The Republican establishment

Newswise — Glenn C. Altschuler, co-author of Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the 19th Century, says campaign ads will reveal a lot about the Republican establishment.

Bio: https://www.sce.cornell.edu/sce/altschuler/index.php

Altschuler says:“It will be important to watch the ads. Will the ‘establishment’ candidates - Rubio, Kasich, Christie and Bush - go after Donald Trump with the hope of taking him out or -as is more likely - will they attack each other with the aim of emerging from New Hampshire as the alternative to him hoping - as well - that Cruz won’t ‘sell’ in New Hampshire. And then, looking ahead to South Carolina, will evangelicals put Cruz back on top or will Rubio appeal to them?

“How much will The Establishment, which thus far has been dazed and confused, get its act together and mobilize behind Rubio?

'Bernie Mo'

Robert C. Hockett is current advisor to the Bernie Sanders campaign. He is author of the paper, The Way Forward, a reassessment of the global economic crisis. He says New Hampshire will be key to gauge health of ‘Bernie Mo.’

Bio: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/faculty/bio_robert_hockett.cfm

Hockett says:“One day after being taken to task for her Wall Street connections at the last Democratic debate before the New Hampshire Primary, Hillary Clinton postponed, until after the primary, two fundraising events that she was to hold at hedge fund BlackRock and an affiliate of Bain Capital - Mitt Romney's old private equity fund. Secretary Clinton also has declined, thus far, to release videotapes or transcripts of the speeches she has given at other large Wall Street financial institutions, including Goldman-Sachs.

“Meanwhile, Senator Sanders has now pulled even with Secretary Clinton in nationwide polling for the first time since his entry into the campaign last spring, even as evidence emerges that he might actually have defeated, rather than nearly pulled even with, Secretary Clinton in the Iowa Caucuses.

“Those watching the New Hampshire primary results this week likely will look for indicators of whether 'Bernie Mo' - the current momentum being enjoyed by Senator Sander - is leveling, continuing, or picking up speed.”

Political theater

Mabel Berezin, a Cornell University sociologist whose current work focuses on contemporary sites of social, political and cultural change believes Bernie Sanders makes good political theatre but is unprepared to be President.

Bio: http://www.soc.cornell.edu/people/faculty/berezin/Berezin says:“Bernie Sanders clearly has a grip on the political imagination of voters under thirty—but as a potential President, he is woefully unprepared despite his career in the Senate. He is a single-issue candidate - the increasing rift between the top percent and everyone else -and he has no viable means to solve the issue.

“Bernie Sanders, the progressive crusader for social justice, versus Hilary Clinton the liberal pragmatist with a ton of baggage, makes good political theater. This political theatre may win him a primary or two, but even in our troubled times, no candidate in the United States, who calls for a ‘political revolution,’ is ever going to win the Presidency.

“If the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries signal anything, it is that Democratic primary voters may be drinking a little too much of the Sanders Kool Aid, but they signal little about who will be the eventual nominee."

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