Iowa Poll: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders virtually tied CBS News

The race between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton is a virtual tie in Iowa, with Clinton leading by just two points. According to a new Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll released Thursday, Clinton has 42 percent of likely Democratic caucus goers, compared to 40 percent for Sanders.

Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed said the election is more about issues than it is about leadership. "Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say this is an election about issues, rather than leadership. That really explains the division in the party," explained Selzer, according to Bloomberg Politics.

The top issues Democratic caucus-goers, according to the poll, are the economy, civil rights, the wealth gap and national security.

Clinton opens the spigots on Sanders Politico

Clinton played notoriously hard-to-get during the first phase of her campaign — so much so that it was considered breaking news when she agreed to a sit-down interview with CNN.

But over the past 10 days, she has appeared no fewer than nine times on five major networks — CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and MSNBC, including live three morning-show appearances Wednesday. The former secretary of state has averaged one interview a day since Friday, Jan. 8, when she called into MSNBC’s "Hardball." Three days earlier, she also appeared in an extensive sit-down interview with “Hardball” host Chris Matthews. And the appearances don’t seem to be slowing down: She’ll appear on NBC's “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and sit down with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Thursday, all at the same time her campaign looks to get a boost amid sagging poll numbers.

Hillary Clinton's Lead Over Bernie Sanders Slipping In New Poll New York Times

A sharp generational divide emerges in the tightening race between Mrs. Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Democratic primary voters under 45 favori Mr. Sanders by a roughly 2-to-1 ratio in latest CBS/New York Times poll

"Yet more than 7 in 10 Democratic voters — including most supporters of Mr. Sanders — still believe Mrs. Clinton will ultimately win the party’s nomination. Voters expressed deeper confidence in her ability to be an effective commander in chief and more of her supporters say their minds are made up compared with Mr. Sanders’s backers."

Just a month ago, Clinton led Mr. Sanders by 20 percentage points nationally. Among Democratic primary voters across the country, 48 percent support Mrs. Clinton, while 41 percent back Mr. Sanders, the poll found.

Hillary Clinton Headlines

Eric Holder endorses Hillary Clinton Politico

Endorsements Pour In For Hillary Clinton From Gun Control Advocates Think Progress

Why Is Bernie Sanders Overtaking Hillary? The Atlantic

Cassidy's Count: Bernie Sanders Is Gaining Ground on Hillary Clinton The New Yorker

The Abortion Policy Hillary Clinton Keeps Talking About, Explained Think Progress

Large numbers of Hillary Clinton supporters were shocked to hear the anti-Hillary MSNBC reporter Andrea Mitchell actually report the story about House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's admissions that the candidate would have been "unbeatable" without the intervention of the Select Committee on Benghazi, which is committed to destroying Clinton's presidential chances.

The word now is that Mitchell is not pleased that her voice is used in Hillary Clinton's new campaign ad. That is such a pity for Andrea, because It's out understanding that news reporters don't own their words -- something about the public airwaves.

VOX writes:

It was a stunning acknowledgment of the political nature of the committee's work, and Clinton allies believe it will take the sting out of the investigation. Moreover, it couldn't have come at a better time — or on a better issue — for her. That's because she's locked in a primary against Bernie Sanders, and possibly Vice President Joe Biden, and some Democrats have been concerned about her handling of the email scandal at the center of the committee's work. Now Democrats have a vivid reminder of just how much Republicans hate Clinton, which could help rally them to her defense.

Joe Biden & Maureen Dowd

Exclusive: Biden himself leaked word of his son's dying wish Politico

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd is more pathological in her hatred of the Clintons than MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell or the Morning Joe crowd, about whom we write often. Still, it was a shock on Aug. 1 when Dowd wrote in her weekend column about the pleas of Vice President Joe Biden's dying son Beau's final wishes.

According to multiple sources, it was Biden himself who talked to her, painting a tragic portrait of a dying son, Beau’s face partially paralyzed, sitting his father down and trying to make him promise to run for president because "the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.”

Politico writer Edward-Isaac Dovere's piece carried the sub-headline: "The vice president is mourning. He's also calculating."

AOC and HillaryWomen News on Facebook have no interest in speculating about Joe Biden's motives or intentions. But this VOX article really got our attention.

Imagine how the press would react if Hillary Clinton did what Joe Biden just did VOX

Since Joe Biden has been weighing a run for president, members of the press have repeatedly praised him for his "authenticity." This has largely been in contrast to Hillary Clinton, who is frequently pilloried by the media as secretive and calculating, and has its members yearning for a more natural candidate. "With Joe Biden, what you see is what you get," Mike Barnicle wrote for the Daily Beast.

The refreshingly insightful VOX reminds us not to trust media accounts of who is authentic. VOX goes so far as to suggest that "authenticity" seems to be a synonym for "better at working the press" or more "fun to cover".

Politico's Glenn Thrush tweeted on August 1, the date of Dowd's article: "Joe Biden (while being a natural born bullshit artist) is the nicest most sincere and menschy national pol I've ever covered.

We ALL know that no one would cut candidate Clinton any slack if her actions mirrored Biden's. If Hillary is involved, the media employ different strokes for different folks -- which is why the younger and less incestuous VOX and Buzzfeed are fresh political reads these days.

Hillary Headlines Oct 7

Hillary Clinton Flexes Political Muscle in Key States NBC

Hillary Clinton comes out against trade deal CNN

Sanders gets his first congressional endorsement Politico

Clinton leads every Democrat under the sun PPP