The Dem ticket needs to be Biden-Sanders. (While that shortens to B-S, we can just recognize that as politics.) Seriously, if Sander's followers decide to sit this one out, Trump wins again.
Sanders split the vote last time. Every time one of my friends complains about Trump, I ask if they voted. The majority in my small reality poll were reluctant to vote for Hillary and sat it out. Maybe it didn't matter in CA but it sure mattered elsewhere.
Democrats need to unite across the spectrum or, indeed, this is our last chance!
11
Joe Biden will change nothing, just like Obama.
Unless you want to toil in an ever warming world for corporate masters who care nothing about you or your family, vote Bernie.
This is our last chance.
83
@John Vote for Bernie and ensure a Trump win. Isn't that what you meant to say?
25
“Corporate masters.” Yeah, we’re more of an anarcho-syndicalist collective.
3
@John
Obama achieved plenty, but the refusal of at least 10% of Sanders' supporters to vote for Hillary in the general ensured that everything Obama did achieve would be undone by Trump in a very short period of time.
Thanks, Bros. Hope to return the favor some day.
40
From the left wing The Guardian, Dec 2019:
"The former vice-president and 2020 presidential hopeful backed a 2005 bill that stripped students of bankruptcy protections and left millions in financial stress"
[skip]
"The Republican-led bill tightened the bankruptcy code, unleashing a huge giveaway to lenders at the expense of indebted student borrowers. At the time it faced vociferous opposition from 25 Democrats in the US Senate."
[skip]
"....one politician stood out as an especially enthusiastic champion of the credit companies who, as it happens, had given him hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions – Joe Biden."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/02/joe-biden-student-loan-debt-2005-act-2020
Sen Barak Obama voted "No" on the vote as did Sanders.
Why would the Democratic Party coalesce around someone who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars to put millions of people in debt?
As bad as some people might think Sanders is, obviously Biden (and unlike Obama) is in the pockets of the banks. H. Clinton accepted $675,000 for 3 talks to Wall Street Bank Goldman without the press being invited.
Obama was *not* in the pocket of the banks.
Clinton and Biden *are* in the pocket of the banks.
Sanders is *not* in the pocket of the banks.
Clearly Sanders is the better candidate.
Harvard bankruptcy expert Warren was against the 2005 bill:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/5/6/18518381/baccpa-bankruptcy-bill-2005-biden-warren
9
The Democrats are doing this because they know that Sanders can't win, including the popular vote, and besides, he's not a Democrat.
"There's an easy way for Sanders to handle this kind of question: "I was wrong to say anything positive about Fidel Castro, who was a brutal tyrant. But American foreign policy in these countries was still catastrophic and we should never side with dictators no matter what side of the political spectrum they happen to fall on."
Easy peasy lemon squeezy right?
Not for this guy. He can't do it. He can't walk back a mistake. And it's terrifying."
https://theweek.com/articles/899855/how-bernie-blew?fbclid=IwAR0vRLQsIV-ABdHBclIPpYHj6uA-HvRd43nm9H7V_5gS86-Al40kSws1ngo
10
Ok, gut check time for Bloomberg. He needs to decide whether he wants throw another $500 million down a hole, which he can easily afford to do by the way, or get out of the race. I think he should leave the race because the results of Super Tuesday make it clear he won't ultimately win the democratic nomination no matter how much he spends. Does he really want to be a spoiler like Warren? What does it gain him.?
3
Bernie Sanders has had *years* to craft a message that resonates with the voting public but remains committed to requiring absolute devotion to his policy prescriptions.
He preaches to the converted, then blames the "Democratic establishment" for HIS inability to expand his base. This is then echoed in news coverage accusing Democrats of trying to "stop" Sanders.
Bernie's approach to politics is alienating. Its "his way or the highway." No wonder Democratic voters and former candidates feel alienated from him. If Bernie doesn't win the nomination, the fault lies with him, no one else.
149
It is all in the eye of the beholder.
2
@Diane Bancroft
So in other words, you are saying the majority of America ultimately will continue to approve of living in a "dog eat dog, winner take all" society rather than one "Egalitarian" in nature that wishes that ALL of its people, regardless of stature, are treated as human beings and not cannon fodder for the rich.
That is essentially what Bernie Sanders has been fighting for his entire political life. It is too bad so many Americans fail to understand that.
18
@Diane Bancroft It's very disturbing to me that Bernie Sanders hasn't been able to broaden his appeal to win over even a single billionaire. Biden, in contrast, has a diverse coalition of billionaires: some have billions, some have tens of billions, some even have over a hundred billion. That's what I call expanding the base!
12
I know this sounds ridiculous given the support he has, but in my opinion Bernie should be the one considering dropping out of the race, and he should gracefully concede to Warren. His campaign has failed to show that it is attracting new voters. They are blind to how his long held identification as a socialist, and an independent from the Democratic party would hurt him in the general election. If progressives want the policies of Bernie and Warren to move forward, the only way that possibly happens is with Warren, a self-described capitalist, to push them forward.
Even if Bernie miraculously beats Trump in the general, despite the onslaught of smear campaigns with decades of reporting, audio, and video of his heavy-socialist days in the 80's (I'm from Vermont, I remember a lot of that stuff), there's zero chance he gets any of his agenda past a congress that will be almost engineered to stop him. Progressives have one path to possible success, and paradoxically, it's through Warren.
262
@AW Sanders had said he wouldn't't run if another progressive did, but I guess Warren isn't progressive enough for him despite what she has actually accomplished for working people...
40
So ridiculous! And disrespectful for all those who voted for him.
21
The only progressive sustained progress is by getting elected and bringing people together. Only Biden and Bloomberg can do it. Only Biden and Bloomberg have done it.
14
Wow. It's super amazing how Sanders is basically Trump and people still don't seem to get it.
I'm almost 100% sure I've heard the exact same line come from Trumps mouth on one of his stump tours in the midwest. Why do people fall for this? Globalization isn't your enemy.
556
@M Firmly agree w/ you on globalization; My unionized job with excellent benefits and pay may have been outsourced to China, but on the bright side I can get that electric pencil sharpener I've always dreamed of for just $14 and Amazon will even deliver it the same day!
237
@calantir You can stick your finger in the dyke for as long as you want but change is going to wash over you one way or the other. And by the way, what right does your self-interest have to stand in the way of that of the rest of the worlds? Please give me a break!
34
@M Free trade *in theory* is great. The issue is that how it's implemented has cost people jobs, and there hasn't been enough done to get these jobs replaced. Wages have been stagnant for decades. The jobs that can't be automated get exported. It doesn't matter how much GDP has increased if one can't put food on the table.
38
It worries me that not a single American I’ve spoken to have the faintest idea what ”socialism” actually is.
Even people casting their vote for Sanders seems to think that socialism is the same as ”free healthcare” and ”free education”. It’s not!
That’s known as ”social policy”. It’s no different from ”free law enforcement” or ”free roads”, all of which you obviously already have, but that doesn’t make you socialists, now does it?
Scandinavia is capitalism + more social policy than you. End of story. Just raise your income taxes, pay for healthcare, and be done with it, for heaven’s sake!
”Democratic socialism” is a radical left-wing ideology, with the long-term goal of eliminating private corporations. What’s wrong with you? Don’t you have a middle way? This degree of socialism was never attempted anywhere, without causing a societal collapse or post-industrial poverty.
In Scandinavia, we never adopted real socialism, to the extent that Bernie Sanders proposes. You'd be in a territory where no country has ever succeeded before.
You should also ask yourself, if collective ownership is that great, where are all the collectively owned businesses? No one’s stopping you.
433
@Take it from a Swede I agree fully. Sanders misrepresents the Swedish model and hopes that Americans don’t care about the details.
101
@Take it from a Swede An interesting take but why does the message seem to be to run away from socialism, rather than to adopt the type that you supposedly espouse?
It's not as simple as healthcare, though that is the best start. Education, child care and parental leave all need to be addressed as well, at minimum. That doesn't take anyone outside of your traditional European socialism.
25
@Take it from a Swede And it also makes me wonder why Sanders left the Israeli kibbutz he was on in 1963, since the kibbutz system in Israel was the only truly democratic socialist system in the world. I met many Swedes, Danes and others who came to work and observe life in the kibbutz. The year I worked on two kibbutzim made me realize that socialism, democratic or otherwise, was not for me. But if Bernie was such a "democratic socialist" then why didn't he stay? Didn't care for catching chickens, milking cows, or picking oranges and avocados for nothing? He left, became a politician and now owns three homes. In the kibbutz he'd be lucky if he ever got an apartment with three rooms.
76
It is not just "the establishment" against Sanders; Biden is deeply popular among African Americans and working-class voters--and others. Sanders solidly has the progressive and youth voters, but Biden has a broader coalition.
6
It was not a matter of being caught off guard. Biden, Amy, Pete, and the DMS decided in February to fix the results. There are witnesses. Save the party at all costs. Billary is attached as well. Will never vote for a Democrat again. Write in Bernie!
3
@US mentor your statement "Will never vote for a Democrat again. Write in Bernie!" says it all about go it alone independent Bernie and how Trump will get reelected.
What did Amy and Pete do to fix the results? They endorsed the candidate of their choosing. Will you say Warren is fixing the results if she drops out and endorses Bernie? People have the right to endorse the candidate of their choosing.
Bernie is running as a democrat. He knew the rules of the nominating process before he started. If he loses because Biden wins more endorsements and pledged delegates under the rules Bernie and you need to accept it and stop saying it was fixed and throw away your vote. This is exactly what Trump wants you to do. Bernie has promised he would support the democratic nominee if it wasn't him. You should to the same.
10
My clue to Mr. Shakir is his masterful use of corrupted metaphors: ..."that road"... (to the nomination)..."clearly flows through Joe Biden."
Flowing roads aside, Biden just proved that he is more than some regional fly-over town. The prevailing attitude from the Sanders campaign seems to be that the Democratic Party could be really great--if it weren't for all those boring, actual Democrats.
