2018 - Elections and Trends

[pyrohornIII 4815]

Hackers break into voting machines within 2 hours at Defcon

Spoiler

Hackers from around the world had the rare opportunity to crack election-style voting machines this weekend in Las Vegas -- and they didn't disappoint.

After nearly an hour and a half, Carsten Schürmann, an associate professor with IT-University of Copenhagen, successfully cracked into a voting machine at Las Vegas' Defcon convention on Friday night, CNET reports.

Schürmann penetrated Advanced Voting Solutions' 2000 WinVote machine through its Wi-Fi system. Using a Windows XP exploit from 2003, he was able to remotely access the machine, CNET reports.

Voting technology was thrust into the political spotlight when election systems in several states were targeted by Russian cyber attacks. The convention purchased more than 30 voting machines for the event, although, organizers didn't specify how many models those units represented.

"The exposure of those devices to the people who do bug bounties or actually look at these kind of devices has been fairly limited," Brian Knopf, director of security researcher for Neustar, told CNET. "And so Defcon is a great opportunity for those of us who hack hardware and firmware to look to these kind of devices and really answer that question, 'Are they hackable?'"

A hacker tries to access and alter data from an electronic poll book in a Voting Machine Hacking Village during the Defcon hacker convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. on July 29, 2017.

Reuters

Synack, a San Francisco security platform, discovered serious flaws with the WinVote machine months ahead of this weekend's convention. The team simply plugged in a mouse and keyboard and bypassed the voting software by clicking "control-alt-delete."

"It's really just a matter of plugging your USB drive in for five seconds and the thing's completely compromised at that point," Synack co-founder Jay Kaplan told CNET. "To the point where you can get remote access. It's very simple."

The Synack team also cracked the machine from a mobile application by installing a remote desktop program to it. In one case study, Synack found a Virginia poll worker hacked the machine to play Minesweeper.

A hacker, who only identified himself as "Oyster," tried to crack a Diebold voting machine after another team had compromised it.

"I hope that we find a load of vulnerabilities in these just so we can open it up to the public to see how serious the problem is," he told CNET.

Hackers at the convention hope their finding will lead to lasting changes in voting machine technology.

Anne-Marie Hwang, a Synack intern, told CNET that changing votes can be as simple as updating a Microsoft Excel document.

"Hacking it is good because it's able to inform politicians and people in Congress about what they should do with voting machines," Hwang said. "If no one ever hacked them, we might be still using things like this."

 

[HenryJames 66108]

Better take us to Defcon 1.

[retread 2951]

Quote

"Hacking it is good because it's able to inform politicians and people in Congress about what they should do with voting machines," Hwang said. "If no one ever hacked them, we might be still using things  l ike this."

 

Edited July 30, 2018 by retread

[atomheartbevo 89725]

Those voting machines shoulda been using OS/2 instead of OSes that can be exploited by Windows XP hacks from 2003.

[kopp0e 1135]

The voters of Oklahoma just passed the medicinal cannabis by voting to legalize it this summer, now the plan is attempting to pass recreational weed as well...

Quote

Group says it reached signature goal to put recreational marijuana on ...

www.koco.com/.../group-says...signature...put-recreational-marijuana-on-november-b...

15 hours ago - Group says it reached signature goal to put recreational marijuana on .... Official says procedure could keep recreational marijuana off November ballot. Green the Vote officials said they still hope to get to 150,000 signatures.

 

[Js1 85384]

Go straight to hell, do not suck Koch, Scott Walker.

https://www.emerson.edu/sites/default/files/Files/Academics/ecp-pr-wi-7.28.18.pdf

Second poll to show him down by high single digits.

[Huckleberry 32996]

47 minutes ago, pyrohornIII said:

Synack, a San Francisco security platform, discovered serious flaws with the WinVote machine months ahead of this weekend's convention. The team simply plugged in a mouse and keyboard and bypassed the voting software by clicking "control-alt-delete."

Jesus.

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

14 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Jesus.

What criminal mastermind could devise such a plan?

[Hank Kingsley 20966]

On 7/27/2018 at 8:05 PM, Larry T. Spider said:

We have a bunch of people that vote R at least some of the time making a turn to the left. Let’s not run them off with candidates so far to the left that they aren’t palatable to these types. Stopping the right wing hate machine running our government with moderate dems is plenty good enough for now. 

