The Disney cartoon song asks, "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?" USA Today has instead asked the voters a more basic question: "Who IS the big bad wolf?" Feb 16, 2016USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll: Reaction by some to Trump and Clinton?
The answer will surprise you if you've been depending on the experts to tell you what's what in this presidential campaign. The media "experts", who are pretty much singing from an old hymn book, would have you believe that Bernie Sanders is the scary one. He has big plans for reform, such as medical care for everyone. He would raise taxes on the rich. He would treat global warming, not ISIS, as the number one threat to our survival. He would end the control of our politics by the wealthy. He's talking about something scary called "a political revolution".
Strange thing though. The voting public doesn't see Sanders as the big bad wolf. Not at all.
Get this! The voters are more afraid of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump than of Bernie Sanders!
Over one-third of likely voters are "scared" of Clinton and over another third are scared of Trump. In fact, the number of voters who find them "scary" or are "dissatisfied" with them as candidates outnumber the voters who feel positive about either of them. They are both under water.
By contrast Bernie Sanders is the only one of the three who has a net positive rating. The "socialist" and "radical" is less scary to likely voters than is Hillary or The Donald. Further, his positive voters not only outnumber his negative voters but also outnumber the positive voters of the other two.
That's stunning. Especially regarding Sanders versus Clinton. In fact, we should be blown over by this, just like the little straw house in the story. After all, Clinton is supposed to be the "safe" choice for Democratic voters in the primaries and for the general election in the fall.
Just to scope out further Sander's claim to the safe ground, a separate USA Today poll out today shows once again that Sanders does better head-to-head against each GOP frontrunner than Hillary does. (
Poll: Sanders edges Clinton in GOP matchups) Month after month he has similarly edged out her performance. These repeating results tell us something: Far from being the "scary" candidate, he's obviously the safest bet as a Democratic nominee in November.
It appears the media must learn a bit more respect for the American public. People are figuring out that they have been screwed by the policies of Bill Clinton in deregulating the banks which then collapsed, by cutting taxes on the rich, by trade agreements that sent tens of thousands of jobs to Mexico. Hillary Clinton gives mild lip service to fixing some of these problems her husband made but balks at specifics. It's very hard to take her seriously as a reformer on financial issues when she takes hundreds of thousands in "fees" from the banks for each of her 20-minute speeches.
She even stonewalls on adequately raising the minimum wage, now a shocking pittance of $7.50 an hour. Sanders supports a rise to $15 an hour, phased in over several years. Hillary parsimoniously wants only $12 an hour for a working person even though she gets $260,000 for a 20-minute speech. Even the New York Times, which has endorsed her, took her to the woodshed today over her intransigence on this issue. (Editorial
Hillary Clinton Should Just Say Yes to a $15 Minimum Wage)
Her reasoning is pure Republicanism: the higher amount would cause employers hardship, she claims, and they would cut back on jobs. As the Times notes, that's baloney! Well, the Times doesn't use the word "baloney", but it does point out that facts and figures don't support Hillary's claim. I have heard her specious argument over and over from Republicans in my 80 long, long years, and it is absolutely not true. Jobs have never decreased after an increase in the minimum wage. In fact, putting more money in people's pockets adds to the economy because that money gets spent for goods and services and therefore companies have to hire more workers to take care of the extra demand.
What's new about Hillary's claim is that it's coming from a Democrat. A Democrat!
No wonder voters find her scary. She isn't even running in the right party! She has abandoned us Democrats and become a Republican.
More and more, Bernie Sanders is looking safe and snug, like a nice old grandad, who knows how to fix things and who gets the big picture and who is sympathetic to our problems. More and more he looks not just like a rumpled bed, but a good night's sleep for us, knowing we have someone in charge who is loyal to our interests.
More and more Hillary Clinton is looking like a traitor to all but the banks who pay her such a lavish minimum wage. Let's see. At $260,000 for 20 minutes, she's getting $780,000 an hour. That's a bit more than 100,000 times today's minimum wage.
No wonder Hillary doesn't seem to have a clear message as to why she wants to be president. She's doing awfully damn well in her present job!
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