9
The establishment corporate-bought Dems are doing it again. Put someone 'safe' in office they think - someone they can tell what to do. Except that safe person won't really win. Even if he gets more voter votes.
The Electoral College will fix that - again, just like with Hillary. Who really did try to make things better for all of you when her husband was president back in the 90s. You know - things like good health care for everyone.
How disappointing that Trump unleashed COVID-19 on the U.S. by bringing all those cruise people back to our west coast. We can't even move to another country now.
And if not for the NYT, we couldn't even believe what we're told about the now occurring spread of COVID-19!
1
I hope Sanders does better in the next round of primary votes. I'm glad Bloomberg lost all But American Samoa yesterday. He's the only Democratic candidate I could not vote for. As a New Yorker, I can tell you he took our City away from us, that is, all of us who are not billionaires.
2
All I can see right now is that it's the Democratic Establishment vs Bernie Sanders. Even the results that the NY Times is reporting are clearly color-code-skewed in favor of Biden. Why hold primaries at all?
3
Elizabeth Warren undermined Sanders by not exiting the race before Super Tuesday. With the votes that went to her hapless campaign, Sanders could have bested Biden in several states.
Face reality Warren, it's time to graciously leave the race just as Klobuchar and Buttigieg did.
2
It is clear that Sanders is not
likely to win the general election.
The stakes are too high.
Biden has a greater
chance of beating Trump
than Sanders or Warren
or those who wisely dropped out.
Bloomberg would have a good
chance as well.
This is not brain surgery.
The priority is to vote
Trump out of office.
I want a sane adult to be
President of the United States.
12
Bernie made a marketing mistake in positioning his movement as Democratic Socialist. In fact he said many times his model was the Nordic model! All it is is capitalism with a conscience! In any case, no worries, the Democratic party will find a way to nominate Biden and, in the process, get Trump re-elected! Enjoy your Anglo-Saxon capitalism with unaffordable education, daycare and health care, or should I say wealth care?
15
“There’s a reason the establishment has power, keeps power and maintains powers, because these are the things that they do well,” Mr. Shakir said.
Clearly 'down with the establishment' as a slogan hasn't lost its appeal despite the fact that the last time it was used as a rallying cry it did so much to put Nixon in power.
8
How can people think Bernie has a snowball's chance in Hades of beating Trump? I'm a Dem. I detest everything Trump stands for but I don't know if I could ever vote for Bernie. You millenials want to alienate 75% of the Dems, then by all means, select him as the nominee and watch him fail catastrophically in the election. Maybe that might wake some head in the sand Bernie supporters up, but I highly doubt it. They'll blame centrist candidates - they're all good at the blame game because the buck never stops with them.
16
How disappointing to watch the establishment flock around Mr. Biden, who clearly has neither the energy nor the vision to promote much of anything. His reliance on his vice presidential years working for Obama if fine in and of itself.....but, this is the man who brought us Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, who voted for the Iraq War, who has a nickname "Joe Credit Card" instead of the one he continues to promote ..."Lunch Bucket Joe". I haven't noticed him supporting union workers...rather the opposite.
The world is hungry for new ideas - healthcare is a total mess, the income gap continues to grow, we have a burning planet. It is Senator Sanders who leads on these issues.
I was proud to vote for Bernie today here in San Diego. California is predicted to go for Sanders. Biden is hardly mentioned here.
19
What Bernie and his team seem to not understand is that people are slow to change. A radical departure from the norm is not something people want. While Biden is still old school he is safe enough and will be able to make progressive change albeit not radical change. The American people are not ready for radical change progress is slow. The important thing is to defeat trump who is taking the country and the world down into the dumps. Let's get behind whoever the Democratic candidate is and defeat trump. I think that person is Joe Biden, actually the one with the most experience and least radical baggage. He is not perfect but he is a better politician than anyone else. Unfortunately this country is not ready for a women or a gay person perhaps Joe can change that as president.
4
We were ready for a woman president 4 years ago. Why wouldn’t we be ready today?
9
I can not believe the suggestions of a 3rd party run or threats of not supporting the eventual candidate. That is extremely depressing that ANYONE could think to divide the vote when the alternative is Trump. Trump and Fox are pushing conspiracy theories hoping to disenfranchise Sanders voters. I’m a lifelong fiscally conservative Democrat but if Sanders wins, that will be who I vote for. Honestly I can’t think of any adult who has ever read a book, that I wouldn’t support against Trump. The Republicans have enabled him to be allowed to break the law and suffer no consequences. I can’t imagine what lengths he would go to in a second term. Free to fill his Trump coffers, defunding science at every turn, he could freely kill. Think about the fact that DJT removed the office of experts dealing infectious diseases because Obama. I’m begging that Bernies voters to not fall for it, the moderate candidates supporting the moderate isnt a conspiracy, it’s that DJT and Fox really want to compete against Sanders. Then they could just yell about socialism, Castro and raising taxes. And voters who aren’t reading and discussing issues like this community will only hear that message bellowed from the idiot in charge. If you care at all about the Supreme Court and congress please don’t re-elect Trump.
16
I'm flummoxed. Two people have said the same thing to me today: Joe Biden is hardly intelligible. His sentences are often jumbled jargon suggesting a disability beyond his acknowledged stuttering. His record is self-enhanced and sometimes dissembled. How did he— I mean, we—get here? How were the women candidates, with rather excellent records, minimized and dismissed? I have deja vu all over again; two elderly men (three, if you count Trump) are vying for days long ago. What progress?
23
it just reflects a sexist attitude .. voters ignoring the smartest one among them, Elizabeth Warren
12
I agree she is the smartest of the bunch left. I question her electability. Play the long game. We need to get back sanity before we can get a revolution.
7
Here's the issue - the over Democrat 30 crowd is too small to defeat the Trump voter base. They require the under 30 voters. Biden is offering nothing, no change, no hope, nothing but more wars in the middle east and the upper class to get richer. His platform is lifeless. The under 30 voters will not turn out for him, which will lead to another win for Trump.
7
If they don’t turn out for him, shame on them. It’s their future they are protecting they are throwing it all away just to make a point- it’s all against their self interest.
9
I've been a Democrat my entire life and I've ALWAYS voted blue in every single election. I cannot stand Bernie Sanders or his supporters. I think they're completely toxic and I believe Bernie is largely responsible for Trump winning after he hamstrung Hillary's campaign in 2016. Bernie is the worst of the worst on the far-left and the constant virtue signaling from his supporters is nauseating.
27
Sander's ideas sound great, until you realize there's a reason why it hasn't been done during his 30 years in Congress.
Bernie promises are well beyond the reach of Executive orders.
16
How can anyone be surprised that the moderates: Klobuchar, Buttiegieg, and Reid came out in support of Biden instead of Sanders? It's not about opposing Sanders, it's just that they believe Biden is the better candidate with policy positions that more closely align with their own.
15
@Donna Kraydo
Oh, you don't think some deals were cut, right on the eve of Super Tuesday? Vice President Klobuchar? Secretary of State Buttigieg?
5
Please! Everything is not a grand conspiracy. Nobody was promised anything on the spur of the moment like that. Get real.
8
Well, what in the world did they expect?
2
Very discouraged to see that everyone here is just rehashing their tired Bernie v. establishment talking points. The sides need to come together. If Bernie wins, he needs to pick a moderate running mate and reach out to that side of the aisle with some policy proposals that will appeal to them. If Biden wins, he needs to pick a progressive VP and make progressive policy proposals. HRC did an all-or-nothing campaign, acted like progressives didn't exist, and look where that got us. You mods can't have everything, my way or the highway all the time. Change is gonna come; why don't you bake it into the process rather than have it forced on you.
13
No wonder Sanders appears to be out in left field lala land. Trade agreements aren't why union jobs went overseas. American consumers, in their constant quest to buy everything a cheaply as possible, are the reason. Walmart and Amazon didn't become $ multi-billion retailers by accident.
The consumer's buy it cheaply mentality allowed Walmart to kill off local merchants and the continual buy it for less mantra led to them having to source much of their products from overseas where labor is less expensive.
Amazon has taken things a step further by allowing people to stay home and pay less, all with free delivery. None of that had anything to do with trade agreements other than lubricating the mechanisms that allowed this shift in consumption to happen faster.
15
You are right. But Americans will never take responsibility for causing their own problems. It’s always somebody else’s fault.
4
The reality is that Sanders has a loyal base but has never been able to move beyond that and continues to blame everything on the media, the establishment, etc... The reality of politics is that you need to work with others to get things done. I have tried to find legislation that Sanders has sponsored and gotten passed. I don't know if Google is just doing a poor job or there really isn't much there (please reply if there is legislation that he has been the primary sponsor on and it has passed). I see him sponsoring bills but they go nowhere. Unless he plans on being an autocrat, he isn't going to get much done unless he figures out how to make the sausage.
23
If Biden wins the nomination, he's either going to be beaten by Trump or be a complete disappointment in office, leading to Republican victories next time around.
And then what excuses are the moderates going to come up for the losses? There will be no lessons learned, just more spinning.
10
And you know the future how? Joe will put together a fine team and move us in the right direction.
8
I gather that people have things wrong. Biden’s job is to get rid of Trump. Sanders and democratic socialism are a secondary issue. I’m expecting that Warren will fit in well with Biden.
It’s the Black people’s reputation for pragmatism which is carrying the day. Steyer, Buttigieg and Klobuchar are following their lead. Go, Joe!
21
Number one priority: stop Bernie. Then Bloomberg on the second ballot.