Yeah, I'm gonna have to completely disagree with this. 

Firstly, the "far left" candidates aren't even radical.  Universal healthcare, affordable college, and taxing the rich are not crazy ideas. 

Secondly, what if Trump is not the candidate in 2020? It's unlikely, but health issues, impeachment, or something else could keep him off the ticket.  At that point, this centrist Democrat strategy bullshit means nothing except turning off the "far left" voters.  All Republicans will go back to voting party lines when Trump is gone.  Your strategy is a quick fix with long term horrible results.

I don't think running off the "right wing hate machine" is enough.  Let's kick Schumer, Pelosi, Feinstein, etc. to the curb as well.  They are complicit. "Moderate" Democrats are soft Republicans. Fuck'em.  Time to get the olds out of office, and the goal should be to get as many people between the ages of 18-40 to actually vote. 

 

 

[Js1 85384]

3 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Yeah, I'm gonna have to completely disagree with this. 

Firstly, the "far left" candidates aren't even radical.  Universal healthcare, affordable college, and taxing the rich are not crazy ideas. 

Secondly, what if Trump is not the candidate in 2020? It's unlikely, but health issues, impeachment, or something else could keep him off the ticket.  At that point, this centrist Democrat strategy bullshit means nothing except turning off the "far left" voters.  All Republicans will go back to voting party lines when Trump is gone.  Your strategy is a quick fix with long term horrible results.

I don't think running off the "right wing hate machine" is enough.  Let's kick Schumer, Pelosi, Feinstein, etc. to the curb as well.  They are complicit. "Moderate" Democrats are soft Republicans. Fuck'em.  Time to get the olds out of office, and the goal should be to get as many people between the ages of 18-40 to actually vote. 

 

 

[Chad Fuck 17684]

37 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Go straight to hell, do not suck Koch, Scott Walker.

https://www.emerson.edu/sites/default/files/Files/Academics/ecp-pr-wi-7.28.18.pdf

Second poll to show him down by high single digits.

Scott Walker was at Oshkosh while I was there this week.  He did not get booed, but no one was clapping for him.  There were people literally outside the gates waving flags and rallying for the opposition.

[Hank Kingsley 20966]

Here's another thing to think about. 

Trump's policies are horrific, but his rhetoric is what turns off a lot of serious GOP supporters.  The next Republican candidate for President could have a Trumpian administration and Rs would absolutely love him/her if they were more stately and a great speaker.  Make no mistake,  the vast majority of GOP voters would fawn over a more dignified and palatable Trumpist.  

Everything the GOP stands for right now needs to be destroyed. Trumpism needs to completely be removed from power.  This is not the time to be a centrist. 

 

 

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

4 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Here's another thing to think about. 

Trump's policies are horrific, but his rhetoric is what turns off a lot of serious GOP supporters.  The next Republican candidate for President could have a Trumpian administration and Rs would absolutely love him/her if they were more stately and a great speaker.  Make no mistake,  the vast majority of GOP voters would fawn over a more dignified and palatable Trumpist.  

Everything the GOP stands for right now needs to be destroyed. Trumpism needs to completely be removed from power.  This is not the time to be a centrist. 

 

 

 Sometimes I agree with this, and sometimes I don’t. I think there is a real standards setting by the atrocious behavior of Trump. He is able to have people like Pruitt and Perry and DeVos and all these other flunkies particularly because he is not statesmanlike. 

 If you got anyone up there that at least had a veneer of respectability, the excesses of the administration would stand out a lot more. I don’t think the next guy would be able to be as all-around terrible as Trump is. In other words, I sort of don’t think you could have a “nice trump”

[atomheartbevo 89725]

1 hour ago, kopp0e said:

The voters of Oklahoma just passed the medicinal cannabis by voting to legalize it this summer, now the plan is attempting to pass recreational weed as well...

 

If they have enough methheads who didn't lose their right to vote through felony issues, they might just pull it off.

And I can think of a few Republican Okies I know who would vote for this if it brings in revenue that doesn't raise their income taxes.

[kopp0e 1135]

10 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

If they have enough methheads who didn't lose their right to vote through felony issues, they might just pull it off.

And I can think of a few Republican Okies I know who would vote for this if it brings in revenue that doesn't raise their income taxes.

