TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on ATM Fees

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on ATM Fees: Taking on the banks, $5 at a time: Clinton, Sanders target ATM fees Hillary Clinton said a lot of things on  The Late Show With Stephe...

The Bottom Line on ATM Fees

Taking on the banks, $5 at a time: Clinton, Sanders target ATM fees

Hillary Clinton said a lot of things on The Late Show With Stephen Colbertthis week about her economic proposals.

But it was one comment, which her campaign aides say was unscripted, that might have the best potential to catch political fire: a call to rein in galloping ATM fees.

The Democratic presidential frontrunner checked several progressive boxes in the Tuesday night appearance. She enthusiastically expressed support for letting big banks fail in the event of another financial meltdown (“yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!” she said when Colbert floated that possibility). She promised to do more for the middle class. She touted her husband’s economic record in the 1990s. She insisted that “the wealthy need to pay more” in taxes. She promised to expand on President Obama’s record. She knocked Republicans. And she name-dropped Paul Krugman — “you know, the columnist for the New York Times, Nobel Prize-winning economist?” — and cited his support for her plan to reform Wall Street.

“Can you at least just get back from them the $3 they charge us to take $20 out of an ATM machine,” Colbert said, drawing laughs from the audience.

“You know what, we need to go after that too, don’t you think, yeah, yeah, it’susurious,” Clinton replied.

Yahoo News contacted several Clinton campaign aides, none of whom expressed familiarity with the comment, making it clear that it was off-the-cuff. And her economic plan does not call for any specific steps to tamp down the ATM fees that consumers pay when they complete a transaction at an out-of-network machine.

If she were to follow through, though, a push to hold down ATM fees could put her sharply at odds with big banks, with private companies that run ATMs, and with other financial institutions, perhaps even more so than anything else she has proposed.

American Bankers Association officials would not comment on the record. But David Pommerehn, senior counsel and vice president of the Consumer Bankers Association, told Yahoo News by telephone that the public has a distorted perspective on ATM fees.

“What gets lost in the mix is that a lot of ATMs are privately owned,” and not run by banks, he said. Moreover, “ATM networks are expensive to maintain,” and fees help banks “cover the cost of maintaining those networks,” he said. Consumers who go to out-of-network ATMs are paying for convenience, Pommerehn said.

The idea would, however, line Clinton up neatly with her closest rival, self-described Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Sanders has been battling banks on that turf for decades in speeches and legislation dating back to his days in the House of Representatives.

“Sen. Sanders has been fighting against sky-high ATM fees since 1996,” his policy director, Warren Gunnels, told Yahoo News by email. “As president, Sen. Sanders would make it a priority to stop big banks from charging these outrageous fees.”

Whether they are outrageous or merely the price of convenience is a matter of debate. But they are certainly soaring. A survey of 25 major markets released in early October by the financial services company Bankrate found that the fees have climbed 21 percent over the past five years, to a national average of $4.52 per transaction.

In Clinton’s adoptive home state, New York City comes in as the second-priciest, at $5.03, just behind Atlanta at $5.15. Washington, D.C., comes in at $4.64 while the liberal bastion of San Francisco was the cheapest of the 25 markets at $3.85. (The amount combines what ATM managers charge and what a person’s home financial institution charges.)

There’s no data for the states that host the first two primaries: Iowa and New Hampshire.

But it’s possible that Clinton is taking a page from one of her most prominent backers in Iowa, Democratic former Sen. Tom Harkin, who led the charge in 2010 to cap ATM fees at 50 cents. His amendment to what became the Dodd-Frank law to reform Wall Street never got a vote — undone by bipartisan opposition.

“The most shocking part of this fee is that, on average, the real cost of processing a transaction today is only 36 cents or less. Where does the rest of the money go? It is going to the big banks, the big card networks and independent machine owners,” Harkin said during that fight.

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Sanders Rise!

