An impromptu alliance of mutual convenience was on display in Savannah on Sunday evening, when Mayor Edna Jackson – amid a mixed chorus of boos and cheers – introduced Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to a packed house.
Jackson is in a desperate run-off bid for re-election that will resolve itself next Tuesday, Dec. 1, and could use a boost among young white voters attracted to Sanders. If he’s to crack Hillary Clinton’s hold on the South, Sanders will need to crack her support among the African-American political elite.
"People should not be denied going to college because they don't have enough money," he said.
The audience was also supportive when Sanders began talking about legislation that would take marijuana out of the controlled substances act.
Sanders will be in Atlanta this evening, with a 7 p.m. rally at the Fox Theater. Rap artist Killer Mike will introduce him.
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The ranks of Democrats holding statewide office in the Deep South has doubled. John Bel Edwards' victory Saturday over Republican Sen. David Vitter, damaged by a series of scandals involving prostitutes, means there are two Democrats in that category. The other is Attorney General Jim Hood of Mississippi.
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After a Black Lives Matter protester disrupted a Donald Trump rally in Birmingham over the weekend, some in the crowd took matters into their own hands. Trump's response: "Maybe he should have been roughed up." From the Washington Post:
At one point, Southall fell to the ground and was surrounded by several white men who appeared to be kicking and punching him, according to video captured by CNN. A Washington Post reporter in the crowd witnessed one of the men put his hands on Southall's neck and heard a female onlooker repeatedly shout, "Don't choke him!" ...
"Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing," Trump said on the Fox News Channel on Sunday morning. "I have a lot of fans, and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy who was a troublemaker who was looking to make trouble."
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Six out of 10 Georgians agree with Gov. Nathan Deal's decision to refuse Syrian refugees, according to a new Channel 2 Landmark/Rosetta Stone poll. From the TV station website:
The poll results were almost identical when voters were asked how President Barack Obama is handling ISIS. Fifty-eight percent say the president's strategy is not working and 25 percent support his plan….
The poll shows numbers tighten when it comes to a ground war. Just 41 percent of Georgians support boots on the ground in Syria and 37 percent are opposed.
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U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, has joined with a Hawaii Democrat on a new bill telling the Obama administration to focus its Syrian fight on ISIS -- and stop trying to take out Bashar al-Assad. From the Associated Press:
"The U.S. is waging two wars in Syria," Gabbard said. "The first is the war against ISIS and other Islamic extremists, which Congress authorized after the terrorist attack on 9/11. The second war is the illegal [CIA] war to overthrow the Syrian government of Assad."
Scott said, "Working to remove Assad at this stage is counter-productive to what I believe our primary mission should be."
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After some foreign policy stumbles, Ben Carson is considering an overseas trip before the Iowa caucuses, CBS News reports:
The official said Carson and his advisers are looking at ways to own news cycles, acknowledging that the recent focus on national security has hurt him in the polls. An overseas trip could burnish his foreign policy credentials, the official said. It would also be "eye opening" and "attention getting" and a way to command coverage leading up to the first voting contest.
The overseas candidate trip is a time-honored resume builder. Sometimes it works (Barack Obama in Berlin) and sometimes it doesn't (Mitt Romney in London).
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This Sunday New York Times story on overly rosy intelligence reports is not going away any time soon:
In the revised documents, the Iraqi Army had not retreated at all. The soldiers had simply "redeployed."
Such changes are at the heart of an expanding internal Pentagon investigation of Centcom, as Central Command is known, where analysts say that supervisors revised conclusions to mask some of the American military's failures in training Iraqi troops and beating back the Islamic State. The analysts say supervisors were particularly eager to paint a more optimistic picture of America's role in the conflict than was warranted.
The Times asked President Barack Obama about the story at a news conference in Maylasia on Sunday. From the paper's report:
He said such disagreements had to be shared with him in a transparent way...
"It's not as if I've been receiving wonderfully rosy, glowing portraits of what's been going on in Iraq and Syria over the last year and a half," Mr. Obama said, adding: "At my level, at least, we've had a pretty clear-eyed, sober assessment of where we've made real progress and where we have not.
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