5
I am continually amazed when speaking to Sanders supporters that they seem to believe that just because he supports these issues they would then happen if he would get elected. He has been asked, "How do you plan to get ANY of your agenda passed?". He has no answer to this because he does not have a pathway. There are not enough senators supporting these to pass any of these ideas. He and his supporters don't seem bothered by these "facts". They would much rather live in the fantasy that he has created for them. Also, they either do not understand or do not accept the negative role that Bernie will have on the Progressive Agenda. If the Democrats win seats in the House AND more seats in the Senate and if we can win the presidency we have a chance at passing some meaningful legislation. However Sanders will not drive the moderate-conservative voters that helped Dems win red seats in the last midterms. If we LOSE more seats, then even if Bernie wins he will be able to accomplish nothing.
18
Despite all of the political backtalk, has "the system" or "markets" resolved the healthcare and lack of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals - problems it CREATED - yet?
Seems to me the only people who don't get it are people with more money than sense (or apparently eyes).
5
Folks, it look like we have a horse race. Which is great for democracy.
To die hard Bernie or nobody voters. Start a third party. Pull a Ralph Nader. Four more years of Trump and a six to three or seven to two conservative majority on the Supreme Court for the next thirty years will show them.
A house divided.......
8
Regardless who the Dem candidate is... that person must be supported. I’m for Bernie (no, I’m not a millennial) but will cast an unenthusiastic vote for Biden should that be the case in November.
3
It’s a shame that articulate candidates like Buttigieg and Klobuchar who ran a good campaign and literally put their heart and soul into it have to step aside for a semi-functional fool whom they are being forced to endorse before they even have a chance to prove themselves on Super Tuesday. When I saw Buttingier giving a speech endorsing Biden, I had to cry. I don’t know what the Dems think they are doing. They made a mockery of the whole thing.
8
@Edward
What makes you think they were forced? They themselves were in the best position to know whether they had a real chance to win the nomination. If they did have a chance, you think anyone would be able to make them quit? How?
8
There are concerning issues with Joe Biden's cognition at this point. Every time he gives a speech he gaffes. Just last night he reminded voters to get to the polls on "Super Thursday". By the way why is South Carolina so important for the would be nominee of the Democratic party? The state is very conservative and we all know it will vote bright red in the general. How did that state become the litmus test for the Democratic candidates success?In my humble opinion winning South Carolina should be a sign of a candidates unsuitability to carry the flag of progress for the Democratic party and the country as a whole. Bernie Sanders has loyal supporters and he has energy and enthusiasm with and for him. He also has all his marbles. He is out on the campaign trail every day at several events. The crowds are large and his speeches are inspiring. Biden seems to be running out of stamina and steam. He has staffers that feed him great lines and he flubs the delivery. Joe Biden's campaign slogan should be I am Joe Biden and I never fail to disappoint.Trump will give a whole lot of rallies to Joe's very few and he will win. The party establishment should keep hands off and let the average work a day Democrats have their say.Not scheme to over rule them if they do not get the results they like. Elections are sometimes messy some people will get what they want and some people will not. But the system is set up to allow the average citizen to vote and be heard.And so it must be.
19
Please. Bernie will be trumped big time. His ideas will not every pass in Congress. He hasn’t put forth bills that were passed over the many many years in the senate. He is the left’s version of Trump... dogmatic. If support for his far left agenda is the goal I suggest Warren. She is far more articulate about this type of an agenda. Biden’s humanity will help bring the country together and shame Trump. Finally he will put legitimate people in place and help win democratic’s the senate.
13
Déjà vu Clinton 2016 all over again
1
Of course Sanders was surprised. I don't think anyone foresaw the DNC going so far as to threaten to pull all current and future funding from Klobuchar and Buttigieg if they didn't drop out and endorse Biden. Who could have seen Warren foregoing all the values she preached about on the campaign trail and accepting DNC super PAC money to stay in the race (likely in hopes for the VP spot)?
I sure hope the DNC knows what it's doing by being so heavy handed and forcing convergence on the candidate who's campaign was dead in the water just two weeks ago. If the DNC plays their hand by picking Biden and they don't win the national election, oh boy the Democratic party as we know it is dead.
13
I already replied to someone else on this line of thinking. I might suggest Bernie is not truly a Democrat and the party should split. Nader almost did that 20 years ago. Asking... does anyone think Pete or Amy can be railroaded to go with Biden by the DNC? They have way too much integrity. They are looking to the best path to defeating Trump.
11
@CW
Disinformation alert!
Where are you seeing this report that claims the DNC went so far as to threaten to pull all current and future funding from Klobuchar and Buttigieg? Obviously if one of them had won the nomination, the DNC would back them.
7
Conspiracy theorists. They just make stuff up. How did the DNC possibly corrupt millions of American voters in two short days?
2
I'm liberal. I'm progressive. I would gladly vote for Warren, not Sanders; and I believe the opposite is true for many Bernie supporters. What does it mean? It means, to me, Bernie's key weakness is not a progressive agenda, but his approach to politics and his philosophy on capitalism. Yes, America is facing a profound crisis of increasing income inequality, but the solution lies in regulating the market and capital to provide a balanced mix of access and incentives. His disdain for anyone in business is unhelpful and unhealthy. Plus, what are Bernie's plans exactly? Without policy details and legislative pathways, these are just empty talk. Also, how is Bernie going to help down-ballot races, other than having a few more socialist democrats primary their Dem incumbents in safe blue districts?
I don't doubt Bernie's good intentions. But what he has is a movement (kudos to that), not a plan. On the other hand, we elect a president to govern, not to make revolution.
13
I think Democrats mainly want to nominate a Democrat.
12
As I was listening to one of the more liberal of the "big three" cable news networks reporting the results of the SC primary, I quickly detected an almost unrestrained glee at Mr. Biden's win there. The on air commentators were almost giddy with delight.
Mr. Sanders, now you know what it is like when the media turns on you. It is definitely a rude awakening when the media whose reporting you might have up until now cheered on, suddenly directs its bias against you. All of a sudden, they are no longer the objective font of truth you thought they were.
And, you will soon realize how many viewers and listeners blindly follow , and change their minds in an instant, based upon what their cable news network of choice tells them.
How different it all seems when they come after you.
2
Bernie is essentially divisive as is Warren. There is no place for animosity. Reform is necessary but not under an authoritarian hand. We have that already. Team work is the key. Granted Warren and Sanders are very different from Trump in that they are intelligent and well informed - but “my way or the highway” is destructive. Biden has openly embraced the young former candidates - a wise move on his part. Sanders and his talk of the establishment, Warren and corruption but she is a hypocrite- she violated her own “purity” rule by accepting Super PAC money - after shaming other more qualified candidates. Revolution may sound glamorous to the teens and twenties but not to the experienced.
8
Interesting that there's not a similar gossip article about how blindsided the campaign workers of Klobuchar and Buttigieg were.
Since Biden has only one field office in places like CA, it must have been quite a shock to them to be forced to campaign for Biden or be out of a job with less than 48 hours notice.
One would think that's a story worth telling.
9
Bernie has the most important endorsement of all — enthusiastic support from working class Americans representing all political parties.
Sanders Revolution 2020
11
Here we go again with another group to take a page out of Trump's playbook and complain about how "unfairly" they're treated.
What's the problem? That's what happens during a primary. Campaigns start to consolidate. Are they just now realizing that the moderate vote has been much higher than the progressive vote so far? If the shoe had been on the other foot those voters would be clamoring of progressive vote consolidation too. But as we're seeing Bernie's rules seem to change as it suits him.
11
Sanders has has 30 years to accomplish his agenda - even a tiny part of his agenda, but he refuses to work with his colleagues and achieve any compromise. This is the reason he has never joined the Democratic Party, except when he wants its nomination. He thinks he is right and everyone else is wrong, period.
Politics is the art of compromise yet he will not budge an inch. He judges and condemns and this is the reason his total list of accomplishments is short: he has passed six bills, two naming Post Offices and one declaring Vermont Appreciation Day. He does not have friends, only frustrated colleagues. A Sanders presidency would be a total disaster.
20
I'm offended by Senator Sanders and his campaign throwing around the "establishment" label like it's something distasteful. I'm a 50 year Democrat who considers himself progressive on health care, wages, student debt and a host of other issues. And, did I mention I'm a Democrat? Bernie, who has never been a Democrat until he required a party mechanism to run for president, and his campaign, should be grateful to the "establishment Democrats"- LIKE ME!
16
@Tom
Thank you Establishment Democrat for the Iraq war, liberal interventions in Libya, private prisons, mass incarceration of minorities for victimless crimes, destroying the working class with NAFTA, ruining Bankruptcy protection against credit card companies and otherwise turning the USA into a paradise for GOP lite Centrists.
rest assured, there will be no unity behind a Clintonite like Joe Biden.
5
Whether or not one supports Bernie Sanders, no one can say what the establishment Democrats are doing -- once again -- is anything but treachery. They are disregarding the voters and choosing a candidate by coronation, not by the electorate. All this back room hand wringing, as stated in the stories in this paper, oh dear, how to stop the Sanders train etc. It is outrageous. They haven't learned a thing by 2016. And to prop up Joe Biden? Oh for God's sake. Biden has to be one of the worst in this race, he's got a lot of baggage and little of it is very good. From his throwing Anita Hill under the bus, his willingness to cut social security, his approval of NAFTA -- all the things Bernie said and more. Elizabeth Warren ought to talk about Biden's pushing for so-called bankruptcy law reform and how badly that hurt people struggling under monumental medical debt, the reason the vast majority of people file bankruptcy. And FEW ever mention, not even in this newspaper, that yet again a Biden son was working in a lucrative job in the credit card industry. For God's sake, behind his smile and his oh shucks it's just me attitude, lurks someone who is dumb enough to be dangerous because HE is the one who gets pulled along by Republicans, yes the ones who favored segregation. What was Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg promised? It can't have been worth it. Win, lose or draw, this will hang stick to them and now it's become their baggage. Go Bernie, keep the faith.
24
@GMT
If any group of people seem to want a "coronation" it's the cult of Bernie. Most voters have been around the political block more than a few times and already know how Bernie is going to fare. Primary voters are a drop in the bucket compared to general election voters so the primary has nothing to do with how things will probably turn out.