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Sanders Rise!: The Rise Of Bernie Sanders And The Panic Of Democratic Centrists Though he remains, by measures of conventional wisdom and polling dat...

The Bottom Line on Sanders Rise!

The Rise Of Bernie Sanders And The Panic Of Democratic Centrists

Though he remains, by measures of conventional wisdom and polling data, an outsider in the Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has still managed to spook the ideological center of the Democratic Party.

On Wednesday morning, the think tank Third Way held a briefing in which it warned candidates that they risked personal and broadly shared electoral harm if they echoed Sanders' populist message.

"You would be back to 1972 [if Bernie were nominated]," warned Bill Daley, President Barack Obama's former chief of staff and a Third Way board member, referencing the blowout Richard Nixon win that year. "It was not a happy time for Democrats. The guy has been a socialist his whole life and now decides he is a Democrat and therefore the Democratic Party has got to move to that extreme? I think it is a recipe for disaster."

The rise of Sanders, though unanticipated, has exposed familiar ideological fissures within the Democratic Party. Virtually every modern presidential election has pitted an insurgent candidate with populist appeal against a more centrist-minded or establishment alternative.

Bill Clinton's win in 1992 ushered in a generation of modern, more moderate New Democrats. And when Clinton left office, several of his former staffers started up Third Way to discourage the party from reverting to its leftward ways. During the Obama era, the group issued similarwarnings about the rise of Democratic populism and played consequential policy roles -- most memorably encouraging lawmakers to abandon the pursuit of a public option during the crafting of health care reform in 2010.

On the eve of a post-Obama America, Third Way's role appears more defensive or, at least, complicated by the few candidates running for the White House. Far from cheerleading Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy, it warned her not to mimic her nearest competitor.

"They are really going to beat her up to move further and further and further [to the left] because they assume she is going to get it and they want their piece of flesh," said Daley.

The attack on Sanders, meanwhile, was one of the more overtly aggressive yet to come from within Democratic ranks.

"I think the Third Way message was great in '92 but out of date for a 2016 electorate… I have no doubt that if we can get through the nominating process against such a formidable opponent he will be very strong in the general," said Tad Devine, Sanders' top strategist, in response. "Bernie has the potential to change the composition of the electorate, and getting young people and lower income voters back into it on the side of the Democrats because his message is so powerful and believable coming from him."

Though officials at Third Way warned about potential missteps Democrats might make at the presidential level, much of the hour-long briefing on Wednesday was spent arguing that the party's success in such elections has masked fundamental problems elsewhere. And on a purely numerical level, the math is indisputable. As Jonathan Cowan, Third Way's president, noted, Democrats hold the fewest offices in Congress, statehouses and governors' mansions since 1928.

The factors behind this, however, are deeply disputed.

In its presentation, Third Way argued that a focus on issues like a $15 minimum wage, expanding Social Security benefits and advocating for single-payer health care all create the political dynamics that make Democrats electorally vulnerable. But few Democrats have made their campaigns squarely about these three issues in past races. During the disastrous 2014 midterm elections, a number of senators called for expanding Social Security benefits. But talk of single-payer health care was nonexistent outside highly progressive (and largely dismissed) quarters. And the debate at the time was about raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, not $15. Third Way itself calls for a wage floor of $10-$12, based on average hourly wages and regional cost variations.

Third Way's platform calls for passage of free trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership, making the research and development tax credit permanent and revenue-neutral corporate tax reform. The group advocates for raising tax rates on capital gains from 20 to 25 percent and for limiting deductions for high wage earners. But on the whole, it is the more corporate-minded plank of the Democratic platform, much to the distaste of its critics.

"They do nothing to challenge corporate power in the workplace, other than a higher minimum wage," said Larry Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a Third Way adversary. "If they don’t get behind policies that will really help generate middle class wage and compensation growth then they’re missing an essential piece of what’s needed, economically and politically."

