Or so some would have you believe.
In a 30-second ad posted on Wednesday, the Democratic presidential candidate declared, “Over two million contributions have been made to the only campaign that rejects the corrupt campaign finance system. You can’t level the playing field by taking money from Wall Street banks and billionaires.”
What a relief it must have been to Sanders when Lawrence Lessig withdrew his candidacy last month, allowing the Vermont senator to declare that he’s the only true campaign-finance reformer in the race.
As for “taking money from Wall Street banks and billionaires,” two Bloombergians commented:
BURNie Sanders: “You can't level the playing field with Wall Street banks and billionaires by taking their money.” https://t.co/F9KUlkqXb4
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) December 17, 2015Sanders implicit HRC hit: "You can't level the playing the field w Wall St banks & billionares by taking their $" https://t.co/uKPwXidiay
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) December 17, 2015Can it really be a “burn,” though, if Sanders doesn’t single anyone out? The key word here is “implicit,” as he still refuses to take direct shots at his main rival. Meanwhile, though he’s keeping it close in New Hampshire, he’s losing ground in Iowa and still more than 20 points behind Clinton nationally. His fundraising has been impressive, reaching two million individual donations faster than Barack Obama reached one million during his 2008 campaign, but at some point he’s going to have to get explicit.