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Bernie Sanders To Announce Presidential Bid, Facing Tough Opposition From The Right And The Left

By Mike Bessler
Published on: 14:50 PST, Apr 28, 2015

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is reportedly set to wade into the 2016 pool of presidential candidates when he makes a big announcement this Thursday. According to the Huffington Post, Sanders will challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party’s nomination. Although elected as an independent candidate, Sanders regularly caucuses with Senate Democrats.

Conventional wisdom holds that Bernie Sanders is something of a long shot to win the high office. Indeed, a recent poll by Huffington Post shows Hillary Clinton with a commanding lead over her most prominent prospective challengers, securing 61.4% of the available polling points. Sanders is a distant fourth in the mix, scoring only 6.3%.

Sanders himself has acknowledged that he has a lengthy, uphill battle against him. Talking to the Wall Street Journal in February, Sanders said that raising money for a campaign will be his biggest obstacle, noting that his support base is not terribly well-endowed when it comes to liquid assets.

“When you think about undertaking a national presidential campaign, you have to be talking about sums of money which are almost incomprehensible,” Sanders said. “The first question is: Can you raise enough money to run a winning campaign? I’m trying to figure that one out… Billionaires do not flock to my campaign.”

As he generally identifies himself as a “democratic socialist,” Bernie Sanders doesn’t have many fans among fiscal conservatives and hardcore Republicans. Truth be told, he has his fair share of detractors on the left side of the America’s political spectrum as well. Aside from the fact that the Sanders camp will campaign in earnest against party frontrunner Hillary Clinton, the senator has also garnered criticism from progressives and leftists over some key issues. Addicting Info notes that a public appearance by Sanders in September 2014 was interrupted by activists protesting the legislator’s votes in support of Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Video of the confrontation — including Sanders’ response to the interruption of his public address — was posted on YouTube.

Much to the chagrin of voters who oppose U.S. military interventions abroad, Sanders also supported authorization of funding for the American war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Counterpunch. Additionally, he voted in favor of making key provisions of the PATRIOT Act permanent and supported the extension of the FBI’s authorities in certain situations. Most recently, Sanders expressed support for President Obama’s decision to send military advisors back into Iraq.

It’s a safe bet that Bernie Sanders isn’t the second coming of Eugene Debs or Upton Sinclair. Maybe that’s why he’s running as a Democrat as opposed to forming an affiliation with a third party. For their part, Sanders supporters are already taking to social media in earnest, expressing enthusiasm for his foray into presidential politics.

With a lengthy primary season on the horizon, Sanders’ imminent move injects a hint of intrigue into the Democrats’ side of the race, as Hillary Clinton will now have at least one foil for televised debates and the like. Notorious for his gruff, curmudgeon-like demeanor, Bernie Sanders will make an apt sparring partner for the outspoken and unflappable Clinton. Moreover, with a philosophy that is decidedly outside the bounds of conventional presidential politics, Sanders has a unique opportunity to introduce some new material into the American discourse.

[Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images]

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