Yeah I agree on your take, I was surprised the medicinal vote passed by about a 9% margin, although I'm sure more 'Pubs will be out for the General Election this fall...

[atomheartbevo 89725]

14 minutes ago, kopp0e said:

Yeah I agree on your take, I was surprised the medicinal vote passed by about a 9% margin, although I'm sure more 'Pubs will be out for the General Election this fall...

Lot of old folks, lot of diabetes, lot of Native Americans, not too surprised the medical passed.

And if the argument is framed right, that it can bring in additional revenue without raising state income taxes, there will probably be more than a few Republicans who support it.

[kopp0e 1135]

6 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Lot of old folks, lot of diabetes, lot of Native Americans, not too surprised the medical passed.

And if the argument is framed right, that it can bring in additional revenue without raising state income taxes, there will probably be more than a few Republicans who support it.

Well, I guess we shall see, as I know the Republican base has been far more open to it that I would have expected, as in I thought it would be a near unanimous "no" vote...

[Tuco 5076]

How liberal was has medicinal mj bill?  There are some so tight that they target specific, life-threatening conditions.  There are others which can get a script if you have a bad day. 

[Dertyberd 394]

31 minutes ago, Tuco said:

How liberal was has medicinal mj bill?  There are some so tight that they target specific, life-threatening conditions.  There are others which can get a script if you have a bad day. 

It's fairly liberal at the moment.  There were some shenanigans that the board overseeing the implementation of Medical was trying to pull to restrict it, but the backlash was swift.  I believe it will be fairly liberal in the end.  Lawmakers want the mishandling and drama of rules setting to end.  Already have the Director of the board of Pharmacy attempting to bribe the attorney from the Health Dept who oversaw the writing of the rules/regs to put a "pharmacist in every dispensary".  They now have charges against them.  It's been a shitshow and most lawmakers just want it to go away.  

I have my doubts on recreational passing and unfortunately it won't be on the ballot in November.  That is too much of a Democratic GOTV for Republicans to allow during a gubernatorial election that is already going to be close.  It will likely go to a special vote in the spring or some random time that makes it more difficult to pass.  

Edited July 30, 2018 by Dertyberd

[rtchorn 15]

3 hours ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Yeah, I'm gonna have to completely disagree with this. 

Firstly, the "far left" candidates aren't even radical.  Universal healthcare, affordable college, and taxing the rich are not crazy ideas. 

Secondly, what if Trump is not the candidate in 2020? It's unlikely, but health issues, impeachment, or something else could keep him off the ticket.  At that point, this centrist Democrat strategy bullshit means nothing except turning off the "far left" voters.  All Republicans will go back to voting party lines when Trump is gone.  Your strategy is a quick fix with long term horrible results.

I don't think running off the "right wing hate machine" is enough.  Let's kick Schumer, Pelosi, Feinstein, etc. to the curb as well.  They are complicit. "Moderate" Democrats are soft Republicans. Fuck'em.  Time to get the olds out of office, and the goal should be to get as many people between the ages of 18-40 to actually vote. 

 

 

There has been concerted effort to undo the progress that was made during the Obama years. I’m absolutely on board with kicking the establishment Dems to the curb, but the Democratic Party needs to take advantage of the by swing by the Republicans to the far right by moving back to the center.  Hillary didn’t do that; she effectively moved farther left.  The farther left the party moves, the easier time Trump and those like him will have pointing at the Dems as radicals and winning the reluctant middle that voted for him in the last election. I think the focus should be on shoring up the progress made, rather than focusing on pushing the issues farther left. The first two years of Trump have demonstrated how tentative holding on to progress can be.

[Mojo Hand 4580]

Completely wrong.   Hillary was to the right of Obama and is the exact type of centrist the Dems should avoid.  There's no such thing as giving Trump and the GOP an "easier time" painting Dems as radical leftists.   They do that easily regardless of the Dem candidate.  That you are identifying Hillary as a swing to the left only proves that point.  And the GOP is able to do that precisely because Dems always do what you recommend, which is to act of ashamed of having liberal ideas.

What Dems need to do is stand up for their ideas rather than running away from them.   Voters don't buy the Dem message because they sense the insecurity and phoniness of "I really believe in liberal policies but Republicans have good ideas too, let's do something in the middle."  If Dems forcefully stand behind lib policies, voters will respect the confidence and appreciate the honesty and give them a shot. 