Michael Briggs, Sanders' top spokesman, was a touch more sardonic. "Did Mr. Daley have anything to say about all of the American factories that closed or the millions of American jobs that were lost because he pushed NAFTA through Congress?" he asked. 

Dive further into Third Way's policy suggestions and the substantive case for alarm over populism becomes muddied. The group wants investments in infrastructure and medical research; bolstered SEC enforcement; a home equity voucher program and comprehensive immigration reform. Though it opposes expanding Social Security, it does want a "minimum, employer-provided 50 cent an hour private pension contribution." 

"At the end of the day, what's so bizarre about Third Way is that they do actually advocate for some things progressives would (infrastructure, immigration reform, etc.), but the rhetorical frame they use is based in the logic of the 1980s," said Neil Sroka, communications director at Democracy for America. "That is, that somehow Democrats can win things only if we trick voters into thinking that ideas from the left are actually really from the right."

At their briefing, Cowon and Daley, along with Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D) and New Democrat Movement founder Elaine Kamarck, disputed the notion that the differences within the Democratic Party were limited, though they also acknowledged that their concerns with populism were about the style as well as the substance.

Obama, they argued, had fairly centrist policy achievements. But even though he is the titular leader of the Democratic Party -- whose agenda establishes the Democratic image -- the candidates sacrificed the benefits when they chose to run as populists.

"You cannot overcome a party brand if you are a senator or a House member. The only person who trumps a party brand in politics is a sitting president," said Cowan.

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Sanders Win in GOP Debate

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Sanders Win in GOP Debate: How Bernie Sanders Won the Third Republican Debate Without Even Participating The Republican candidates are finally talking about Be...

The Bottom Line on Sanders Win in GOP Debate

How Bernie Sanders Won the Third Republican Debate Without Even Participating

The Republican candidates are finally talking about Bernie Sanders. They aren't exactly speaking highly of him, but they're acknowledging his existence nonetheless.

The first Democratic debate was clearly a breakout moment for Bernie. He went mainstream, and in the process, taught us all a little something about decency.

During that debate, the Senator from Vermont proved once and for all that he doesn't want to win the White House if it means losing his integrity. He's even willing to protect his political rival if it's in the name of justice.

The third Republican debate, by contrast, was a glorified Jerry Springer episode. Filled with antagonism and vicious personal attacks, it appeared to be just as much a contest of who could be the biggest bully as a debate about the economy.

The candidates attacked the moderators, Hillary Clinton, socialism and of course, government. Still, they made ample time to take jabs at one another.

Mudslinging is no new phenomenon in modern presidential elections. But for the first time ever, it's juxtaposed with a new style of campaigning: Bernie Sanders' style.

For better or worse, Bernie has upheld his commitment to running a clean campaign. The question remains, though: can a nice guy like Bernie win in a general election, or does the democratic socialist have something to learn from Donald Trump's rancor?

Joe Rogan Experience #331 - Dr. Steven Greer

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Sanders, Hillary Contrast!

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Sanders, Hillary Contrast!: Sharpening Contrast with Clinton, Sanders Touts Bold Positions in Tough Times 'When the going gets tough, when leadership was needed,...

The Bottom Line on Sanders, Hillary Contrast!

Sharpening Contrast with Clinton, Sanders Touts Bold Positions in Tough Times

'When the going gets tough, when leadership was needed, I was there,' Bernie Sanders tells Rachel Maddow

On the campaign trail and in media interviews, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is drawing increasingly sharp contrasts between himself and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, presenting his consistent record on critical issues as evidence of their "real differences."

"I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years," Sanders said in an interview Monday with Charlie Rose on PBS. "I have enormous respect for her. She’s a friend. But when you're running for president of the United States, it's important to differentiate the differences between the candidates, and there are real differences between Hillary Clinton and myself. I have been extremely consistent on my views for many, many years."

