Bernie Sanders Argument Against Hillary Clinton

Bernie Sanders continues to insist on engaging in an unprecedented level of discourse in the run-up to next year 's Democratic presidential primaries. His recent vehemence with a reporter in a post-speech news conference in Dubuque, Iowa (video below), shows him—once again—summarily refusing to criticize Hillary Clinton 's character, tactics or political posturing.

The undisputed leader in a recent poll in the first-primary state of New Hampshire, Sanders again promised—in no uncertain terms—to limit his focus to "a respectable and intelligent debate" solely on the issues.

The momentum of decades of non-issue discourse between presidential candidates inform a general cynicism that Sanders will only be able to do this for so long. That, in

He then pointed out some of the issues in which he and the supposed shoe-in winner Clinton differ: raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, his opposition to the Keystone pipeline, his opposition the war in Iraq and his opposition to the USA Patriot Act.

Sanders unambiguous reply was prompted when a reporter said to him:

"You said you won 't criticize or attack Hillary Clinton, certainly. But you did seem to draw some implicit contrasts when you said you don 't take money from Super PACs and you voted against the Iraq war ..."

That is when Sanders lit off, refusing the bait. He instead took the opportunity to relate his pinnacle issue, the one from which he says all other issues cascade: "The collapse of the American middle class ... the obscenity of the kind of income and wealth inequality that we have today."

He reiterated his refusal "to get into the game" of attacking his main opponent, Hillary Clinton. "We disagree. We 're going to have—if I have anything to say about it—a respectable and intelligent debate."

It seems clear that if Hillary were to drop a character bomb against Sanders, she would walk away with egg on her face. What is left for Clinton, then, is ... a debate on the issues. For this reason alone, Sanders remains in charge of the