[D]URHAM, N.H. — Bernie Sanders ignored snowflakes and a flurry of political attacks as he crisscrossed southern New Hampshire Monday, attending large rallies capped by a rock concert that drew a crowd of young people — a voting bloc that helped him nearly tie rival Hillary Clinton in last week’s Iowa caucuses.
With rosy poll numbers that put Sanders ahead of Clinton by more than 20 points, the Vermont senator seemed generally at ease.
“I think we are going to do just fine tomorrow,” he said in Manchester Monday, sounding a new tone of confidence that was nonexistent in the hours before the Iowa caucuses.
A day before the New Hampshire primary, Sanders wasn’t bothered by Bill Clinton, who unleashed a fiery assault on the senator Sunday, portraying him as a dishonest politician with policy prescriptions that would hurt Americans.
Bill Clinton’s remarks, first reported by the New York Times, also sought to cast Sanders as part of the political establishment. The former president recalled his surprise at the Vermont senator’s presence at a Democratic Party fundraiser.
“I practically fell out of my chair when I saw it,” Clinton said.
Clinton also disparaged Sanders supporters, accusing some of “vicious trolling and attacks that are literally too profane often — not to mention sexist — to repeat.”
The Clinton campaign has capitalized on a recent CNN story reporting that while Sanders rails against the former secretary of state’s fundraising appeals to billionaires, he himself has attended fancy fundraisers for party elites at Martha’s Vineyard and Palm Beach.
“The retreats are typically attended by 100 or more donors who have either contributed the annual legal maximum of $33,400 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, raised more than $100,000 for the party or both,” according to the CNN report.
In his appearances Monday, Sanders didn’t address the fundraising controversy; advisers said the attacks were disappointing, even laughable.
“They are throwing the kitchen sink at us,” said campaign spokesman Michael Briggs. “We say ‘The sky is blue’ and they say ‘Oh, that’s a falsehood.’”
Campaign manager Jeff Weaver was more direct. In a statement Monday, he said: “It is very disturbing that, as the Clinton campaign struggles through Iowa and New Hampshire, they have become increasingly negative and dishonest.”
Weaver said the assertion that Sanders benefits from Wall Street money is “preposterous,” and attack “suggests the kind of disarray that the Clinton campaign finds itself in today.”
While the campaign absorbed attacks from the Clintons, Sanders railed against the 1 percent at campaign rallies. Sanders’ core message — which appears to be working in New Hampshire — was unchanged Monday.
The bullet points: Boost funding for Planned Parenthood. Make public colleges tuition free. Impose Wall Street regulations and clamp down on the campaign finance system.
Sanders’ last scheduled rally before voters flock to the polls Tuesday was a rowdy rock concert at the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore Arena in Durham.
The “Bernie Commit to Vote Concert,” has already become a page in Sanders’ political playbook.
The Vermont senator relies heavily on young people to boost his numbers. In Iowa, where Sanders held a similar concert with Vampire Weekend, the Vermont senator won 84 percent of voters between 17 and 29.
The lineup in New Hampshire featured a half-dozen hot local and national bands, including Young the Giant and Burlington-based Kat Wright and the Indomitable Soul Band.
University of New Hampshire students and Sanders staffers swayed to the beat, as they waited for the senator to slowly traverse the roads from Derry.
Supermodel Emily Ratajkowski rallied the audience, declaring that Sanders would “create a country that does not incarcerate more than it educated. A country with a demilitarized police force, one where we do not allow young black men to be murdered without accountability.”
“He gives us hope for equality,” she declared, to cheers.
Sanders’ warmup act was Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, a ragtag group of groovy guys who play indie folk, including the chart-topping hit “Home.” Sharpe also sang “Feel the Bern,” a song he wrote about the presidential candidate six months ago.
Sharpe danced in the audience and at one point asked the crowd of hundreds to sit down, cross-legged. Then he serenaded them, patting their heads and looking into their eyes.
As the concert wound down, the musicians reminded students to vote Tuesday, and gave information about polling locations and transportation options.
Students cheered, and promised to check the ballot for Bernie. When Sanders finally arrived, he told the students that large money interests “don’t want you to vote.” Unlike the Super Bowl, Sanders said, “Democracy is not a spectator sport.”
“Democracy, in fact, is an extremely radical idea,” Sanders added. “And what it says is that all people, not just kings and queens and czars and billionaires, but all people, have a right to determine the future of their country.”
The crowd went wild, and a few minutes later Edward Sharpe played “Feel the Bern” for the second time.