Edited July 30, 2018 by Mojo Hand

[Js1 85384]

16 minutes ago, rtchorn said:

There has been concerted effort to undo the progress that was made during the Obama years. I’m absolutely on board with kicking the establishment Dems to the curb, but the Democratic Party needs to take advantage of the by swing by the Republicans to the far right by moving back to the center.  Hillary didn’t do that; she effectively moved farther left.  The farther left the party moves, the easier time Trump and those like him will have pointing at the Dems as radicals and winning the reluctant middle that voted for him in the last election. I think the focus should be on shoring up the progress made, rather than focusing on pushing the issues farther left. The first two years of Trump have demonstrated how tentative holding on to progress can be.

None of this holds weight.

Hillary is a communist! Obama is a Marxist! Bernie is a socialist!

Doesn't matter who you run, the right will paint that candidate as far-left communist/socialist whatever.

Democrats need to stand up for their ideas.  They needed to go to Washington, pass Obamacare, and then run on it.  Instead, they passed it after trying to compromise and get Republican votes (lot of good that did), shit their spines out of their asses and let Republicans grab hold of the message and turn it into a negative and then ran away from their own policies.  They deserved to lose.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Js1

[atomheartbevo 89725]

3 hours ago, kopp0e said:

Well, I guess we shall see, as I know the Republican base has been far more open to it that I would have expected, as in I thought it would be a near unanimous "no" vote...

They are getting older, and plenty of magazines targeted at that age range have had articles about medical marijuana for the older/elderly folks....

[Gil Bang 25975]

Holy shit.  Check out this asshole
 

 

 

[Brisketexan 105154]

11 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

Holy shit.  Check out this asshole
 

 

 

Holy fuck.  The only thing that could have made that more pathetic would be if he let Trump bone his wife.

And we can't rule that out.

[Aqua Buddha 14598]

So, that "Bigfoot Erotica," that's a real thing?  What the fuck?

[Brisketexan 105154]

3 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

So, that "Bigfoot Erotica," that's a real thing?  What the fuck?

Quote

Rule 34 

Generally accepted internet rule that states that pornography or sexually related material exists for any conceivable subject. 

 

[Tuco 5076]

Koch Brothers network getting a bit pissy about the current version of fiscal conservatism:

Quote

The influential Koch political network announced Monday it is not supporting Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer in his race to unseat vulnerable Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota -- the latest sign the conservative group is frustrated with the current state of the GOP.

The decision for now to stay out of a pivotal 2018 Senate race will likely send shockwaves through the Republican Party and fits with a broader theme from the Koch network's summer meeting that the network feels like it has been "taken for granted" by the GOP.

Top officials at Americans For Prosperity, the political and policy arm of the Koch network, said the group is not currently supporting Cramer because he is not leading on central policy priorities for the Koch network.

"If this were 2016, we likely would have gone ahead and endorsed" Cramer, said AFP President Tim Phillips. "But we're raising the bar."

The Koch network threatens to hold GOP to account

Speaking to the network's backers Monday, the final day of their summer meeting in Colorado Springs, Phillips criticized Cramer for his support of a $1.3 trillion spending measure earlier this year and his reluctance to take on the White House on trade and tariffs.

CNN

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

You can win with a candidate that is willing to move pretty far to the left, like obama at the time, IF they are charismatic and can pull the center in. If you don’t have that, you have to win by building a coalition on policy that will attract the middle. Bernie and EW can’t do either IMO. I’m all ears if people want to throw out left wing dems that are articulate enough to motivate the base and capture the middle with personality. 

[bad_teammate 13215]

*Bernie literally fills Midwestern arenas with cheering, enthusiastic crowds all throughout the 2016 primary, attracting a wide swath of voters that include people who eventually vote for Trump in the general*

"Hmmmm, I don't think people will like him."

[Horn Dog 9875]

2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Holy fuck.  The only thing that could have made that more pathetic would be if he let Trump bone his wife.

And we can't rule that out.

Well he definitely seems like a beta Cuck.. and his wife’s titties aint gonna fuck themselves.

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

2 hours ago, bad_teammate said:

*Bernie literally fills Midwestern arenas with cheering, enthusiastic crowds all throughout the 2016 primary, attracting a wide swath of voters that include people who eventually vote for Trump in the general*

"Hmmmm, I don't think people will like him."

