Editor’s note: “Bernie Briefing” is a weekly campaign-season look at how Vermont U.S. senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is playing in the national media.
[T]he weekend before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Feb. 1 caucuses, Bernie Sanders is all over the place: Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Iowa City, Waterloo — and three Sunday television news shows, all in the same hour.
Starting at 9 a.m. Eastern time on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sanders said he wasn’t discouraged by that morning’s Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll — considered the “gold standard” of Iowa surveys — that shows challenger Hillary Clinton with a slim lead in the state, 45 percent to his 42 percent.
“I’m feeling good,” Sanders told CNN. “If people come out to vote, I think you’re going to look at one of the biggest political upsets in the modern history of our country.”
Moving on to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sanders said a loss in Iowa wouldn’t stop him.
“We are running a national campaign. We are strong not just in New Hampshire, we’re gaining ground significantly in South Carolina and Nevada, we are strong all over this country.”
And on ABC’s “This Week,” Sanders said he’s not afraid of Republicans tagging him a “socialist” should he win his party’s nomination.
“Will they throw the kitchen sink at me? They sure will. We’ve got a lot to throw at them.”
Sanders fit in his television appearances between Saturday night’s “Students for Bernie” concert with the band Vampire Weekend and two Sunday afternoon events in eastern Iowa’s college-oriented population hubs — a geographic “closing gambit,” notes the Politico story “Sanders narrows map in hunt for votes.”
In other news:
— Fox News Channel’s chief White House correspondent Ed Henry got followers buzzing over the weekend with one tweet: “Breaking: @SenSanders getting Secret Service protection.”
“Security issues is probably something we should not talk about,” Sanders responded on CNN.
Sanders joins Clinton and Republican candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson as the only White House contenders with such coverage, The Hill reports.
— As Trump feuds with Fox News, Sanders is waging his own media fight after the Washington Post’s editorial board offered an opinion headlined “Bernie Sanders’s fiction-filled campaign” and he countered with comments reported by the paper in a story titled “Bernie Sanders unloads on The Washington Post.”
“We are taking on the establishment — the Washington Post is the establishment,” Sanders told CNN. “Doesn’t surprise me they don’t like my ideas.”
Sunday’s New York Times endorsed “Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Nomination,” noting Sanders is “formidable” but “does not have the breadth of experience or policy ideas that Mrs. Clinton offers.” No word whether the paper is planning a follow-up: “Bernie Sanders unloads on the New York Times.”
— “What Happens If Bernie Sanders Wins Iowa?” is the question asked by the headline of Nate Silver’s latest fivethirtyeight.com column. The answer is anything but succinct: “If you’re dreaming of Bernie Sanders beating Hillary Clinton, you know how the movie begins (he wins Iowa on Monday), how it ends (he accepts the nomination to a Simon & Garfunkel tune), and one of the major plot lines (black, Hispanic and moderate Democrats, who for now prefer Clinton to Sanders, begin to #feelthebern). You also know who the hapless villain is: Democratic party elites (aka “the establishment”), who will be fighting Sanders every step of the way. Otherwise, the details are fuzzy.”
As for “What if Sanders loses Iowa?” Silver says simply, “It’s probably over.”
— Whatever happens in Iowa, Sanders will move on to New Hampshire and perhaps a pre-primary MSNBC Democratic Debate this Thursday — part of last-minute negotiations now taking place with the Clinton campaign for four more televised events, BuzzFeed News reports.
— Washington, D.C., writer Harry Jaffe, who started his journalism career at Vermont’s Rutland Herald 40 years ago, is set to appear at Manchester’s Northshire Bookstore on Saturday at 6 p.m. to promote his new book “Why Bernie Sanders Matters.”
Those wanting a Bernie fix without leaving home can tune in to NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” that same night, when comedian/Sanders look-alike Larry David is scheduled to host.
