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How does Bernie measure up?

Up until 1980, when NBC’s John Chancellor announced to the nation that Ronald Reagan would be the people’s next president, no president had lost his run for re-election but Herbert Hoover in 1932.

Similar to Jimmy Carter, Bernie Sanders has identified himself as a Washington outsider who believes he can make government more transparent. But, what if in his attempt to do so, he hands the White House to the GOP for the following eight years?

Generally speaking, the far majority of people who have become the president of the United States are considered novices when they first start out. Every president to date has had weaknesses in various issues — be it national security, foreign policy or governing from the executive. Nobody knows everything. Typically, there is about a two-year learning curve that comes along with the office of the president before the administration is able to get things rolling. Of course, there are exceptions to this phenomenon.

Hillary Clinton, the only real opposition to Sanders’ potential candidacy, has been labeled as the “establishment candidate” of the Democratic Party. She has earned this illustrious title from her experience as a U.S. senator from 2001 to 2009, secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and first lady to Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, from 1993 to 2001.

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Contrary to Hillary Clinton, whose plans to govern are somewhat emulative of her husband’s, Bernie Sanders proposes legislation that attempts to govern from the left rather than the middle of the political spectrum. With a combative, red Congress, attempting to provoke change through such legislation can only lead to more stalemates. The cost of a do-nothing Congress exceeds tangibility. Citizens lose hope and patience for change, usually leading to distrust in their leader — the president.

During President Bill Clinton’s time in office, real GDP rose annually by about 3.8 percent, unemployment fell to 3.9 percent from 7.5, inflation was stable, median wages grew and the financial industry exploded.

Pundits of Clinton claim that she doesn’t represent the best interest of the people, rather the large corporations she receives political contributions from. Though taking large donations has its obvious moral dilemmas, if in the NBA, players were allowed to take three steps to the basket instead of two, who wouldn’t take that extra step?

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