8
@GMT Moderates working together is no treachery. It’s smart. Sanders supporters tend to see conspiracies everywhere.
9
It's beginning to look like a rerun of 2016.
12
If you're looking to start a revolution, you might want to make it happen before you turn 79 — which is how old Bernie Sanders will be this September. It's incredibly selfish.
24
@John Godfrey Why the ageism? A revolution is not just based on one person, hence the "Not Me, Us." If you are obliquely referencing his health, then read the published reports. I did and frankly, was both impressed and saddened that someone roughly double my age is more healthy than I am.
4
And how old will Biden be? What about Bloomberg? What about Trump- drop the ageism and get real
8
Interesting that the NYTimes is co-opting the comments section to amplify Joe Biden supporters’ posts over thoughtful opposition to Joe Biden based on past performance and lack of judgement(Compromises on Civil Rights, Iraq War, Crime Bill, DADT) and his own demonstrated capabilities in debates. Instead of discussing policy we’ll be sadly watching a guy run for president who severely declined mentally. We dont need the Democratic Ronald Reagan. We need to democratize the process further and get establishment money and kickbacks out of politics.
13
I think Bernie has no idea how much we mainstream democrats resent his egotistical approach in 2016; he repeatedly lied about the origins of superdelegates and said Clinton set it up; he knows it came about 40 plus years ago! Now he brazenly says there should be different rules if he has the plurality of delegates which is completely different than what he said when Hillary had a plurality. We mainstream democrats want a moderate consensus builder, not an egotistical jerk. That’s why Biden is our choice. And no, we will not coalesce around him if he’s the candidate- he’s just as bad as Trump.
22
Just as bad as Trump? So, Bernie is a known criminal allying with a foreign power, openly violating the Constitution, and lying about virtually all of his actions? This based an unfounded assertion that Bernie blames Hillary for superdelegates? Absurd is not strong enough a word.
8
Biden belonging to the so called establishment,,, that’s the Obama Biden establishment right?
6
@Oscar
"Establishment" means any one who doesn't support Trump or Bernie. Is it a wonder they both use the same word?
4
@Oscar
Correct? Any other questions?
1
I’m surprised that Sanders’ staff are surprised; this was always going to happen. It was known that Biden has a potent base of his own, and nothing Sanders has done has dented their support. Sanders’ wins weren’t surprising, either. I’d have thought Warren would be stronger, but the votes are still out, with some harder-to-call results ahead.
3
Sanders will get more votes. He will win. What's hard to see about that? If the Democrats' pros were the voters, Sanders will lose. If the pros wanted to stop him, the time was months ago, last year. His victory will add to the anxiety in the country right now, except for his voters whose ecstacy won't be shared by other Americans. At a time of our current national crisis, his wanting to turn the economic model and health system upside down will hardly calm most Americans especially since Sanders has no bedside manner to reassure us for the drastic medicine he envisions.
2
Right...b/c the economic and health systems in this country having be faring so well in this country! How detached can you be?!
4
Sanders has acted worse as a winning candidate than he had in 2016 as a losing candidate. Does he understand that he chose to run for the Democratic nomination by running against the Democratic Party? He plays footsie with "socialism" too much and he has mentioned that his unworkable plans will taise taxes and cause job loss. I am all fine and good with a progressive agenda, but is this the best we can do?
11
@scm18 Warren's the better progressive choice.
5
A large number-not a majority though-young generation prefer Sanders who has been most consistent throughout his political life.Their choice is understandable. And Democratic Administrations' mess which started with Clinton must end. Sadly Obama tried to clean up but did not succeed. And it wasn't all Republican's fault. So Sanders insists he is the best person to clean up. He may be but his supporters are acting exactly like Tea Party members and as such they are turning great majority of voters off. In addition, Socialism is not known and understood. All polls show that Sanders does not have significant following among Democrats and Independents. And no candidate can win the race without Independents and cross over Republicans. If Democratic candidate loses the elections it is going to be four more years of Trump. Who wants that?
6
It's too late! Too late for the Moderate Lane. The impassioned centrists posting here took a little too long to mobilize their great enthusiasm for "Republican Light" 3.0, the Biden Version. Actually, the billionaire donor class took too long.
Predictions: Sanders wins California, Colorado (narrowly), Maine, Massachusetts (narrowly), Minnesota (narrowly), Texas and Vermont. He earns delegates (but doesn't win) in Virginia and North Carolina. Regardless of whether it's Warren, Biden, Bloomberg, or one of the recently departed (yay early voting this year!), Bernie is going to clean up today.
Poof, there goes Team Biden's momentum. Warren drops out after losing Mass. Bloomberg can't buy his way onto the big board.
Interesting situation for most moderate Democrats: hold your nose and vote for Bernie in November? If he's the nominee, you'd better.
7
@Noel I hope that you are correct, but this entire primary has had the stink of the DNC doing whatever they can to stop him. And Warren? Her refusal to gracefully withdraw obviously hurts Sanders. Every delegate counts, and she knows even her .... is it 8 for today? could have gone to him. It still amazes me how the Democratic Party is allowing itself self destruct because of its corporate greed.
5
I’m a moderate dem and I support Joe Biden. I think he’s what our country needs.
7
Bernie's legislative record is paper thin so what makes his followers think he will suddenly make all their hopes and dreams come true with a flurry of activity? He talks a good game and repeats the same platitudes over and over but has done almost nothing in his decades long career to advance his socialist agenda. To do anything in Washington requires consensus. This is especially true if you are the President. He is not only generally disliked but his views are anathema to most of the people he will necessarily have to rely on to pass his agenda. Nothing will change. He will continue to be the same old Bernie who gripes and agitates but accomplishes nothing of substance.
13
Bernie is great and his Medicare for all concept makes sense. That being said, he will get crushed in the November election in Florida for two reasons. First, Cubans don't like socialists. Second, Fox News will attack the Medicare issue in an effort to confuse elderly voters about Medicare.
Sorry Bernie, but I left you for Biden. Four more years of Trump is the biggest danger we face.
11
If Bernie were to become president then congress would be in the odd position of democrats and republicans uniting to stop his agenda. This might actually be a good thing, to end the congressional vitriol and get these people to start working together again for the American people instead of just their parties constituents.
I don't think either Biden or Sanders will be able to defend themselves against the Trump onslaught in the general election campaign. For the simple reason that their vulnerabilities are indefensible. I think Trump will have an easier time making Joe or Bernie look follish than he did with Hillary. They are not the answer.
Who better to write this brilliant, incisive, fair and balanced piece on Bernie Sanders than the inimitable Sydney Ember, the Edward R. Murrow of our times.
3
Bernie Sanders talks a good game, but is full of hot air. There is no way that any of the programs that he is proposing will get through Congress. He knows that. That is why he claims to lead a revolution. He’ll need one.
Capitalism is not evil. Unregulated capitalism is evil. FDR knew that, and created the secure middle class of the last century through his New Deal.
Those who have commented that Bernie’s programs are not radical, but are commonplace in Western Europe and Scandinavia, are correct. Bernie is not just talking programs, however - he proposes the destruction of an economy based in private ownership of resources and the means of production.
If you think that middle America is voting for that, you are out of your mind. The minute the general campaign starts, Trump and Republicans will be on Sanders like a swarm of bees.
Joe Biden is old, but a good man, with 40 years experience in legislation. He on good terms with his former Senate colleagues, an experienced negotiator - both important to pass legislation. It looked for a while that he was fizzling out - hence the Bloomberg flurry- but thanks to African-American voters, he’s got his second wind, and I plan to vote for him.
10
I'm going to quibble with the headline "Sanders Campaign Was Caught Off Guard by Quick Massing of Opposition"
The opposition always existed. It simply coalesced behind a candidate. Sanders is, and always has been, supported by a minority in the primary this year and in 2016.
7
Both Bernie and Biden have their strengths. What worries me are their weaknesses. This is why we have Liz and Mike. Democracy, like the virus, is a self-learning system that seeks to optimize its own survival. It’s much too soon to count our “Betsy from Oklahoma” out - Liz just has to rediscover her voice from the American heartland which reflects her origins and her center.
1
More behind the scenes shenanigans by the Democrat establishment. Evidently having all those superdelegates on the second ballot isn’t enough of an insurance policy for them, but they have to be wheeling and dealing in plain sight before the primaries are even over and for what—? So they can get someone who is the weakest candidate in history on the ballot? This is not centrism, but a total travesty.
6
Admist the variying flavors of word soup that have been offered, In the end, the story is always the exact same, the people who are against Bernie all seem to be the upper-middle class who have "got theirs" and are afraid of losing anything they have to give something to those who never got the opportunity to have anything. It's sad really.
7
Any Dem is a massive long shot in 2020...All the nice folks I meet support Trump...already trump lawn signs have appeared throughout the neighborhood...
Since a democratic victory is such a Hail Mary...Perhaps Bernie does possess an idiosyncratic charisma that might defeat trump...
4
@Liz Must Go Joe I see you are from Tampa. I have been seeing not just yard signs but also sides of semi trucks used as billboards with Trump ads since 2016 in FL. Remember that the Dems still do not have a candidate selected. Once one is, I think that you will see it even out.
3
And the Biden campaign should run ad after ad about Sanders' Congressional record of nonachievement during his 30 years there: He was the lead sponsor of 422 bills, only THREE of which passed and TWO of those were bills to name post offices!
And if you're a Sandinista don't even bother retorting about the amendments he attached to the successful bills sponsored by others, because if that's your idea of a "revolution" then you're even more deluded than I ever thought possible.
Sanders is the Wizard of Oz, a fraud, an angry and frustrated old socialist who's relying on his euphoria-inducing promises of free everything to help him across the finish line.
Feh!
22
Bernie never passed a bill in the senate though he sat there for many years. He yells and screams like Trump. He is a narcissist like Trump and none of big plans will get through the House or Senate. We need Biden!