Hillary did better than Bernie in midwestern primaries. Sorry, but I’m still unconvinced. I like the guy and wish he was president right now. He’s just not as electable as you think.

[Aqua Buddha 14598]

Hillary is the worst candidate of all time and got 3 million more votes than Bernie in the primaries.  The only reason Bernie did as well as he did was Hillary was such a shitty candidate.

[GopherRock 1765]

Speaking of the Midwest, Tim Pawlenty's bid for a third term as MN governor is off to a poor start. He only gets 40% against all three potential DFL challengers (each of the 3 gets between 48 and 51%). 

[Js1 85384]

 

[Brisketexan 105154]

1 hour ago, Js1 said:

 

America is moving left on healthcare.  Because the decades of championing the private market, "let the market decide" approach has led to healthcare costs that have increased -- both in rate, and total amount -- to insane levels.  Healthcare expenditures, as a percentage of GDP, were 7% in 1970.  Now, they are 18%+.  And, our outcomes are worse than in other countries with different systems.

What we are doing 1) doesn't give us better outcomes, and 2) costs way more than other places.

How in the hell can anyone be in favor of that?  Fighting to protect "free enterprise" and "the free market" is a losing battle, and in this case, it SHOULD be a losing battle.  Because we have the worst of all worlds.  Partially government-controlled, but almost entirely profit-motivated.

Anyone over the age of 35 has seen their healthcare costs skyrocket in their adult lifetime.  Real world experience is a hell of a data point.  People are voting with their pocketbooks here, and it's from a position of "shit, almost anything else would HAVE to be better than the current approach."  That's what got us the ACA, and it's what will get us the next iteration as well.  It's going to continue to be a big electoral motivator.

Edited July 31, 2018 by Brisketexan

[Aqua Buddha 14598]

Millennials have also seen us at war their entire adult lives but they keep hearing how we can't afford better health care.

[Brisketexan 105154]

5 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Millennials have also seen us at war their entire adult lives but they keep hearing how we can't afford better health care.

And millenials are actually pretty fucking good at calling "bullshit."

[Biff Tannen 45691]

I wonder how many of those 50% rurals are on Medicare or Medicaid?

[Aqua Buddha 14598]

6 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

I wonder how many of those 50% rurals are on Medicare or Medicaid?

Prolly all of them because they hate socialized medicine.....

[bolverk 29684]

Not sure where to put this - I haven't checked the Trump thread yet.

Facebook Has Identified Ongoing Political Influence Campaign

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/us/politics/facebook-political-campaign-midterms.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

WASHINGTON — Facebook is preparing to announce that it has identified a coordinated political influence campaign, with dozens of inauthentic accounts and pages that are believed to be engaging in political activity ahead of November’s midterm elections, according to three people briefed on the matter.

In a series of briefings on Capitol Hill this week, the company told lawmakers that it detected the influence campaign as part of its investigations into election interference. It has been unable to tie the accounts to Russia, whose Internet Research Agency was at the center of an indictment earlier this year for interfering in the 2016 election, but company officials told Capitol Hill that Russia was possibly involved, according to two of the officials.

Facebook is expected to announce its findings on Tuesday afternoon. The company has been working with the F.B.I. to investigate the activity.

Like the Russian interference campaign in 2016, the recently detected campaign dealt with divisive social issues. Facebook discovered coordinated activity around issues like a sequel to last year’s deadly “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. Coordinated activity was also detected around #AbolishICE, a left-wing campaign on social media that seeks to end the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, according to two people briefed on the findings.

That echoed efforts in 2016 to fan division around the Black Lives Matter movement.

After being caught flat-footed by the Internet Research Agency’s efforts to use social media to sow division ahead of the 2016 presidential election, Facebook is trying to avoid a repeat disaster in 2018. The company has expanded its security team, hiring counterterrorism experts and recruiting workers with government security clearances.

The company is using artificial intelligence and teams of human reviewers to detect automated accounts and suspicious election-related activity. It has also tried to make it harder for Russian-style influence campaigns to use covert Facebook ads to sway public opinion, by requiring political advertisers in the United States to register with a domestic mailing address and by making all political ads visible in a public database.

On a conference call with reporters earlier this month, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, declined to directly answer multiple questions about whether the company had detected additional Russian information campaigns.