In an appearance Monday night on The Rachel Maddow Show, Sanders addressed the question of why it matters that, as Maddow put it, he was "right first" on issues like gay rights, trade policy, and the Keystone XL pipeline.

"That's an excellent and fair question," he said, "and the answer is: We live in a tough world and leadership counts. It's great that people evolve and change their minds and I respect that. But it's important to stand up when the going gets tough. And if you look at my career, I have taken on every special interest when it was tough to do."

"Where we are right now in American history is, we have a rigged economy with Wall Street and the big money interests exerting huge power over the economy, we have a corrupt campaign finance system with super PACs prepared to buy elections," Sanders continued. "What the American people and Democrats have to know [is] which candidate historically has had the guts to stand up to powerful people and [make] difficult decisions."

"When the going gets tough, when leadership was needed, I was there," he declared.

In recent days, Sanders has hit back particularly hard against Clinton's narrative regarding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)—the 1996 law that defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman—which the former First Lady recently described to Maddow as a "defensive action" meant to forestall even more discriminatory measures like a constitutional amendment.

But Sanders and gay rights activists say that wasn't the case. "Now today some are trying to rewrite history by saying they voted for one anti-gay law to stop something worse," he told a crowd in Iowa over the weekend.

"I have had in many years of politics had to make tough votes," he elaborated in his interview with Maddow. "The times then were very, very different. We had a lot of homophobia going on, a right-wing Republican leadership clearly trying to push this anti-gay legislation, and it bothered me to hear Secretary Clinton saying 'well, DOMA what it really was about was preventing something even worse'."

"It wasn't true," Sanders said emphatically, quoting Clinton ally Hilary Rosen who tweeted over the weekend: "Note to my friends Bill and #Hillary: Pls stop saying DOMA was to prevent something worse. It wasnt, I was there."

"It wasn't true," Sanders repeated on Monday night. "That was a tough vote, it really was. And there were a lot of decent people who in their hearts wanted to vote no and voted yes for political reasons. I didn't. That's all the point that I want to make."

n another instance that clearly framed fundamental differences between Sanders and Clinton, the U.S. Senator from Vermont "put his campaign where his mouth is," Engadget reported, when he spoke at a picket line with Verizon union workers in New York City on Monday.

As Huffington Post labor reporter Dave Jamieson noted, "[b]oth candidates have placed economic inequality at the core of their campaigns as they seek the nomination, though it's much harder to imagine Clinton walking a picket line aimed at a telecom giant."

In fact, The Nation's John Nichols wrote on Monday, such clear distinctions were "the takeaway message from a weekend of high-stakes politics in which Sanders positioned himself as a candidate whose long-term commitment to progressive ideals, and whose willingness to act on those ideals even in the most challenging of moments, suggested not just 'authenticity'—to borrow the buzzword of the moment—but a context in which Democrats might assess his promise to 'govern based on principle not poll numbers.'

"I pledge to you that every day I will fight for the public interest not the corporate interests,"Sanders said in Iowa on Saturday, as his young supporters answered with thunderous applause. "I will not abandon any segment of American society—whether you’re gay or black or Latino, poor or working class—just because it is politically expedient at a given time."

"The proposition Sanders offered was clear enough," Nichols concluded. "While others might make promises, he can be counted on to stand firm for economic and social justice, for peace and the planet."

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Sanders being Pointed!

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Sanders being Pointed!: Sanders getting ‘a little more pointed’ on Clinton, but not ‘negative’  Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., went on the offensive at the Iowa ...

The Bottom Line on Sanders being Pointed!

Sanders getting ‘a little more pointed’ on Clinton, but not ‘negative’

 Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., went on the offensive at the Iowa Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, where he delivered a speech that highlighted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s shifting positions. His performance earned headlines dubbing him “fiery” and “bare-knuckle.” However, his campaign insists the remarks aren’t the beginning of an all-out attack on Clinton in their race for the Democratic presidential nomination. 