17
@Ellen F. Dobson
Sanders has accomplished plenty: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/12/1483928/-What-has-Bernie-ever-accomplished
In addition to being the amendment king Sanders only got the entire nation focused on Healthcare. Moved every democrat to the left on the issue. Inspired AOC and others to run and win seats in congress. Built the largest grass roots movement this country has seen in a generation to get him elected an defeat Trump. Has out raised every other democrat in the primary without taking corporate money. If the guy walked on water you'd probably complain he got a toe wet.
On the other hand let's consider Biden:
He's running the same failed campaign strategy as Clinton - name recognition and zero policy substance. He can't stand on stage for 90secs without sounding senile which thus far other Democrats have been forgiving of - Trump won't be. Biden like Clinton has a long record of corruption that Trump will exploit to excite his base. Biden's actual politics are terrible calling for cuts to Social Security and Medicare in the past. Biden will depress voter turnout - the same as all centrists do and as Clinton did with 4.4 million registered democrats staying home in 2016 vs 2012.
No corporate centrist democrat has been elected to the presidency in over 20yrs. Obama ran as a progressive, agent of change and won before revealing his subservience to Wall St and losing support. People want change on both the left and the right. Biden will lose.
6
Don't blame Bernie.
The blue color workers turned their backs on the Democratic Party after a couple of decades of chronic betrayals by Bill, Barack, Hillary and Joe.
What did the DNC do?
14
@Kenan Porobic YES! The arrogance of the Democratic Party establishment is nearly unbearable. Now it's time for change.
6
One of two things are going to happen. Either Bernie wins the nomination, and lots of moderate suburbanites or oil-and-gas workers or refugees from Cuba or Venezuela will sit out the election or vote for Trump, or Biden wins the nomination, and lots of Bernie bros will sit out the election or vote for Trump. It's impossible to predict who will win the nomination and what the net effect on the final election will be. Both alternatives are bad for the Democrats. I think Biden would do the least harm as president, so I suppose I hope he wins the nomination.
9
@Douglas I doubt jaded Bernie supporters will vote for Trump this time. Now that we know how bad he is...
2
Sanders is left of “progressive,” the label the media seems to have picked up on for him and Warren. Progressives generally favor government regulation of business. Sanders wants government ownership. Likewise,he is left of “liberal.” The labels are important, because they tend to mislead by suggesting that Sanders is somehow in the mainstream, albeit toward the left. Make no mistake, he is not a mainstream politician in either program or demeanor. He is more like the Trump of the left.
6
Biden will leave the status quo; Bernie is promising an inclusive nation...
2
@Bill Rogers Completely false. Quit misrepresenting things. Bernie doesn't want government ownership. At best you could say that of his Medicare for All program, but it already exists! We already have Medicare! It's just expanding it to people of a lesser age.
6
Referring to Mr. Sanders statements at the Saint Paul, Minn. rally, Sydney Ember puts fictive words into Bernie's mouth regarding Klobuchar and Buttigieg. What he actually said regarding their endorsement of Biden, he gracefully and affably wished them the very best and specifically complemented Klobuchar with great respect as both a friend and colleague.
8
I do not like to be cynical. But the way that centrist Democrats and the mainstream media have banded together over the past few days to resuscitate the moribund Biden campaign seems to prove that there actually is a Democratic "establishment."
Sen. Sanders has his flaws as a candidate, but he is undeniably right about one thing: we are never going to make much progress on the important issues facing this country until we break the centrists' stranglehold on the Democratic Party.
18
The GOP has already lost the youth vote for a generation. If the DNC railroads Sanders for the 2nd time they will find themselves in the same boat.
Neither Trump or the GOP need young voters to win, the Democrats can't win without them.
9
Given Sanders backing from Russian trolls also I might add the strange push from all corners of right wing media and politicians for his candidacy, perhaps he should shake them all and drop out of the race. If he does win the nomination there will be questions to his legitimacy.
7
Sanders' talk of environmental justice in TX last night was hypocrisy. From Texas Monthly in 2016:
"In the late 1990s, when now-U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont was a member of the House, he supported a compact between Maine, Vermont and Texas that originally proposed dumping low-level radioactive waste in a small minority community in far-West Texas, putting him at odds with other progressive congressmen.
"Though the waste never made it to Sierra Blanca, a low-income, largely Hispanic town in Hudspeth County, Sanders’ efforts have attracted renewed attention online in the lead-up to Tuesday's Texas primary [in 2016]. Critics suggest that the candidate’s role in promoting the compact — which ultimately brought the waste to a different site in West Texas — undermines his otherwise progressive record.
“'It reflects very poorly on him,' said longtime environmental justice activist Dr. Robert Bullard, dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University and the author of Dumping in Dixie. 'Shoving this down people’s throats is not progressive politics. It was business as usual. It’s a classic case of rich people from a white state shifting something they don’t want to a poor minority community somewhere else.'"
Jane Sanders was a member of the TX Low Level Radioactive Waste Commission and was still drawing a salary in 2014.
https://www.texastribune.org/2016/02/28/Sanders-Nuclear-Waste-Votes-Divide-Texas-Activists/
5
Berne is not a throwback to the sixties. Our economy is a throwback to the days of the robber barons, of Carnegie, Vanderbilt and JP morgan
9
Sanders supporters...there is a reason Trump and his campaign are now out there yammering about how the race is rigged against Sanders by the DNC. They WANT Sanders to be Trump's opponent, and the reason they do is clear. You want Trump for another four years, then yes, vote for Sanders in the primary, because if he's the nominee, that will do it.
7
Uh - note to Sanders campaign: the "establishment" you keep referencing is commonly known as "Democrats". Something Bernie never claimed to be until he ran for President.
19
"It's becoming clear that in order for us (Sanders Campaign) to win this nomination..."
… that Bernie maybe should have become a Democrat years ago.
14
Bernie Sanders champions policies that people in the US care about and need: healthcare, income equality, ending war, education, the environment, etc.
Joe Biden is a neoliberal at his very core and that's what gave us Trump and the disaster we all now face.
Am I missing something here? Business as usual would be a great mistake in 2020...
12
Whatever policy and programmatic changes the next Democrat president wants to make be they modest or towering, their first priority will be reassembling the Executive Branch. That will be no small task after the devastation Trump's time in office has and will heap upon the various agencies and departments. Gone are many of the career professional staffers replaced by Trump lackeys and loyalists. Whomever that Democrat is, they will need to be connected to people that are skilled in the coming and goings of government. If that person is Sanders, he not going to get very far without the hated establishment Democrats he regularly excoriates from the stump.
1
All of this whining about conspiracies from the Bernie supporters. Who did you think moderate candidates and their supporters and mainstream Dems like Harry Reid would endorse? You’ve known all along you haven’t had a majority but have said that Bernie would persuade everyone to come aboard. So start persuading. What, you think the rest of us owe it to you to crown Bernie king because he won New Hampshire (barely) and Nevada?
16
I'm not sure how the article justifies the headline of Sanders being "caught off-guard." Does it charge Sanders - correctly or incorrectly - with being unprepared?
Faiz Shakir is quoted as saying "We always anticipated that there would be consolidation of an establishment side... It’s one thing to know it’s going to happen, and it’s another thing to watch it happen so very quickly."
The writer says "Since Mr. Sanders got into the race a year ago, his top advisers have ached for a two-way race with Mr. Biden, viewing the moderate former vice president as the perfect foil for Mr. Sanders’s promise of a political revolution."
The somewhat glum looking photo of Sanders, along with the omission that he urged his St. Paul crowd not to boo at the mention of Biden (Sanders had said "...And I mean this very sincerely, Joe Biden is a friend of mine, I've known Joe for a very long time," boos from some in the crowd, "No, no, no, no, Joe Biden is a decent guy, he's just wrong on the issues."), add to the subtle and misleading effect of the headline.
6
Nominating Bernie means losing down-ballot elections, which means giving Republicans a stranglehold on Congress.
Beyond that, Bernie has consistently stood for two things: (1) good-sounding ideas (some of which actually are good ideas), and (2) a fascinatingly complete inability to implement his ideas, even notwithstanding his Senate seat and supporters. If you want quality, affordable healthcare, the second one of those should be a major concern for you.
Compare, for example, to Warren or Biden, both of whom have numerous tangible accomplishments and plans grounded in realism. If you actually want a Democratic presidency to amount to something, choose whichever of Warren or Biden best fits your policy views.
15
@ChiBlue And how would you expect Bernie, as a Senator, to enact the policies he advocates for? Last time I checked, Senators can't just make something happen because they want it.
5
T SB— Actually Senators do propose legislation and then collaborate with others to get them to sign on as co-sponsors. By doing this across both House & Senate you build a coalition to bring the bill to the floor to be voted on. If it has enough support in both houses and passes, it goes to the president for signature. During his many years in Congress, Sanders has done that about 3-4 times. Not much of a record for 30 years.
1
@Cintia it’s been more times than that. I also think it’s important what he’s voted against.
JFK And RFK liberal here - and now I am “the establishment!” Would love to live another 100 years and see how the Bernie “revolutionaries” are described:)
9
Campaigned & voted for McGovern;
Never a Clintonite— tried to organize opposition to NAFTA in my local Dem club. Voted for Nader against Clinton;
Voted for Sanders in NY primary but voted for Hilary in general election;
Have always supported the progressive candidates in state & local elections, including Zephyr Teachout.
I’ve been supporting Warren. But if she’s out, I’ll support Biden.
BUT I CAN’T support Sanders in this election. So that makes me “establishment”? And I’m no longer a progressive? By whose definition?
Sanders is proposing programs that won’t possibly pass Congress any time soon and he’s hedging on what it will cost. I don’t deny that we need to transition to universal healthcare/insurance. In Europe where that access exists, citizens must participate and pay much higher taxes than we do here. I’m not against that but Sanders needs to level with people. It’s not magic— it’s going to be a lot of work, a lot of negotiating, a lot of convincing, and a lot of time. Sanders is not diplomatic or a team player.
