Bernie to Hillary: You sure liked my health care position when you signed this photo to me

Rob told you yesterday about the Hillary campaign's strange decision to send Chelsea Clinton out attacking Bernie Sanders - over his support for single-payer health care (also known as socialized medicine). The Hillary people, clearly in a panic because Sanders is leading them in both Iowa and New Hampshire and is closing the gap nationally, want everyone to know that socialized medicine would be really expensive and require massive tax increases! That's true, of course, but it never bothered Hillary before. The massive tax increases and the crushing costs would be fine with Hillary from a policy standpoint, but she needs something to use to fend off Sanders because all the enthusiasm amongst Democrat primary voters is for him, and none at all for her.

There are two major problems with this, of course: One is that Democrat primary voters love the idea of socialized medicine, and one of the reasons they're for Bernie and not for her is because he's for it, and unabashedly so. (There is also the whole lies-like-a-serpent thing, but we can't cover everything here.) Another much more embarrassing problem is that she praised Bernie's support for socialized medicine when it suited her interests to do so, and he has proof:

"To Bernie Sanders with thanks for your commitment to real health care access for all Americans..."-@HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/XMVPEx8fT8

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 13, 2016

I suppose you could attempt to defend her by pointing out that she didn't say "single-payer" or "socialized medicine" in the photo inscription, and you could read "real health care access for all Americans" as not necessarily requiring either. But come on. Hillary knew Bernie Sanders' policy preferences in 1993, and if she didn't like them then she didn't need to inscribe the photo with praise for them. She could have just scribbled an insincere "best wishes" and signed her name. Hillary is for socialized medicine. She doesn't want to say so because she doesn't think it will get her elected, but she has no philosophical objection to it. And Sanders is savvy enough to know that when Hillary takes a pretend policy position for political reasons, there is probably something in her paper trail that will prove she's being dishonest. In this case, he apparently had it in his own possession. Please tell me again why she is seen as a compelling candidate? I truly don't get it.

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