Peak Desperation: Clinton Campaign Deploys Wall Street 'Strategist' To Attack Bernie Sanders

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/17/2016 13:16 -0500
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-17/peak-desperation-clinton-campaign-deploys-wall-street-strategist-attack-bernie-sande
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

“She’s not doing the big rallies because she can’t get the big crowds,” said the Iowa Clinton ally. “Maybe people are too anxious over this, and that anxiety is spilling over into cautiousness and overthinking decisions. Everyone’s on edge given how much we’ve invested in Iowa.”

– From the Mashable article: Bernie Sanders is Surging in Iowa and Hillary Clinton’s Campaign is Freaked

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is absolutely imploding right now. When people get desperate, they do desperate things, and the latest move by the Clinton campaign reeks of putrid, panicked desperation.
What I am referring to are recent accusations that Bernie Sanders has “gone negative” by releasing the following television ad. Let’s take a watch:

This is literally one of the most gentle, benign campaign ads I have ever seen. Nevertheless, implying the obvious, that Hillary Clinton is a Wall Street funded tool, has her campaign running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Which goes to show you how completely terrified and vulnerable she is on this particular issue. As such, her campaign’s strategy is to spread this non-story throughout the media in an attempt to guilt the Sanders campaign into not aggressively using this key issue going forward. Let’s hope it doesn’t work.
Yet the best part in all of this, is that the firm working with the Hillary campaign to publicize this faux outrage, is the Benenson Strategy Group, a top strategist to Wall Street mega banks.
As reported by International Business Times:

Hillary Clinton’s campaign held a conference call Thursday with reporters to deride Bernie Sanders for airing an ad that criticized Wall Street firms and the politicians who accept their donations. Though the ad did not mention Clinton by name, the conference call featured her top strategist Joel Benenson portraying the spot as an inappropriate attack on Clinton, whose 2016 campaign has accepted $5.7 million from executives in the financial industry.

According to its website, the Benenson Strategy Group lists Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase among its clients. In a 2012 press release, Benenson listed JPMorgan Chase - whose executives are collectively among Clinton’s top 2016 donors - as an example of how the firm “has guided many Fortune 500 companies and leading advocacy groups through critical strategic and communication challenges.” The section of Benenson’s website listing the banks as clients says the firm is focused on “delivering strategies corporations need to stay ahead of the curve.” Other clients listed include McDonald’s, Pfizer and Walmart — the last of which once had Hillary Clinton on its board of directors when she was first lady of Arkansas.

Just below the listing of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, Benenson’s firm lists Clinton’s campaign, the Obama campaign and top Democratic Party groups as clients. Those clients are listed under a section in which Benenson’s firm says it works on “advising leaders who shape the world.”

Of course, it makes perfect sense that Hillary Clinton, JP Morgan and Bank of America would share the same strategist. After all, they are the exact same brand.