(This illustration of Sanders is by Drew Lerman and was found at vice.com.)“She has been saying lately that she thinks that I am, quote-un-quote, not qualified to be president. Let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton, I don’t believe that she is qualified. . ."
Those are the words of Bernie Sanders speaking to a crowd of supporters in Pennsylvania. But there is a problem with that statement. Hillary Clinton never said he was unqualified. The headline write got it wrong (something not rare in the newspaper business).
Does Sanders get his news just from headlines these days? Did he bother to read the story? Does he just accept what some aide tells him about his opponent? Those are troubling questions, because he should have checked out the story before reacting like a petulant child to it.
Or maybe this is just more of the nasty campaign tactics he has been using lately. He's been repeatedly lying about Hillary Clinton, even though he had promised to run a positive campaign -- a campaign based on the issues.
Reporters repeatedly tried to get Clinton to respond to Sanders silly statement in kind, but she wouldn't take the bait. Instead, she took the high road -- saying she would choose Sanders over Cruz or Trump anytime. Instead of apologizing (which he should do), Sanders chose to continue his path on the low road -- by trying to justify his remarks because of some policy differences with Clinton. That won't work. He may not like some of her policy positions, but that doesn't disqualify her to be president.
I think Bernie Sanders is just starting to get desperate, and is lashing out. With each passing state, he sees his chances of becoming the party's nominee getting slimmer and slimmer. I expect we will hear more vicious attacks coming from Sanders now (and from his supporters, who have raised gutter campaigning to an art form).
