Ohio Democratic Town Hall

By Jeralyn, Section Elections 2016
Posted on Sun Mar 13, 2016 at 08:44:30 PM EST
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Hillary says she's the most prepared to go up against Donald Trump. She's got thick skin. She talks about what this presidency would mean to our image in the world. She's already getting calls from around the world wanting to stop Trump. She can best focus in on how dangerous a Donald Trump presidency would be.

I just tuned in so I don't know if Bernie has already been on.

The young woman asking about gun violence in poverty stricken neighborhoods seems like a Hillary campaign plant. She asked Hillary a question that everyone knows the answer to and that seems intended solely to let Hillary restate her support for gun control. I'm changing the channel, this town hall seems fixed. [More...]

Over at Fox, Hannity is interviewing Ted Cruz who is sitting next to Carly Fiorina. He asks Cruz whether he would go after Hillary if the FBI decided she did something wrong. He said of course, as Carly nodded in agreement and the audience cheered.

"We are just one justice away from a radical left wing court."

How sad that the Republican choice seems to be between Trump and Cruz.

< Donald Trump's Fire | USA Today Poll: Millennials Would "Flock" to Hillary Over Trump >

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Ohio Democratic Town Hall | 33 comments (33 topical)

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Bernie went first. (none / 0) (#1)
by caseyOR on Sun Mar 13, 2016 at 08:50:18 PM EST

I did not see Sanders, so I cannot speak to how he did. Clinton, in the part I have seen, is giving thoughtful and detailed answers. Not a lot of sound bites from her.

I saw part (none / 0) (#2)
by Ga6thDem on Sun Mar 13, 2016 at 09:06:43 PM EST

of Bernie's. It was the same thing he's said 1,000,000 times already. So you really didn't miss anything.

However it seems that Hillary has been getting these really hard questions like from the poor guy that has been wrongly jailed for 39 years and about somebody's insurance going up while Bernie gets softball questions that he can throw vague answers at.


Yes, speaking of softball (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by Towanda on Sun Mar 13, 2016 at 09:12:09 PM EST

"who would you take with you to a baseball game?"

vs. the death penalty.

Cripes.


Meanwhile, speaking of (none / 0) (#4)
by oculus on Sun Mar 13, 2016 at 09:20:24 PM EST

MLB, Pete Rose goes for The Donald.


Seriously, that was one (none / 0) (#5)
by caseyOR on Sun Mar 13, 2016 at 09:39:47 PM EST

of the questions Sanders got tonight?


Bernie's answer to softball quesiton (none / 0) (#10)
by Coral on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 07:43:21 AM EST

Yes. His answer was very vague (people working in his office, I think, no names). I wish they'd asked the same of Hillary.


: I'm surprised that his answer wasn't to (5.00 / 1) (#12)
by Farmboy on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 09:05:25 AM EST

break up the banks.
i guess he isn't a one-trick candidate.

It is almost literally a softball question (none / 0) (#13)
by ruffian on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 09:09:36 AM EST

Bernie = softballs, Hillary = hard questions (5.00 / 2) (#6)
by Valhalla on Sun Mar 13, 2016 at 09:43:01 PM EST

I watched the whole thing. Bernie does get a lot of softballs, while Hillary gets questions like how will you comprehensively reform the criminal justice system to eradicate racism and injustice and cure cancer? (I may have misheard that last part)

It IS unfair, but in the end, I'm not sure it matters. If Bernie was asked similarly challenging questions, he'd just give his stump answers at volume. If they lobbed Hillary some softballs, she'd still turn her response into something knowledgeable and nuanced.

Overall, I thought Sanders was much the same as other fora, but he did try to connect more personally with the questioners, and some responses had more specifics versus his usual broad 3 solutions to all ills. So some feedback must have sunk in.


: That's (none / 0) (#8)
by Ga6thDem on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 06:11:17 AM EST

true it's not like when Bernie has been given hard answers he's been able to answer them.
To be honest I couldn't watch much of Bernie. The screaming started to give me a headache.

New Year (none / 0) (#7)
by tech3331 on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 02:46:16 AM EST

Nice article.

Happy New Year

: Site Violator (none / 0) (#9)
by Nemi on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 06:59:46 AM EST

... but a belated, Same to you.

Are the town halls fixed? (none / 0) (#11)
by jimakaPPJ on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 08:40:59 AM EST

Or is it the differences in the supporters??

