Bernie Sanders is getting closing in on Hillary Clinton's lead. A win in Iowa or New Hampshire (and it is not unthinkable that he can win in both states) will give him a huge advantage going into South Caroline, Nevada, and the SuperTuesday states.

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Closing the Gap/SandersWeeklyUpdate

Looking At Another Poll

A CNN/ORC poll released on December 24th showed Clinton at 50% nationally and Bernie at 34%. The MSM tended to treat these figures as showing that Clinton had a comfortable lead over Sanders in the contest for the nomination. What they didn't point out, but which Scott Galindez has, is that Clinton dropped 8 points to 50% and Sanders rose 4 points to 34%. Only a 16-point difference. At this time in 2008, President Obama was down 28 points. So Bernie has reason to feel good about Iowa. He should also be feeling good about his chances to win the nomination. Even though the corporate media won't admit it, Bernie has the momentum in this race.

Another statistic in this poll showed Bernie making big gains with "non-white voters." In April, he was at 1%. In June, the figure rose to 9% and by mid-September, it had been bumped up to 17%. As of mid-December, the figure stands at 32%. Bernie has been making his case to African-Americans, Latinos, and others and we can expect to see further gains as these voters learn more about him. [1]

Taking on Trump

In a bid to demonstrate that as the Democratic nominee, she would be ready to take on the Republican's front runner, Hillary Clinton alleged that Donald Trump was helping to recruit fighters for ISIS when he proposed Muslims be banned from entering the US. Clinton couldn't produce the video that she claimed was being shown to Muslims.

In a Face The Nation interview this opened the door for Bernie to expose Trump as just another 1%er. In a bid for some of Trump's working class supporters, Bernie pointed out that Trump thinks that "wages are too high" and "taxes are too high" and that both need to be lower if we want to compete with other countries. In response, Trump called Bernie a liar but the MSM pulled up not one but two videos showing Trump making these statements.

The negative in this exchange for Clinton is that Bernie has just shown that he is the one who would hammer Trump in the general election.

It seems that Bernie has been getting more media attention in the last couple of weeks. For instance, he was on both Face The Nation anf Meet The Press on Sunday and Melissa Perry, substituting for Rachel Maddow. did a longer than usual interview with him on Monday night.

"To Rein in Wall Street, Fix the Fed" is the op-ed by Bernie that the New York Times published on Wednesday, December 23^rd. Among other points, he reminded readers that the bankers that sit on the Federal Bank's Board are the same folks the Fed is supposed to keep an eye on.

Sanders in Nevada

Nevada has its caucuses on February 9^th. Bernie can still draw crowds: 2000 turned out in Reno to hear him on Sunday night, the 28^th, and more than 3200 people packed a high school auditorium in North Las Vegas the next night, giving him boisterous receptions on both occasions.

While in the Silver State, Bernie met with a group of veterans, stopped off at an IBEW union hall and had lunch with the Women's Leadership organization.

Another important event there shows what is possible: Erin Bilbray, a Democratic National Committee superdelegate, endorsed Bernie. "She praised his fight against the corrupting influence of 'dark money' in politics that she said poses 'the biggest threat to American democracy.'"

Maybe Bilbray will be the first of many superdelegates that Bernie can peel away from the Clinton bloc.

[1] click here

Authors Bio:

Now retired and a writer, I am a feminist and political activist, a radical Democrat (have come to dislike the term "progressive"), and a blogger. Have done political tours of Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, West and East (way back when)Germany, China, etc. Learned a lot about the US through other people's eyes. Wrote about my life in "Discovering America: A Political Journey." And was one of six winners of an international essay contest sponsored by Cuban ministeries.