Sanders’ press secretary, Symone Sanders, told Yahoo News on Sunday that she was surprised by some of the coverage of his speech. 

“I saw some reports saying, you know, ‘Oh, the senator like smacked Hillary, slapped Hillary, attacked her.’ Those were not slaps, attacks and smacks, but they were differentiating on the issues,” Symone said. “The senator has a really strong record to stand on, so he’s going to stand on it.”

Clinton is the frontrunner in the Democratic primary, but state and national polls show Sanders is her top rival. 

Sanders’ speech included lines that alluded to Clinton’s vote for the Iraq War when she was in the Senate, her long pauses before announcing opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline and Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act during the administration of her husband, President Bill Clinton. Symone pointed out that Sanders began an effort to “differentiate” his record from his opponent’s heading into the Democratic presidential debate on Oct. 13. While she acknowledged he may have sharpened his approach, Symone vowed Sanders will not “directly attack” Clinton.

“I think what folks saw last night, you know, was Bernie came out and was being a little more pointed in his record, if you will. … Prior to last night, he had not drawn as stark a contrast of where he stands as opposed to the other candidates. I think that is definitely true,” Symone explained. “Folks that have said, ‘Bernie came out of the gate and said where he stands.’ Yes, he did, so I don’t think you haven’t seen that, but you won’t see him directly attack.”

In an interview on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” on Sunday, the day after the dinner, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta suggested Sanders broke prior vows not to “go negative” with his speech. 

“I think Bernie Sanders seemed to have a course correction in the JJ dinner from one in which he said he wasn’t going to go negative to obviously focusing his … fire on her,” said Podesta. 

However, Symone specifically said Sanders will not go “negative” and begin criticizing Clinton by name. 

“He has never done a negative attack ad in his life, and he has never gone on a negative campaign,” Symone said. “Bernie’s not going to start doing these interviews talking about how, ‘Secretary Clinton’s bad on blah blah blah.’ You know, you’ll never probably hear those words come out of his mouth. And what you will hear is him saying, you know, ‘I believe climate change is the greatest threat to our national security, so it didn’t take me four years to get a position on Keystone.’”

Symone framed Sanders’ Jefferson-Jackson dinner speech as an effort to “highlight his record.”

“I think that’s important to voters to know, especially for people that don’t know the senator, to know … where he stands on these trade agreements,” said Symone. “Not just the Trans-Pacific partnership but, you know, NAFTA, CAFTA and the permanent normal trade agreement with China.”

According to Symone, it would be wrong to view Sanders’ comments on Keystone, various trade agreements, the Iraq War and DOMA as “Hillary zingers.”

“These were just the facts,” she said. 

Symone also pointed to the moment in the Democratic debate where Sanders famously declared the American people had had “enough” of hearing about the scandal over Clinton’s emails. Clinton thanked Sanders onstage, and her campaign later told Yahoo News it felt like the moment was “an assist” from Sanders.

“He calls it like he sees it,” Symone said. “So he can go ahead and defend her and say, ‘Look, Americans are tired of these damn emails, they want to talk about the issues.’ Secretary’s, like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, ‘OK, but also, Americans are tired of these disastrous trade policies.’ And that might make some people uncomfortable, but you know what? Bernie was speaking truth to power. That’s what makes him so real and authentic.” 

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Your New Workweek!

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Your New Workweek!: Bernie Sanders Wants To Bring Back Your 40-Hour Workweek Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) thinks Americans...

The Bottom Line on Your New Workweek!

Bernie Sanders Wants To Bring Back Your 40-Hour Workweek

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) thinks Americans may have forgotten about the 40-hour week.

"A hundred years ago workers took to the streets" to fight for 40 hours, Sanders told The Huffington Post. "And a hundred years have come and gone, we’ve seen an explosion in technology, we’ve seen an explosion in productivity, we have a great global economy, and what do you have? The vast majority of people are working longer hours for lower wages."