If you buy into Sanders free stuff and are 20 years old....are you going to think to ask him, "How you gonna pay for that?"

That's a good question (5.00 / 1) (#16)
by Valhalla on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 03:51:09 PM EST

CNN never discusses how they pick the questioners. However the majority seem to be undecideds or "leaners", with almost none who have definitely decided for one candidate or the other. The Undecideds, if they really are undecided, are way overrepresented.

Most of the questions are variations on whatever is absorbing the MSM talking heads of the day, though, so clearly there's a lot of selection going on. And the moderators ask questions themselves.

A first for last night for Clinton's segment was no email, no Benghazi, and I think no release the speeches.


When Roland Martin is a moderator (none / 0) (#14)
by Towanda on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 09:37:59 AM EST

picked by the network, with the evidence of his CDS in 2008: Yeh, this one was fixed.


: You have a point (none / 0) (#21)
by jimakaPPJ on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 04:23:05 PM EST

In the vein of questions (none / 0) (#15)
by KeysDan on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 03:49:23 PM EST

that "get people to know Bernie Sanders," the moderator asked who his friends are, and who in the US Senate are his friends. For the first part, he named those who work for him (his wife was excluded in the question); for the second, Sanders assumed that the question meant, Republicans in the US Senate: His answer, James Inhofe (R.OK)--while, he said, Inhofe and he disagreed on most everything, including that Inhofe calls climate change a hoaz. But, still, Sanders said "Jim" is a really nice person.

The irrelevance of the question gave an opportunity for Sanders to beg off, maybe with his gruff but charming response.. After all, it was Roland Martin.

But, no, Senator Sanders answered. And he chose Jim--- must have found something in Jim that eludes me. If you are willing to overlook the fact that the chair of the environmental committee holds that climate change is a hoax, perhaps, the fact that he malignes the science and scientists would give pause as to his niceness. Jim shows his brilliance on the subject by bringing snow balls to the senate floor, and believes the EPA is a gestapo organization.

But Jim is not a single issue guy. He has a wide range of ignorance. Jim was outraged by the outrage over Abu Ghraib, and voted against the Detainee Treatment Act 2005, which prohibits cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of those in US custody.

At 81 years Jim is still a pilot, although he has had incidents in the past five years of landing on a closed airport causing construction workers to flee for their lives.

And, Jim is hard to beat of those Republicans who are the most overtly anti-gay--from his opposition to discrimination in housing and workplace to trying to get a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. Jim is notorious for showing a photo of his large family bragging that none have had a divorce and none are gay. Jim refuses to hire any gay in his Senate office and is proud of it.

No guilt by association intended, for this is not Bernie Sanders by any stretch, but couldn't he have named someone other than Jim? Bernie should find better friends. Or, for the next Town Hall question, Bernie should be asked what makes Jim so endearing.

Thanks, Dan. (5.00 / 3) (#17)
by Mr Natural on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 03:58:58 PM EST

Here's a nice pic of Hillary hugging George Dubya Bush.

You're welcome. I'm happy to help. Don't mention it.


: Actually (5.00 / 1) (#28)
by Nemi on Tue Mar 15, 2016 at 08:30:49 AM EST

it's more like him hugging her. And as the article points out:

What we're seeing in this picture is bipartisanship in an intimate form. It is a touchy-feely image of the mutual respect, even secret liking, that is fundamental to all democracies. Politicians do like each other, across their dividing lines. They can joke and even be friends. When that civilised empathy does not exist - when a scene like this becomes unimaginable - that's the time to worry.
[...]
This picture shows what politics needs. More hugs - or at least, more honesty that one's opponents are reasonable people with perspectives you can try to understand without sharing. The alternative is a politics of pure hate and resentment. Anger can be power - if you are prepared to unleash it as irresponsibly as Trump has.
[...]
The voters - in Britain, and let's hope America too - are ultimately with Bush and Clinton, hugging across the lines. After all it's only politics.
The article also offers this picture. Looks like a lunatic to me.
I would strongly advise against reading the comments to the article. The Guardian's commenters are frightening in their vile hatred of all things Clinton - especially Hillary.

: Well, (none / 0) (#19)
by KeysDan on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 04:14:49 PM EST

the Sander's town hall seems a little funereal so his hug of "Jim" is excusable also too.