Sanders & team self-righteous attitude that they have the only answers is disturbing. We’re going to trade one angry, bellicose guy for another? I’m not voting for that.
17
I, too, support Warren, but you're misrepresenting Sanders!
He's been quite clear that middle class taxes will have to go up — and by a lot.
Sanders worked with Republicans got legislation passed to improve veterans' care. He worked with a wide range of politicians of diverse ideologies to pass limits on Trump's war-making powers.
He properly opposed NAFTA and TPP — and the Iraq War — all of which Biden backed.
If we don’t nominate someone committed to Medicare for All, we won’t even get a public option.
Nominate Biden and we may not even get tweaks to Obamacare. His health care plan leaves ten million uninsured and millions underinsured. He does nothing to improve Medicare.
Biden's record on women’s rights, civil rights, inequality, consumer protection, etc. is decidedly mixed, even atrocious in some cases.
To quote Uncle Joe (a remark of his that shows his juvenile, sophomoric style), Trump will beat *him* like a drum. Biden's rambling incoherent gaffe-prone statements and answers make even Trump sound semi-literate.
Biden will be tainted with corruption and all the sins of the Obama-Biden era — it'll make the attacks on Hillary look benign. They'll be much worse than even the red baiting they'd do of Sanders. They’d have little to work with against Warren, a Republican for decades, with brothers who served in the military and who endorses capitalism, albeit well-regulated.
If one wanted a moderate as nominee, Klobuchar would have been a much better pick!
4
But Bernie is also the establishment having spent the last 30 years in Congress. And he's part of the problem having done almost virtually nothing in his long tenure, other than support guns, until, that is, he decided to run for president and it was no longer politically expedient. Biden, in contrast, got substantial legislation through and did major things while V.P.
17
Of course the New York Times is not going to report that the Nation magazine endorsed Sanders, or the Democracy for America organization, which was founded out of the Howard Dean campaign in 2004.
The Times is part of the establishment and is never going to give Bernie fair and equal treatment. Period.
12
-- “We always anticipated that there would be consolidation of an establishment side,” Mr. Shakir said.
It's not an "establishment" side. It's rank and file Democrats voting for the candidate they prefer. The voters of South Carolina aren't the establishment. They're Democrats.
This is a crucial mistake that the Sanders campaign is making. When they cast Democratic Party voters as "the establishment" they denigrate the dignity of earnest and decent.
Sanders is not entitled to anyone's vote or support. He has to earn it. If he earns enough voters to win the nomination, great!
But Sanders and his people are far too quick to characterize voters as either with them, or with the establishment which is just another word they use for, the enemy.
26
@LenRI This is a good point. I hope the Sanders campaign will hear your words.
2
The DNC corrupt saboteurs do it again.
This Sanders supporter is voting for Trump.
Maybe in 2024 the DNC will have learned their lesson.
3
Your choice, your right.
1
@New World You actually think that if Trump wins this year there will be elections in 2024? Yeah, you'll show 'em!
13
I’ll also be withholding my vote for president and just voting down ballot if Biden is the nominee. The Democratic Party needs to hit rock bottom before they can come back from the wilderness. The message to voters with Biden as the nominee is simply, “We heard you loud and clear in 2016 and chose not to listen.” All my affluent and college educated friends are aghast at my position, but I come from working class roots and know many Trump voters. I sympathize with them voting for Trump again if their other choice is Biden; he’s only attractive to people who voted for Clinton. To other progressives thinking of going with blue no matter who, remember this: You teach your party how to treat you. Sit this next one out. We survived four years of Trump; we can surely survive another four if it means the Democrats finding their way back to blue collar voters.
1
I like Bernie. I agree with many of his positions. I understand the income inequality and insecurity that drives much of his support. I see his supporters as deeply committed, not as intolerant fanatics.
I don't think Bernie is electable.
The entire structure and idea of the American experiment is at the edge of a cliff because a dangerous, authoritarian, and astoundingly stupid person is President. He must be voted out of office.
Joe Biden can and will beat Trump.
A no brainer. And without any animus on my part. Just pure, cold, calculating politics.
19
Sanders is not going to win the nomination and Trump will make mincemeat out of Biden in all debates.
Trump 2020
Trump, Jr. 2024
2
Sanders wants completely open borders and no trade agreements. Free everything. In a month the climate change devastated Central American countries along with millions of West Africans currently waiting will stream across the country.
You thing that's gonna sell in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania???
7
@Kenneth Current polls show Bernie ahead in all three of those states.
We're all voting for you in Texas, Bernie. The corrupt DNC can't taint another election.
8
I am very afraid the establishment media and party people endorsing and pushing Biden are making a big mistake. He is not even coherent without a teleprompter, and says things all the time that are not true, like telling people in SC that he was arrested with Nelson Mandela. Never happened. This push to Biden is stupid and dangerous. Trump will absolutely crush him. Sanders is the only hope of beating Trump, or maybe Warren, but she is effectively out of the running now. It is a pitiful situation.
12
@Dem-A-Dog But the guy with a long past of praising communist totalitarians and open borders is more electable? I didn't want to vote Biden, but the only worse option was Sanders. I initially supported Warren as the most progressive, electable option. I moved to Buttigeig when Warren faded. I wanted a younger more energetic choice, but when I was forced to choose between Sanders and Biden I had to vote for Biden.
I really wish the Bernie cult weren't so inflexible and unyielding. We could have found a better compromise candidate that reflected the center of the democratic party and would be closer to the mainstream in the general election, but the Sanders supporters' cult-ish devotion is matched only by the Trumpists.
7
Your view of Bernie's democratic socialism is badly scewed. You might want to actually read his platform. Universal healthcare is in practice in all western countries other than the united states. It is not radical, sorry, it is humane. Bernie is not planning on making any private companies public. He has a Green New Deal platform that will through legislation and incentives move the economy into green, sustainable industries, meaning no more subsidies for coal, gas and oil. This is not radical.. If you want the planet to be habitable, we need to act now. In closing,
Test for Coronavirus in USA
= $3,200
Test in Countries with Universal Health Care
= $0 (Your Life depends on YOUR vote! #Bernie)
17
Bernie will get bumped again. Sad but true
3
@JOE
He will run as an independent if that happens (but it won't). I have no tears for the DNC then. They like to be kicked around by Trump (look at that sorry character called Chuck Schumer) since in the end of the day they are for the same 1 percenters as Trump is. The rest is show.
Bernie will prevail. I believe in Justice.
2
Lots of people equating Sanders to Trump. It's offensive. Trump is a grifter and the embodied result of randian politics. Sanders is a grouse who really wants to help people.
7
You don't have to be a paid political hack to have foreseen this. Go with Bernie and all his socialist baggage and lose the presidency as well as down ballot races. Magical thinking seems to have pervaded the Bernie Bunch - until now.
10
I am so disheartened and angry at fellow citizens and the neverism - this will never happen, that will never happen, he’ll never pass it.
The Women’s Movement, Civil Rights Movement, Gay Rights...all have made progress that, not too long ago historically speaking, have firmly rebutted the “nevers” of their days.
Why can’t you muster the same grit, strength, and determination?
The older I grow, the more I find fault with my supposed fellow allies and not my opponents.
What’s the old saying...you get the government you deserve.
8
Earth to Bernie campaign: Some Democrats are worried you won't win over Trump because of the socialism. Hello? Anyone home?
6
Collusion by the DNC again. Plain and simple.
6
I actually registered as a Democrat so I could vote in the primary, specifically against Bernie Sanders. I think we need a milquetoast president, and old codger who won't put up with any malarky(spelling).
As a historian, any attempt to rewrite what a Socialist is demeans the very horrors that Socialism has wrought. We as a modern society need to help our citizens, and If that is what "Socialists" want to do, then for crying out loud stop using that term. Socialists have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people, tread carefully when you use such a term.
7
You're no historian.
There is a rich tradition of socialism in America, one that got us most of the things we take for granted today, but that were branded as radical, leftist, unachievable, un-American, and even communistic!
Here's a partial list. Even the early U.S, Socialist Party platforms had most of them — and the socialists pushing them were decried and their policies vilified. But they now are as American as apple pie.
Social Security
Medicare
The 8-hour work day
The 40-hour work week
Civil liberties
Unemployment insurance
Collective bargaining
Universal suffrage
The end of child labor
Referenda, recalls, and initiatives
Rural postal delivery
Rural electrification
Campaign finance laws
Public utilities
Food and drug safety
Workplace safety
Consumer unions
Standing up against U.S. imperialism
The direct election U.S. Senators!
Contemplate that last one. Until the Constitution was amended in 1913, state legislatures were the ones who chose Senators. Who controlled the state legislatures? The robber barons and the railroads. The Senate itself was known as the Millionaire's Club! We had to wrest the power away from the corporations and give it to the peo. Socialists were leading advocates of that.
Now, we need to worry about the billionaire class. The power elite and the military-industrial complex have the reins.
See Domhoff's Who Rules America?
In education, read Ravitch's The Death and Life of the Great American School System.
2
@Marsha Pembroke if you provide a reading list, how about getting one in return?
Anne Applebaum, “Gulag”
Philip Short, “Pol Pot”
Jasper Becker, “Hungry Ghosts: Mao’s Secret Famine”
Like most Americans, you apparently believe that the USA is on a different planet from the rest of humanity. It’s not. Chris is absolutely right. Socialism killed tens of millions and devastated entire countries. Socialism and social democracy are not the same. When Bernie calls himself a “socialist”, he identifies with the ideology that is responsible for the horrors described in the books above. Read one and then tell me that the USSR or Cuba are not that bad, after all.
If Bernie Sanders is the Democratic nominee, Trump will stand a much better chance of being re-elected. Why? Bernie has a lot of minuses, among them his embrace of the murderous Soviet Union and Cuba. His so-called socialist views, let's call them what they really are, Soviet-style communist views, will cause a lot of die-hard Democrats, me among them, to sit this one out. I consider myself a yellow dog Democrat, i.e. I'd vote for that yellow dog over there rather than any Republican, but I could never bring myself to vote for Sanders.
