Democrats test talking points before taking on Hillary Clinton

Bloomberg News
April 20, 2015 at 12:29AM
In this April 14, 2015, photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, participates in a roundtable with educators and students at the Kirkwood Community College's Jones County Regional Center in Monticello, Iowa. This time around, Clinton wants to be on liberals’ good side. In 2008, the then-first time presidential candidate opposed gay marriage, equivocated on granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, and took a beating from rival Barack Obama ove
Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton participates in a roundtable with educators and students in Monticello, Iowa. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

They're not in it to win it themselves — not yet, at least — but possible Democratic primary challengers to Hillary Clinton had plenty to say on Sunday about the newly announced presidential candidate.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley led the call for a competitive contest for the party's nomination.

"I think it would be an extreme poverty indeed if there weren't more than one person willing to compete for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party," O'Malley said on CBS' "Face the Nation," according to a transcript from the network.

He'll decide whether to run by the end of May, he said, and would make a better president than Clinton "because of the experience that I can bring to this job."

Former Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, who formed an exploratory committee in November, jabbed at Clinton's fundraising power, carefully constructed image and lengthy public career.

"I'm never going to have a political consultant at my side, whispering what I should say or how I should dress or whether I ought to go to Wal-Mart or not," Webb said on CNN's "State of the Union." "But what we do have is long experience on the issues in and out of government, strong beliefs about where the country needs to go, and I think the kind of leadership where we can govern."

"I think we've got a lot of incumbent fatigue in the country and I think people are looking for fresh approaches in terms of how to solve the problems of the country," Webb also said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent, said he was skeptical of candidates' willingness in either party to take on the so-called billionaire class.

"I think that is the that we have to wage if we are going to save the middle class and I do have doubts about whether Hillary Clinton or whether any Republican candidate out there is prepared to take on the big money interests who control so much of our economy and, as a result of Citizens United, our political process, as well," Sanders said on "Fox News Sunday." He will decide whether to run in "the near future," he said.

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