: 'How chance the roses there do fade so fast?' (none / 0) (#30)
by Mr Natural on Tue Mar 15, 2016 at 09:12:52 AM EST

That love-in didn't last long! Hillary Clinton slams George W Bush and the 'mess' he left at the White House just days after warm embrace at Nancy Reagan's funeral
'The course of true love never did run smooth...'
(- additional material by w. s.)

Sorry (5.00 / 1) (#20)
by FlJoe on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 04:22:20 PM EST

Bernie, but if you somehow make it to the Oval Office your newest BFF will be Chuck "mega wall street ho" Schumer, on his terms, if you know what's good for you, capiche?


: I think he thinks (none / 0) (#22)
by jbindc on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 04:33:35 PM EST

He can ignore Wall Street.
Good luck wuth that, especially is there's a global economic crisis and you need them to help stabilize markets.

Well apparently (none / 0) (#18)
by mm on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 04:02:57 PM EST

Sanders has no problem with that.

guilt by association

"Hillary Clinton proudly lists Mayor Rahm Emanuel as one of her leading mayoral endorsers," Sanders said at a downtown news conference. "Based on his disastrous record as mayor of the city of Chicago, I do not want Mayor Emanuel's endorsement if I win the Democratic nomination. That is not the kind of support I want. We want the endorsement of the people who are fighting for social and racial justice. We do not want the support of people who are indebted to Wall Street and the big money interests."

And all over Chicago are signs (5.00 / 3) (#23)
by Towanda on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 06:13:06 PM EST

that look like Clinton signs, as if from her campaign:

Hillary/Rahm 2016

But these Nixonian dirty tricks certainly did not come from her campaign. So whose campaign would benefit by printing and posting those, by the thousands?


Paul Krugman (NYT, March 14) (5.00 / 1) (#24)
by KeysDan on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 07:09:29 PM EST

in his discussion of Trump being the product of the GOP over time, notes that the Sanders movement, with its demand for purity and contempt for compromise and half-measures, most nearly resembles, not Trump, but the ideologues who took over the GOP, becoming the establishment Trump is challenging. And, we are starting to see the ugliness that has long been S.O.P. on the right--bitter personal attacks and demagogy from the campaign itself.

The photo of Mrs. Clinton at the funeral of Mrs. Reagan is presented as her being a part of the Republican establishment. But, it omits the fact that Mrs. Clinton was present as a former First Lady, along with Mrs. Obama, Laura Bush and Roslyn Carter. Every detail of the funeral, including the seating arrangement, was pre-planned by Mrs. Reagan. Amid the ceremonies, Laura Bush's husband, also an invitee, provided a hug in what appears to be a moment of levity.


That hug was at the funeral? (5.00 / 1) (#26)
by ruffian on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 07:13:14 PM EST

Good lord.

Getting upset about that is just as bad as people getting mad at Chris Christie for hugging Obama during the Sandy relief. Incredibly childish.


Sanders (none / 0) (#29)
by jbindc on Tue Mar 15, 2016 at 08:49:54 AM EST

Admitted to Chuck Todd that he ran as a Democrat for the media exposure (and for the money).

So pure.


: Well ... having it in the open, finally, (5.00 / 1) (#32)
by christinep on Tue Mar 15, 2016 at 09:12:55 PM EST

is a start. And, from the get-go, Sanders could never deign to refer to himself as a Democrat. (I'm trying to hold my tongue--or keyboard--a while longer in that regard.)

: Gotta (none / 0) (#31)
by TrevorBolder on Tue Mar 15, 2016 at 04:05:37 PM EST

Like that honesty.
He has the honest and trustworthy voters sewn up

Hmm (none / 0) (#27)
by Ga6thDem on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 07:13:51 PM EST

I'm not sure ticking off Rahm is a good thing even if he's not popular. He still won reelection despite all this. And he might be able to bring the hammer down on Bernie tomorrow.


Despicable. (none / 0) (#33)
by sallywally on Wed Mar 16, 2016 at 04:16:04 PM EST

We don't know who did this But it certainly is nasty, even vicious. There are two people who are or will be running against her. Both are capable of being very nasty. It's disgusting.


You know what, sad to say you cannot win (none / 0) (#25)
by ruffian on Mon Mar 14, 2016 at 07:11:14 PM EST

a general election in this country with only the support of people fighting for social and racial justice. It would sure be nice if you could, but you need a bunch of people who don't give a dang about those things too.
