Clinton's Pragmatism v. Sanders' Call for Reform

DES MOINES, IA — The nonstop ad blitz on Iowa TV stations is a reminder that both political parties are days away from the circus of the Iowa Caucuses.

With the Iowa Caucuses scheduled for Monday (Feb. 1), the state’s airwaves are minute-to-minute campaign commercials, campaign coverage, campaign everything. And despite Donald Trump sucking much of the air out of the whole process, the two top Democrats are duking it out, too, although more politely than the GOP.

For Democrats, the question is simple: Will Feb. 1 be the beginning of Hillary Clinton’s coronation as her party’s presidential nominee, or will Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pull a slight upset, much as then-Sen. Barack Obama did eight years ago?

Des Moines Register political columnist Kathie Obradovich writes that Clinton has more to lose than Sanders does come Monday.

“If the best campaign organization that money can buy can’t hold off a Democratic socialist, she will be damaged goods,” Obradovich says.

Latest Poll Numbers

Trump has pulled ahead of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with a 7-point lead among likely Iowa GOP caucus-goers, according to polling numbers released Thursday. (Most of those polled were questioned before Trump’s public spat with Bob Vander Plaats, who wields enormous political power in Iowa, and all of them were questioned before Trump’s decision not to attend the GOP debate, which most political commentators say was a tactical error.)

Meanwhile, Clinton is only 3 points in front of Sanders on the Democratic side in Iowa, according to the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls. Sanders has a 20-point lead over Clinton in his neighboring state of New Hampshire, which votes Feb. 9, while the first poll of South Carolina gives Clinton a 64 percent to 27 percent lead over Sanders.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who has billed himself as the voice of a younger generation with new ideas, continues to languish in third with 3 percent support in Iowa.

Pragmatism Vs. Optimism

The Democratic front-runners are a study in contrasting styles, politicos say. Clinton is a pragmatist who knows she’ll have to work with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives if she wants to get anything done as president, while Sanders argues voters want to shake up Congress and Wall Street.

Writes Ezra Klein for Vox: “Hillary Clinton doesn’t believe you can change hearts. Bernie Sanders doesn’t believe you need to change hearts.”

With Clinton a few points ahead of Sanders, The New York Times says, the Vermont senator is being urged by some advisers to hammer the former secretary of state for her ties to Wall Street. Sanders has repeatedly emphasized his positive campaign style and tried to instead attack the rigged financial system, he says.

Sanders Turns to TV

To boost his profile, Sanders has purchased a sizable chunk of TV time across Iowa. The campaign made a major purchase of television time in Iowa that began Wednesday and runs through Monday’s caucuses.

An optimistic commercial features video of Sanders greeting enthusiastic throngs while Simon and Garfunkel’s “America” plays in the background. A second TV spot criticizes Clinton for her ties to the financial industry.

Clinton Goes Bowling

On Wednesday, Clinton touted her endorsement by billionaire Warren Buffett, who has said the wealthy need to pay a 30-percent income tax rate. To amplify her outreach to regular folks, Clinton’s appearance was at an Adel bowling alley.

“If you make a million dollars, you should have to pay a 30 percent effective tax rate. The days have to be over that someone making $1 million or more is paying a lower tax rate than a secretary, nurse, firefighter, teacher,” Clinton told the crowd.

Watching the Results

And while Sanders tries to stay positive, his campaign staffers on Thursday questioned why Microsoft is working with both parties to create apps for tabulating caucus results. Four years ago the Iowa GOP establishment had egg on its face for changing the state’s winner.

So Microsoft, in tandem with the political parties, hopes to avoid an embarrassing repeat of 2012, when two weeks after the caucuses seemed to end with Mitt Romney the winner, Rick Santorum was pronounced the winner of certified tallies. Iowa GOP officials spent two weeks checking vote counts to find that results changed in 131 precincts around the state, and votes from eight precincts were never turned in.

The head of Sanders’ Iowa campaign said in an interview with MSNBC that they will use their own reporting system to track results. The campaign worries about Microsoft’s involvement since many of the tech giant’s employees have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Clinton over the years.

»Photo of Hillary Clinton by Mark Nozell (Flickr Creative Commons); photo of Bernie Sanders by Gage Skidmore (Flickr Creative Commons)