biden, New York billionaire and former mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke, who lost his recent bid to oust Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

source: philstar.com

Tinder's Swipe the Vote gives users political 'match' in US presidential campaign

WASHINGTON DC - Tinder made a name for itself by getting users to "swipe" right or left to find a date. Now it wants to use that idea in the US presidential campaign.

The mobile dating app on Wednesday launched a feature called "Swipe the Vote" that allows users to respond to questions and find a political "match."

Questions include "Keep same-sex marriage legal?" and "Drill for oil and gas in the US?" and users are asked to swipe right or left depending on their answer.

The feature, developed with the nonprofit group Rock the Vote, aims to boost political engagement among young Americans and help them learn more about key issues. Those who want more information can tap on a question and see the details.

"Once you've swiped through ten of the hottest issues, you'll be matched with the candidate who best matches your views," Tinder said on its blog.

"We'll also show you how you compare with other candidates, too! From there, you can share who you matched with on social and -- most importantly -- easily register to vote with Rock the Vote."

The launch comes as some grassroots political activists, notably young women, are reportedly using Tinder to send messages to their matches promoting candidates such as Democrat Bernie Sanders or Republican Marco Rubio, who has now suspended his campaign.

"We've been amazed by the amount of users expressing their political views with matches during this presidential campaign," Tinder said on its blog.

"That's why we decided to build Swipe the Vote."

source: interaksyon.com

Trump, Cruz in 2-way Republican race; Sanders still in race in Democratic contest

WASHINGTON DC - Donald Trump kept a firm grip on his lead in the Republican race for the White House on Sunday but Senator Ted Cruz emerged as his strongest challenger in weekend primaries with mixed outcomes.

Hillary Clinton extended her frontrunner status in the Democratic contests but Senator Bernie Sanders showed he is still in the race with a few victories.

Sanders won the Maine Democratic caucuses, according to US media projections.

Clinton and Sanders also faced off in a televised debate in Flint, Michigan, just two days before a crucial primary in that delegate-rich northern industrial state.

They tackled the scandal surrounding the lead-contaminated water in the city, with Sanders railing against the "disgrace beyond belief" and both calling for more accountability.

Republicans saw a stormy week in which panicked party leaders trained their biggest guns on Trump, the billionaire who has galvanized disaffected voters with an anti-immigrant, anti-free trade campaign filled with insults, attacks on minorities, and mockery of the political establishment.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio won by a whopping 71 percent the Republican primary election in Puerto Rico, a US commonwealth where residents do not vote in November's general election.

But the victory -- only the second, after Minnesota, for Rubio -- hands the youthful Cuban American contender the 23 party convention delegates at play.

Trump now has 384 delegates to 300 for Cruz and 151 for Rubio. Kasich has 37 delegates.

To win the Republican nomination outright, a candidate must win 1,237 delegates.

Failure to hit that number would result in a Republican nominating convention in July that could require multiple rounds of voting by delegates, something not seen in decades but which could conceivably throw the race to someone other than Trump.

Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential nominee who denounced Trump as a "phony" and a "fraud" this week, said he expected to endorse one of the three other candidates before the party convention.

Asked if he would reject the nomination if drafted, Romney said such a scenario would be "absurd" but left the door open to it, in an interview with CBS's Face the Nation.

Pressure on Rubio
On Saturday, only ultra-conservative Cruz scored victories against Trump -- in Kansas and Maine. Trump won in Louisiana and Kentucky, but Cruz picked up more delegates overall.

Rubio picked up only a few delegates, unable to capitalize on the establishment assault on Trump, who called on Rubio to step aside.

"I would love to be able to take on Ted one on one," Trump said in Florida, minutes after winning in Kentucky on Saturday. "That will be easy."

Cruz also urged Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich to drop out, arguing that the anti-Trump vote will be split as long as they remain in the race.

"If we're divided, Donald wins," he warned. "The field needs to continue to narrow."

But both Rubio and Kasich were expected to stay in at least until the primaries in their winner-take-all home states.

The next big day on the electoral calendar is Tuesday, when Michigan and Mississippi have Democratic and Republican primaries.

Republican-only nominating contests also are being held that day in Idaho and Hawaii. Puerto Rico also holds a Republican primary on Sunday.

Clinton nearly halfway there

After Saturday's contests, Clinton had 1,121 delegates, nearly half the 2,383 needed to win the Democratic nomination.

The former secretary of state won in Louisiana, the biggest prize of the night, but Sanders won in Kansas and Nebraska, pushing his total to seven victories in 18 contests.

Clinton was favored in Louisiana thanks to overwhelming support from African-American voters, while Sanders has tended to do best in states with largely white voters.

"What we are seeing in many cases is not just a racial divide but a generational divide. We are doing better and better with younger people whether they're black, Latino, or white," Sanders said on CNN's "State of the Union" show.

"If the turnout is high in Maine today, I think we have a good chance of winning there as well. So I think we're showing strength all across this country."

End

source: interaksyon.com

Sanders, Clinton in dead heat - Reuters/Ipsos poll

NEW YORK -- Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has erased Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's wide lead for the Democratic presidential nomination since the start of year, putting the two in a dead heat nationally, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Clinton leads Sanders 48 percent to 45 percent among Democratic voters, according to the poll of 512 Americans, conducted February 2-5 following the Iowa caucus. The poll has a credibility interval of 5 percentage points.

Democrats had been supporting Clinton by more than a 2-to-1 margin at the beginning of the year. Sanders has narrowed that lead considerably over the past several weeks.

Clinton beat Sanders narrowly in the Iowa caucuses, the nation's first nomination contest ahead of the November election, but is expected to lose to him in New Hampshire. The two rivals clashed on Thursday night in their first one-on-one debate, reflecting the tightness of the race.

There is still a wide gap between the two in name recognition nationally. Nearly a quarter of Democrats and two-fifths of Independents say they are still not that familiar with Sanders. In comparison, Clinton has almost total name recognition among voters.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump continued to lead the field with 40 percent support. His level of support among Republicans was relatively unchanged following his second-place finish in the Iowa caucus. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas followed with 16 percent and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida came in third with 13 percent.

source: interaksyon.com

Sanders apologizes to Clinton over voter data breach

MANCHESTER, United States - White House hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders on Saturday apologized directly to Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton for his campaign peeking at voter data belonging to his rival.

"Yes, I apologize," Sanders said when asked by a moderator at the party's debate in New Hampshire whether Clinton deserved an apology.

"This is not the type of campaign that we run. And if I find anybody else involved in this, they will also be fired," Sanders said, adding that he hoped both campaigns could "work together" on an independent investigation into what happened.

The Democratic National Committee on Thursday temporarily suspended the Sanders campaign's access to the party's voter database after the breach was discovered. Sanders fired a staffer for accessing the data.

The incident occurred when a technical glitch -- in which a firewall protecting proprietary data was briefly lowered on Wednesday -- made voter data unique to the Clinton campaign viewable for outside eyes.

Clinton said she accepted her rival's apology and supported launching an independent inquiry.

But while she stressed that her staff had worked hard to collate private data, "we should move on because I don't think the American people are all that interested in this.

"I think they're more interested in what we have to say about all the big issues facing us," she said.

The third Democratic debate, the final one of 2015, also includes former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, who is polling well behind his two rivals.

source: interaksyon.com