American workers with full-time jobs work an average of 42.7 hours per week, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Including part-timers in the calculation puts the average American workweek at 39 hours.

 

Sanders said he wants to appropriate the term "family values" from Republicans, who have historically used it to talk about social issues, and use it to promote legislation mandating paid vacation, paid sick days and paid parental leave for U.S. workers. Just 11 percent of workers had access to paid leave to care for newborns in 2012, according to the BLS.

"What the Republicans talk about when they speak of family values is to deny a woman the right to control her own body, to deny a woman the right to get contraceptives, opposition to gay rights and gay marriage," Sanders said. "I don’t think those are family values."

Last week Sanders introduced a bill that would require employers to give at least 10 paid vacation days annually to any employees who have worked at the company for at least a year.

"What our legislation says -- and we think this is absolutely a family value -- is that a mom and a dad should have the right to at least a couple of weeks off of paid vacation so they can spend quality time with their kids," Sanders said.

Republicans control Congress, and they aren't keen on shortening work hours. They have complained bitterly, for instance, that President Barack Obama's health care law undermines the 40-hour week. The Congressional Budget Office reported in 2014 that the Affordable Care Act could result in some Americans choosing to work less because they could get health insurance without being tied to a full-time job.

American workers did indeed fight and die for shorter hours, which for a long time was the foremost demand of the labor movement. The shorter hours movement culminated in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, a federal law that established the minimum wage and requires employers to give workers extra pay when they work more than 40 hours per week. The effectiveness of the law has eroded, however, because the law only protects salaried workers earning less than $23,660 per year.

"What that means if you were a quote-unquote supervisor at McDonald’s, making $25,000 a year, $28,000 a year, and you are supervising some other people flipping hamburgers and you’re working 50 or 60 hours a week, you do not get overtime," Sanders said.

Sanders and other Democrats have asked Obama to consider raising the salary threshold so it covers more workers, something the White House is currently considering. Sanders wants to see the threshold set at $57,000.

"That means everybody making under that would get time and a half when they work more than 40 hours a week," he said. "Very important step forward."

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Joe Biden

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Joe Biden: Biden: I’m not running for president in 2016 Ending months of will-he-won’t-he speculation, Vice President Joe Biden announced Wednesday...

The Bottom Line on Joe Biden

Biden: I’m not running for president in 2016

Ending months of will-he-won’t-he speculation, Vice President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he is not running for president in 2016, saying the process of grieving for his son Beau had sidelined him for too long. 

“Unfortunately, I believe we’re out of time, the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination,” Biden declared in a hastily announced and emotional statement in the Rose Garden of the White House.

The vice president spoke with his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and President Obama standing at his side.

The announcement capped months of speculation about whether he still had time to build the kind of fundraising and get-out-the-vote structure required for successful modern campaigns. Public opinion polls never showed him leading the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and veteran party strategists privately doubted he could seriously challenge her for the affections of party activists.

The announcement came one day before Clinton is to testify before the Republican-run House of Representatives committee looking into the deadly Benghazi attacks of 2012.

Biden, who has spent his entire adult life in politics and made two failed runs for the presidency, pledged to keep defending Obama’s legacy and fighting for the middle class, and warned Democratic candidates against running away from  the president’s record.

“While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent. I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation,” he said in an extended section of remarks that sounded very much like the stump speech he would have used if he had run.

“This is what I believe: I believe that President Obama has led this nation from crisis to recovery and we’re now on the cusp of resurgence. I’m proud to have played a part in that,” Biden said. “This party, [and] our nation would be making a tragic mistake if we walk away [from] or attempt to undo the Obama legacy. The American people have worked too hard and we’ve come too far for that. Democrats should not only defend this record and protect this record, they should run on the record.”

Biden had long seemed eager to mount another presidential run, casting himself as the logical heir to the Obama legacy, and eager to turn two terms as a well-regarded vice president in a consequential administration into a shot at the top job. But Beau Biden’s battle with cancer and his death in May dealt a crushing emotional blow to the Biden family.

