The 6 biggest policy differences between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton VOX News

One of our favorite media perspectives comes consistently out of VOX. Perhaps because the team is younger, they aren't quite as jaded. More importantly, they make an attempt at objectivity and fairness in discussing Hillary Clinton that is absent from most sources.

In advance of tonight's debate in Las Vegas, Andrew Prokop outlines key differences between the candidates.

1) Money: Sanders attacks the rich; Clinton wants to raise money from them

2) Trade: Sanders is extremely skeptical of new agreements, while Clinton has waffled

3) Foreign policy: Clinton is more of a hawk than Sanders -- and most other Democrats

4) Health reform: Sanders wants single-payer -- but likely couldn't get it through Congress

Clinton said earlier this year that she wants to build on "what works" in Obamacare — the basic framework of which was very similar to her 2008 campaign's health reform proposal. Notably, she said back then that over her 15 years of work on the issue, "I never seriously considered a single-payer system." Her reasons were pragmatic. "Talking about single-payer really is a conversation ender for most Americans, because then they become very nervous about socialized medicine," she's said.

In 2008, Clinton did support one key proposal that never became law — a public option to let people choose government-provided insurance. And she suggested that if it was popular, it could lead to a more extensive overhaul of the system. "Let Americans choose. And what better way to determine that than letting the market have some competition and, you know, see where it does lead to," she said.

5) Spending: Sanders wants big spending

. . . Clinton — wary of being tarred as a big-spending Democrat, like her husband was in the beginning of his administration — is one of them, generally proposing that increases in spending would be paid for by other spending cuts or tax hikes.

Not Sanders. His speeches are filled with calls for dramatic increases in government spending. Pay for the first two years of college at any public university! Spend $1 trillion on infrastructure! Move to single-payer health care!

Overall, he downplays the deficit as a problem, as his appointment of Stephanie Keltonas the top Democratic economist on the budget committee shows. "She thinks that, in many cases, government surpluses are actively destructive and balancing the budget is very dangerous," writes Dylan Matthews. When Sanders does discuss pay-fors, he talks about cutting defense or hiking taxes on the wealthy (not the middle class).

6) Clinton has more frequently pushed for gun control measures

Large numbers of Hillary Clinton supporters were shocked to hear the anti-Hillary MSNBC reporter Andrea Mitchell actually report the story about House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's admissions that the candidate would have been "unbeatable" without the intervention of the Select Committee on Benghazi, which is committed to destroying Clinton's presidential chances.

The word now is that Mitchell is not pleased that her voice is used in Hillary Clinton's new campaign ad. That is such a pity for Andrea, because It's out understanding that news reporters don't own their words -- something about the public airwaves.

VOX writes:

It was a stunning acknowledgment of the political nature of the committee's work, and Clinton allies believe it will take the sting out of the investigation. Moreover, it couldn't have come at a better time — or on a better issue — for her. That's because she's locked in a primary against Bernie Sanders, and possibly Vice President Joe Biden, and some Democrats have been concerned about her handling of the email scandal at the center of the committee's work. Now Democrats have a vivid reminder of just how much Republicans hate Clinton, which could help rally them to her defense.

Joe Biden & Maureen Dowd

Exclusive: Biden himself leaked word of his son's dying wish Politico

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd is more pathological in her hatred of the Clintons than MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell or the Morning Joe crowd, about whom we write often. Still, it was a shock on Aug. 1 when Dowd wrote in her weekend column about the pleas of Vice President Joe Biden's dying son Beau's final wishes.

According to multiple sources, it was Biden himself who talked to her, painting a tragic portrait of a dying son, Beau’s face partially paralyzed, sitting his father down and trying to make him promise to run for president because "the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.”

Politico writer Edward-Isaac Dovere's piece carried the sub-headline: "The vice president is mourning. He's also calculating."

AOC and HillaryWomen News on Facebook have no interest in speculating about Joe Biden's motives or intentions. But this VOX article really got our attention.

Imagine how the press would react if Hillary Clinton did what Joe Biden just did VOX

Since Joe Biden has been weighing a run for president, members of the press have repeatedly praised him for his "authenticity." This has largely been in contrast to Hillary Clinton, who is frequently pilloried by the media as secretive and calculating, and has its members yearning for a more natural candidate. "With Joe Biden, what you see is what you get," Mike Barnicle wrote for the Daily Beast.

The refreshingly insightful VOX reminds us not to trust media accounts of who is authentic. VOX goes so far as to suggest that "authenticity" seems to be a synonym for "better at working the press" or more "fun to cover".

Politico's Glenn Thrush tweeted on August 1, the date of Dowd's article: "Joe Biden (while being a natural born bullshit artist) is the nicest most sincere and menschy national pol I've ever covered.

We ALL know that no one would cut candidate Clinton any slack if her actions mirrored Biden's. If Hillary is involved, the media employ different strokes for different folks -- which is why the younger and less incestuous VOX and Buzzfeed are fresh political reads these days.

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