6
The media will do anything to make Sanders look like someone too extreme for all Americans. We have been living under an extreme President and Republican party for three years ! Joe Biden isn't a bad guy, but he's offering more of the same. Medicare for all is huge and everyone needs it. I had treatment for a serious illness last year and as a senior, I had Medicare which doesn't cover everything, and a supplemental insurance and even that was not enough. Some shots I needed were $500 a week which I needed for a month and that was with insurance.Because I was poor enough,the hospital had funds to help cover the thousands and thousands of dollars this past year has cost.The drug prices are ridiculous and hospital expenses are too high. If the hospital didn't have the ability to cover my necessary medication,would they just let me die? I was lucky, but what if I get sick again? That's why I voted for Bernie.
8
Sanders is not actually a democrat with a capital D. He's been a member of the Independent party for years. Prior to announcing his bid for the presidency he changed party affiliation to Democrat.
Sanders has no interest in supporting the Democrat party in terms of what it's leadership deems is the best course of action to defeat Trump. His supporters love him for this and his detractors not so much.
I support the freedom to vote for any candidate one chooses but it would be helpful to educate oneself on how our Constitutional government actually functions in addition to the enthusiasm one feels for the promises made by candidates.
If Sanders receives the nomination I pray that he defeats Trump but know this. If he becomes president his vision of Medicare for All and the required abolishment of private health insurers that is integral to his plan will be his first major failure.
It will never get passed in Congress, not only are 100% of the republicans opposed to his plan but many democrats are also opposed to it.
The same is true for some of Sen. Sanders other campaign promises.
If it's to be President Sanders be thankful for getting rid of Trump but be prepared to be disappointed in what you thought Bernie was going to do for you.
If it's to be Nominee Sanders and he can't turn the swing States so therefore Trump tips 270 Electoral votes again...well Sen. Sanders and the Democrat party will be despised almost as much as we despise Trump.
5
The democratic party establishment is not afraid that Sanders will lose to Trump. They are afraid that Sanders will defeat Trump.
I am not talking about rank and file voters. I am talking about the same cabal of insider-elites that cleared the path for Hillary Clinton. They can endure four more years of Trump---he has done wonders for their stock market positions. What they cannot accept is their country club status being questioned.
6
@Concernicus
It's that cynical, nihilistic rhetoric that makes this the age of Trump. All democrats want to move in the same direction. I'm honestly sick to death of Sander-ites using the same rhetoric to bash democrats as republicans use.
And you deploy this in service of promoting the most extreme candidate in the primary. I know you have all convinced yourself that Bernie will generate such enthusiasm he will bring out millions of new voters to make up for the 10 million votes that we lose in the center (not to mention the moderate house and senate seats that will fall with a Sanders candidacy), but it sounds like magical thinking to me.
Besides if things are so bad, are those voters really going to stay home because they don't get all of what they want and only get half instead? If they are that fickle and irresponsible as citizens they deserve more Trump.
6
I feel for progressives. They have passion enough to win an election but not the numbers. Because they have a funny relationship with reality, it's almost impossible for them to see this. It's as though if they just wish hard enough, it will happen.
10
I had my ballot filled out for Bloomberg, but then i changed to Biden. We can not have Bernie as our nominee, he will be another Corbyn.
10
@Jaleh
Good call. I liked Buttigeig and Warren, but I think Sanders will be flat out unelectable so I voted Biden to head that off (and Bloomberg is just to much of an entitle billionaire thinking he could buy his way into the election for me to stomach). Maybe when more Boomers have passed on and there are fewer people that lived through the red scares of the cold war a candidate like Sanders will be plausible, but I just don't think we are there yet, and this is too important an election to allow to swing on such an untested hypothetical.
5
Bernie touts that he can "work" with the Republicans. He cannot even work with his colleagues in the Senate. Obama tried and could never get Mitch McConnell to cooperate on anything including his SCOTUS nomination. And then there was Hillary with whom the Republicans would never have cooperated had she been elected. They couldn't stand her despite her high level of competency and experience.
If Bernie gets the Democratic nomination, the Republicans will be overjoyed. He will never win the South, most of the Midwest, nor the interior Western states. Trump will win in 2020. I would also be concerned that the Democrats could lose the house.The "communist revolution" where the there is no privately held industry doesn't work anywhere, including Russia and Cuba. There are no "free" colleges and health care. Attempting to nationalize US companies will only force them to move their headquarters overseas where the manufacturing is already located. The Bernie bros in the tech industry and others who believe his hype really need to think about the repercussions of their votes.
5
@ElleJ
I don't know about the house in 2020, but after 2 years the Bernie-ites will have their man in place and even if they do turn out in unprecedented numbers for him in 2020 (pretty much a requirement for him to win) I worry about the 2022 collapse as those unlikely (young) voters stay home.
I would rather win over the center of the electorate (and the regular voters) than rely on Bernie Bros showing up two cycles in a row.
3
Sander's is a far-left populist and independent who even if he beat Trump, which is unlikely, he would get little accomplished in Congress. The majority of voters in the USA lean moderate either to the left or right.
If you think Obama care was a hard sell to republicans you can be sure that medicare for all would be an impossible sell to both parties.
This election should be about getting the populist out of the White House and Biden is our best choice to do it.
4
I would be slightly amused by Ms. Ember’s consistency in her barely veiled animus toward Senator Sanders’ agenda, if it was just not so obviously about protecting the existing power structure ( dare I say” Establishment”)? The deft infusion of a negative connotation to anything positive the Senator does might elude some but many folks can read between the lines. The bottom line is that the current power structure has not changed with an incrementalist approach and the majority of Americans are having a hard time. Personally, me and mine are just fine but not too many of my fellow citizens are. What the good Senator fights for is a view of a society that’s built on the not so novel notion of Capitalism with a conscience. ( care for the environment, care for each other, pay your fair share) Can’t find a fault with that objective, except if you’re bought by those who fiercely opposed to this objective.IE...THE ESTABLISHMENT ( as distinct from voters who are being daily manipulated by complicit Corporate owned media and politicians to vote against their own best interest).
2
I'm not against Bernie because I'm a member of "the Establishment." Rather, I'm against Bernie because I can do math. I am also against him because I have the ability to look up his record on the internet and see that even after 30 years in Congress, it is completely devoid of accomplishments.
6
@GMooG
Perhaps because much of his proposed legislation faced the same opposition from Corporate imbeds inside Congress then too! He has a record of being prolific with Legislative amendments and showing the sound judgement when it came to critical votes such as the Iraq War and NAFTA. Lastly, it is the ultimate accomplishment to have survived the political machinery of Washington with your principles, integrity and core values intact.
1
@Sandy M
"Perhaps because much of his proposed legislation faced the same opposition from Corporate imbeds inside Congress then too!"
OK, but that isn't going to change anytime soon. So he still can't get anything done.
Biden is too old fashioned in his ideas and manner. You may as well vote for oatmeal, biden won’t win it.
Between the simple economics of our automated future and pandemics like the coronaviris, Sanders is clearly the better choice, petty fear mongering aside. Besides, he would just be the president... for all Trumps bluster, he needs the senate and house to get stuff done effectively, and he hasn’t been effective at anything except angering liberals. Even if Sanders was a communist, and not a democratic socialist, the system is what it is, and any promises any candidate makes must be implemented by laws, which must fit into the constitution, and then cleared by the house and senate. Bernie is simply not the disaster some of you think it is. If you live paycheck to paycheck, there is no other candidate.
3
Not just through Biden, but through the rest of the Democratic (not Democratic Socialist) party, Bernie is really a 3rd party candidate, and what an unfortunate year to be so.
3
Hey Sanders campaign,
Quit calling those of us who vote against Bernie "the establishment." Its insulting. And note that Elizabeth Warren hasn't dropped out and thrown her support to Bernie. Maybe there's a reason for that.
8
Somehow everyone who isn't down with far left proposals like paying off everyone's college loans and nationalized health insurance is suddenly the establishment. Not at all.
The moderate wing which is likely 60% of democrats is simply consolidating around one candidate. Not everybody thinks Bernie can save the party he has never bothered to join.
38
"Mr. Sanders’s promise of a political revolution" Sanders has been promising a political revolution for decades and it hasn't happened.
This year Sanders promise is out of step with a nation weary of the Trump revolution. Many of us don't want a revolution. We want a return to normal and a chance to catch our breath.
30
Sanders must have known that the establishment was going to make a stand against him. He should be able to defend it off. If the people are not convinced by now, perhaps they never will.
it is interesting how Pete and Amy spent their time talking about changing the politics of washington, but then endorsed the most establishment candidate in the primary to support. They must have been bribed.
7
People should go to Bernie Sander's website and see how much more they will pay in health care costs. For our family, we would pay an additional $8,500 out of pocket due to tax increases.
10
@Ben Yeah I'm sure Bernie has a calculator on his website that shows everyone will pay MORE under his plan.
Can you say disingenuous?
Consider this: Biden was an integral part of a federal administration that faced three massive crises:
economic (the financial meltdown of 2008),
health (the Ebola crisis, which the last administration realized was an international problem that must be dealt with across many borders)
and climate change ($90 billion in the stimulus toward developing green energy; the Paris Climate Accords).
It also accomplished things on the nuclear threat (the Iran treaty).
So why would anyone imagine that Joe Biden does not know how it's done right? While remaining someone of excellent character, intelligence, knowledgeability, empathy and decency--all the polar opposite on the head of the current federal government???
9
@JFMACC
Moreover, I trust that Biden has been around Washington long enough to gather good people around him. And about his age -- I trust Biden, but not Trump, would do what's best for the country, and will choose a VP carefully.
3
Sanders is an elderly ideologue who has never had a day’s work outside of politics. Never had to balance any books! Of course, I can say the same for Biden, minus the ideology.