“As the family and I have worked through the grieving process, I’ve said all along what I’ve said time and again to others: That it may very well be that that process, by the time we get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president. That it might close,” Biden said. “I’ve concluded it has closed.”

The vice president pledged to devote his last 15 months in office to trying to rally Democrats and Republicans behind “a moon shot in this country to cure cancer” — the kind of full-government mobilization that made Neil Armstrong’s fabled “giant leap for mankind” possible.

“If I could be anything, I would have wanted to have been the president that ended cancer, because it’s possible,” Biden said.

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Debate Polls!

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Debate Polls!: Hillary Clinton wins debate, but her lead on Bernie Sanders slips: Poll Most people who watched  the first Democratic presidential deb...

The Bottom Line on Debate Polls!

Hillary Clinton wins debate, but her lead on Bernie Sanders slips: Poll

Most people who watched the first Democratic presidential debate believe Hillary Clinton turned in the best performance of any of the five candidates on stage — but it did not give the former secretary of state a significant bump in the race for the Democratic nomination.

According to a CNN/ORC national poll released Monday, 62 percent of Democrat or Democratic-leaning voters said Clinton did the best job during last week’s debate, compared to 35 percent who said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders did the best job. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and ex-Virginia Sen. Jim Webb received 1 percent each, while former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee did not register, according to the poll.

But the same poll found Clinton’s lead on Sanders had actually decreased following the debate.

A CNN/ORC survey conducted last month showed Clinton (42 percent) with an 18-point lead on Sanders (24 percent) and 20-point advantage on Vice President Joe Biden (22 percent), who is said to be still mulling a late presidential bid. But the new poll — conducted over three days after the debate — shows support for Clinton (45 percent) is up just 3 percentage points while support for Sanders (29 percent) has jumped five. Support for Biden, who did not take part in the debate, has slipped four points to 18 percent, the survey found.

CNN/ORC poll, Sept. 17-19, 2015:

• Clinton - 42%
• Sanders - 24%
• Biden - 22%

CNN/ORC poll, Oct. 14-17, 2015:

• Clinton - 45%
• Sanders - 29%
• Biden - 18%

One possible reason for Sanders’ post-debate rise: Those who watched the debate viewed him favorably. According to the survey, 84 percent of Democrats saw Sanders in a favorable light, compared with 62 percent of Democratic voters generally. Clinton’s favorability among Democrats who watched the debate was virtually the same as it is among those who did not.

The CNN/ORC survey also shows a change in support for a Biden bid. In August, 53 percent of those polled wanted the vice president to jump into the race, compared with 45 percent who would prefer he did not. The new poll found 47 percent want Biden to run, while 49 percent think he should stay out.

If Biden decides not to run, Clinton stands to benefit the most.

Without Biden in the field, Clinton’s lead over Sanders would climb to 23 points, the poll found, with 56 percent backing the former secretary and 33 percent supporting the independent Vermont senator.

Another presidential candidate who would benefit from a decision by Biden to remain on the sidelines: Ben Carson.

The retired neurosurgeon, who is second behind frontrunner Donald Trump in the race for the Republican nomination, holds a slim lead on both Clinton (48 percent to 47 percent) and Sanders (48 percent to 46 percent) in theoretical general election match-ups. But against Biden, Carson trails by eight points (52 percent to 44 percent).

But Clinton, Sanders and Biden would each defeat Trump if he were the GOP nominee:

• Biden - 53%
• Trump - 43%
• Sanders - 53%
• Trump - 44%
• Clinton - 50%
• Trump - 45%

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Democratic Socialism!

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Democratic Socialism!: U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sanders to explain democratic socialism Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said o...

The Bottom Line on Democratic Socialism!