“We know that Russians and other bad actors are going to continue to try to abuse our platform — before the midterms, probably during the midterms, after the midterms, and around other events and elections,” Mr. Gleicher said. “We are continually looking for that type of activity, and as and when we find things, which we think is inevitable, we’ll notify law enforcement, and where we can, the public.”

American intelligence and law enforcement officials have been warning for months that Russia’s efforts to undermine American democracy remain active and pose a threat to this year’s elections. If in fact Russian, the activity would provide vivid evidence that the kind of cyber operations used around the 2016 campaign were still in use.

“We think it’s inevitable that we will find evidence, and we will find other actors, whether these are from Russia, from other countries, or domestic actors that are looking to continue to try and abuse the platform,” Mr. Gleicher said.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

7 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Not sure where to put this -

Yeah, that's active measures but this thread is just as good

[GSU&UT 1798]

Haven't been on The Surl in the past few days, and not trying to rehash the centrist/leftist debate, but the motivated Democratic base right now wants progressive candidates, or at least candidates that don't appear to be trying to court possible conservatives. If that wasn't the case then Stacey Abrams wouldn't have absolutely destroyed Stacey Evans by 50+ points in the May primary here. Evans ran on a platform of trying to be a centrist to get the most support, consequently she only won 6 of Georgia's 159 counties. Keep the base energized when you've seen it work, don't backpedal on your message and fool yourself into thinking you'll get more votes if you tone it down.

[Buzzrock 14922]

Stacy is my wife’s LBJ school classmate. She kicks serious ass.

She seems like a nice lady. I don’t think she has much of a chance.

[Buzzrock 14922]

I think another side effect of trump’s total control of the party is that ultimately fewer people will identify as republicans, which is a big thing for voters. It is that first step “maybe I’m not totally a republican?” that is hardest to get to changing voting habits.  Trump’s complete domination of the party — Trump equals Republican, Republican equals Trump, no room for dissent — will push a good number in that first step.  

The sooner people stop wearing jerseys the better.

[Buzzrock 14922]

Here's another thing to think about. 
Trump's policies are horrific, but his rhetoric is what turns off a lot of serious GOP supporters.  The next Republican candidate for President could have a Trumpian administration and Rs would absolutely love him/her if they were more stately and a great speaker.  Make no mistake,  the vast majority of GOP voters would fawn over a more dignified and palatable Trumpist.  
Everything the GOP stands for right now needs to be destroyed. Trumpism needs to completely be removed from power.  This is not the time to be a centrist. 
 
 

I don’t know this for a fact but I feel like most voters know very little about policy. The Democrats need to go find another Clinton or Obama who can win on big charisma and vague campaign promises that are easily malleable depending on the audience.

[GSU&UT 1798]

11 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

 

She seems like a nice lady. I don’t think she has much of a chance.

 

It's going to be close dude,

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/governor/ga/georgia_governor_kemp_vs_abrams-6628.html

[Buzzrock 14922]

Completely wrong.   Hillary was to the right of Obama and is the exact type of centrist the Dems should avoid.  There's no such thing as giving Trump and the GOP an "easier time" painting Dems as radical leftists.   They do that easily regardless of the Dem candidate.  That you are identifying Hillary as a swing to the left only proves that point.  And the GOP is able to do that precisely because Dems always do what you recommend, which is to act of ashamed of having liberal ideas.
What Dems need to do is stand up for their ideas rather than running away from them.   Voters don't buy the Dem message because they sense the insecurity and phoniness of "I really believe in liberal policies but Republicans have good ideas too, let's do something in the middle."  If Dems forcefully stand behind lib policies, voters will respect the confidence and appreciate the honesty and give them a shot. 

I’ve never heard any presidential candidate on either side say what you quoted. But I’ll listen to the first one who does.

[Buzzrock 14922]

It's going to be close dude,
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/governor/ga/georgia_governor_kemp_vs_abrams-6628.html

Perhaps, but I don’t believe polls any more. She may win Atlanta but as you’re aware there are two Georgias.

[GSU&UT 1798]

3 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

 

Perhaps, but I don’t believe polls any more. She may win Atlanta but as you’re aware there are two Georgias.

 

Very much aware, but Atlanta as you know has grown so much and controls the lion's share of votes. Abrams has worked on trying to get people registered and turn out to vote, for sure in the metro area but also the Black Belt.