Sen. Bernie Sanders explained to Meet the Press host Chuck Todd what he would do differently from President Obama to deal with the Republican obstructionists in the House, and the the need to use the bully pulpit to mobilize voters if we want to see some real change from or politics as usual::
Sen. Bernie Sanders pointed to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's evolution on various policy issues, suggesting Sunday his "consistency" was an asset against her in the Democratic presidential primary.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," Sanders listed a number of progressive stances he had held from the start, that Clinton only recently came around to — opposition to the Keystone Pipeline and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, in particular.
Voters will have to "contrast my consistency and my willingness to stand up to Wall Street and corporations, big corporations, with the secretary," he said. [...]
Sanders also suggested that understands the need for the revolution on the stump better than Obama and would be better-equipped to execute it.
"Here is the difference in political outlook between the president and myself: What I understand is that the power of corporate America, Wall Street, the corporate, the media is so great that real change to transform our country does not take place unless millions of people begin to stand up and say very loudly and clearly that the United States government has got to represent all of us, and not just the top 1 percent," he said.
Still, Sanders acknowledged limits to the presidency.
"Now, do I think the Republican speaker of the House will agree with me? No, I don't think so," Sanders said.
He suggested, though, he can overcome that by using the bully pulpit to galvanize voters.
Sanders said he's learned two lessons from Obama's interactions with House Republicans. One is that Obama "actually thought that he could sit down the the Republican leadership" and hammer out some agreements — but "they never had any intention to compromise."
And the second was that "you have to be prepared to mobilize people to take on these big money interests." Sanders says his campaign, because of its groundswell of grassroots support, can become the movement to force policy change that President Obama never enjoyed during his time in office.
"I think we can do it. And I think that's what the bully pulpit is about. And that's what organizing effort's about. And that's what this campaign is about," he said.
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