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sanders to explain democratic socialism

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said on Sunday he plans to give a major speech soon to explain his belief in democratic socialism, acknowledging the political label could be a stumbling block to winning over American voters.

The U.S. senator from Vermont, who touted his democratic socialist views in last week's Democratic presidential debate, said many Americans misunderstand socialism and did not recognize it in popular government programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

"I think there are a lot of people who, when they hear the word 'socialist,' get very, very nervous," Sanders told reporters at a campaign stop in Iowa, the state that on Feb. 1 starts the 2016 Democratic nominating contest leading up to the November 2016 election.

"What we're probably going to do to begin with is hold a major speech in the not-too-distant future to define exactly what I mean by democratic socialism," Sanders told a supporter in Iowa City who asked how he would counteract political attacks on his socialist views.

"To me, democratic socialism means democracy. It means creating a government that represents all of us, not just the wealthiest people in the country," Sanders said.

Sanders has become the leading challenger to front-runner Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential race with calls for greater economic equality, including more taxes on the wealthy and corporations and more government spending on programs such as free college tuition and a higher minimum wage.

But the political label of "socialist," with its Cold War associations and images of government takeovers of private industry, evokes negative connotations for many Americans and is typically used as a slur against U.S. politicians.

Sanders said voters just needed to better understand the concept.

"I think we have some explaining and work to do, but I think at the end of the day you are going to find more and more people agreeing with our point of view," Sanders said.

"You go to your public library, or you call your fire department or police department, what do you think you are calling? These are socialist institutions," he said.

Sanders said voters should know that countries like Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Germany had instituted successful socialist economic programs while remaining democratic.

"They may not be familiar with some of the very positive policies that those governments have developed for the middle class and working families," Sanders said. "So I think that's a discussion we have to have."

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Sanders' Promise

TheBottomLine: The Bottom Line on Sanders' Promise: Bernie Sanders keeps promise made in private to Sandra Bland’s mother In an era when every moment is tweeted and politicized, Bernie S...

The Bottom Line on Sanders' Promise

Bernie Sanders keeps promise made in private to Sandra Bland’s mother

In an era when every moment is tweeted and politicized, Bernie Sanders elected not to capitalize on a meaningful meeting with the mother of Sandra Bland.

The chance encounter reportedly took place at East Street Café, a Thai restaurant at Union Station in Washington, D.C., five days before the first Democratic presidential debate.

The Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner, a pastor at St. John’s Church in downtown Houston, wrote in her blog about noticing the Vermont senator at another table while she was eating dinner with Geneva Reed-Veal, whose daughter became a face of the Black Lives Matter campaign following her death in police custody in July.

The pastor said she approached Sanders and asked if he would like to meet Reed-Veal and told him their group had asked if he would take a picture with them.

“He did not impose upon Ms. Geneva to ask for a picture of his own. He did not use the moment as an opportunity to promote his campaign,” she wrote. “He took no record; he made no statement. He did not try to turn it into a publicity stunt.”

Bonner, who is a Black Lives Matter activist, said she was impressed by everyone’s sincerity during the serendipitous moment.

The Democratic presidential candidate told Reed-Veal that the death of her daughter was inexcusable and promised he would continue to “say her name.” At the debate on Oct. 13 in Las Vegas, Sanders stayed true to his word when answering a question submitted by a law student through Facebook: “Do black lives matter, or do all lives matter?”

“Black lives matter,” Sanders said. “The reason those words matter is the African-American community knows that on any given day, some innocent person like Sandra Bland can get into a car and then three days later she’s going to end up dead in jail.”

After this response, Google searches for “Sandra Bland” surged.

Later, Bonner shared photos of their meeting with Sanders on Twitter, still impressed that he did not try to capitalize on, or even mention, the moment.

“He simply made space for a sacred moment and then let it pass without trying to gain anything from it,” Bonner said. “For that, I respect him. For that, I am grateful. That choice may not have made him a very good politician, but it made him a better man.”