I am hoping that Mike will succeed in winning the nomination.
6
Sydney,
First and foremost post your conflict of interest here. As the daughter-in-law of a senior Bain Capital executive and a spouse of a former employee of the same firm, are you really the right person to cover the Sanders campaign?
Once you clear that one up we can talk about what you are saying here and how biased against the candidate who wants to kill the carried interest loophole your father-in-law hugely benefits from.
Thank you.
13
Honestly, the way this stand now, Trump will win. Democrats, spend your time and money looking for a credible candidate for the next elections. At that time, the win should be easy. I know you won't agree but deep inside you know it is true. Four more years will not destroy the US.
3
It is high time to do away with the Democratic superdelegate system. It has proven yet again, that it is only capable of mischief and self-interest in the primaries.
4
The DNC and party officials need to realize "business as usual" isn't working for the majority of people in this country.
After losing over a thousand seats from 2008 to 2016 and then losing to the most toxic and incompetent presidential candidate in history, the Democratic party seems hellbent on repeating the same mistakes again and backing Status Quo Joe. It's so very frustrating to be a part of a party that would rather lose again and again than offer real change to the American people.
4
@Keith and yet you forgot to mention moderate Democrats retaking the House in 2018
1
I’ve been a Democrat all my voting life and when the campaigning began last year I was for Biden because he was Biden but as the debates progressed realized just how lackluster and uninspiring he’s become - not that from Obama’s coattails was he really ever to begin with. Now that the DNC has hoisted them up on their shoulders as that’s all that can save them it makes me feel like maybe I’ve been wasting my whole voting life.
8
I fee like the DNC is trying to go the moderate route again, how did that you work out 4 years ago?
Biden as the nominee would guarantee 4 more years of trump in my opinion.
5
Of course Bernie was caught off guard, he's an ideologue, not a dynamic thinker. Just apply logic, why would any life long Democratic want to see the destruction of the party?
8
Who is funding Warrens Super pac? Why hasn't see dropped out? She has no path to be elected by the voters.
9
Oh, the breathless intrigue of it all ! Harry Reid, 81-year-old Democratic political insider who served on exactly 2 committees during his 30 year tenure, who spent years finagling votes as majority leader, who voted for the disastrous Iraq war, who presided over the Democratic electoral machine in Nevada, has chosen not to endorse Sanders. So what. None of the Dempublicans are supporting Sanders. Their fealty is to their friends, not the future of democracy in America.
4
@Kip Leitner This comment is exactly why I find Bernie supporters so incredibly exhausting. I live in North Carolina. There is absolutely no way Sanders can carry a general election in my neck of the woods. How can you not see that this guy is too far left for the vast majority of Americans?
5
Sorry but Bernie is as authoritarian as Trump, as "my way or the highway" as Trump, as tone deaf as to how many of his pronouncements are taken as is Trump--think of his fulsome praise of literacy in Cuba, his claim that masses of Chinese are financially better off now. He has no NUANCE.
And, he continues to chastise the Democratic Party for trying to sideline him, all the while refusing actually to declare himself a Democrat.
I'll vote for him if I have to because--yes--Trump really is the worse of the two but I'd prefer someone else.
7
Are the “establishment” and “deep state” the same? And, check out your choices in your grocery store as regards fresh fruit and vegetables, including organic, before you criticize trade agreements with people who have summer when we have winter. They have more jobs, which stabilize their countries, and we have more choices. Or, is my elitism showing?
5
The corporate wing of the Democratic party is shooting itself in the foot and opening the door to another Trump win. Personally, I can never vote for Biden. His humiliation of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings made me cringe and I held him in contempt forever after. His smarmy old school pol demeanor and his pawing women from behind as they tried to grin and bear it makes me ill. And his ardent support of the Iraq war which brought no victory and only death and suffering shows he has no intelligence or judgement. I have done with voting for moderate Republicans running as Democrats and getting nothing done. Biden has announced he is open to naming a Republican as VP. I am supporting Bernie in the primary. I could vote for Elizabeth in the final election. Biden will never get my vote.
9
The only way Bernie Sanders will ever get a vote from me is if the Democrats nominate him; even then, I'll hold my nose when casting my ballot. Nothing has changed my opinion that he's the flip side of the Trump coin; all heckling and hot air.
13
I'm a Sanders supporter, but the whining from so many Berners is getting ridiculous. If you are running against the establishment, don't act surprised when the establishment gets its act together and fights back. And for crying out loud, the complains about the unfairness of the recently departed candidates endorsing Biden is absurd. That's literally what happens in every election!
9
@Vin I didn't hear any "whining" from Sanders. Just a statement of obvious fact. As for we who support him, is it asking too much that our party's leadership would wait until after Super Tuesday votes are counted to circle the wagons? That's the only thing that offends me.
4
@Vin Be careful buying into the spin. There probably are Sanders supporters out there who are whining but there are also many people who would love to cast all Bernie supporters as whiners.
Bernie is nearly 78 years old and just had a heart attack. He has a 50/50 chance of dying in the next 5 years. He needs to release his medical records so voters can make an informed decision.
The thought of his winning the nomination and then giving us the worst October surprise imaginable with another heart attack is the stuff of nightmares.
11
It was reported that 40% of Californians had already cast their ballot before the South Carolina primary.
Whatever back room deals the DNC or Biden have done, they could have, and should have, done it sooner. As poorly managed as the Iowa caucus. If they are going to be this inept in the general, we're doomed.
6
@The Poet McTeagle You have identified one of the critical problems with early voting, which ought to be banned as soon as possible.
Sanders is a bully, proving to be quite narcissistic. His talking heads are worse. I find people like Nina Turner so rude and she continues the trumpery of the campaign - along with many of them who come across so militant. It is so unsettling to hear his trump-mimicking rhetoric that Dem voters are somehow colluding to bring him down.
Dems have a right to vote against him and to call him out b/c he is not a Dem but only using our platform to elevate himself. I did not like him last election and I dislike him more now.
He is selling falsities and lies - to be blunt (needed now as we have so much to lose). Bernie has votes only b/c he is promising so many free things. Writing off all student debt is a joke b/c each story is different - to do it right would cost so much in investigations, etc. Plus all this free stuff will never happen w/ the repubs already in trouble from their billionaire give aways. They both are wrong and they both are misleading - or again lying to the public.
Joe is a good person, smart, has the relationships and the respect. He will represent ALL Americans and move mountains for them. Seeing other good people like Buttigieg, Klobuchar and O'Rourke come together bring huge joy, relief, and harmony we all need.
Bernie and his wife need to be exposed for their full history of work, votes, donations, payouts, etc. Trump will skewer him. FL is done for Bernie, even w/ all the potheads his Castro comments crossed too many lines.
7
The truth, now that the Republican-Lite Pelosi Schumer Biden democrats, will not be able to stop Bernie Sanders, is that they plan on organizing a brokered convention, if Sanders does not have a majority of delegates.
The establishment fear is now peaking and if, as expected, Bernie does extremely well today, they will redouble their efforts and throw everything at Bernie in an all-out effort to stop him.
Glen Greenwald, of The Intercept, see excerpt and link provided, describes their plan in detail -
"FOR FOUR YEARS, Democratic officials have insisted that Donald Trump is an unprecedented threat to the republic, a fascist and racist dictator whose removal from power is the paramount, if not the only, political priority.
Yet the strategy on which they are now explicitly relying to prevent Sen. Bernie Sanders from being their 2020 presidential nominee — a brokered convention at which party elites anoint a nominee other than the one who receives the most votes and wins the most delegates during the primary process — is the one most likely to ensure Trump’s reelection."
https://theintercept.com/2020/03/02/democrats-craving-a-brokered-convention-including-elizabeth-warren-should-learn-the-lessons-of-1968/
3
People: Bernie is selling a bill of goods that he can not deliver on if he were to win the Democratic nomination. Bernie has yet to spell out in graphic detail the means by which to pay for his fairyland tales of FREE.FREE.FREE!
A socialist who has not even explained to Americans what his "version" of socialism is composed of, continues to act as if large loud youth rallies is indicative of the rest of the country. When Trump starts running ads showing Bernie praising Castro, then Bernie will break out in a sweat and realize his hazy dreams of socialism in America as he has so far explained it, is a bowl of mush. Go ahead: ask twenty of his followers to explain socialism and how Bernie will pay for it. Ten dollars to a donut, they are clueless. Bernie is living out his fantasy of a movement but when the curtain is pulled back, all you see is a bitter and angry politico who knows that this is his last rodeo and he is willing to burn down bridges to get what he wants...Put Bernie's feet to the fire and have him go on national news for an extended interview about his FREE programs and how it will be paid for....he can't because even he does not know!
6
It was always Biden. Did anyone think any other candidate would get the DNC backing?
Game on!
Republicans in Texas, an open primary, are actively voting for Bernie Sanders. Bernie is a gift to Trump the Republican party.
Of course democrats want to stop Bernie, Democrats don't support the Republican agenda.
Bernie cost us the 2016 election. He wasn't on the ballot in 2018 and it was a landslide election of moderate democrats.
Bill Clinton passed NAFTA. We had low unemployment, low inflation, real wage growth and a balanced budget when he left office.
5
Divisive rhetoric among moderate Democratic pundits is the name of the game this Super Tuesday. All isn't fair in love, war and American politics.
Bernie Sanders doesn't look presidential. Joe Biden does. That's not enough reason to vote for Joe instead of Bernie. Donald Trump never looked presidential (Cheeto orange face, blondish mullet stiff comb-over), but he won.
Biden has fake hair, but a great smile. Bernie Sanders has real hair and a great smile, too. They're both in their very late 70s. Old as the hills.
Too bad President Obama can't throw his hat in the ring this presidential election go round. He and Michelle would win by a long shot against all the Democratic candidates and Trump, the worst president America has ever elected.
3
@Nan Socolow I'm not sure Biden even looks presidential. Sometimes, yes. Other times I cringe at how the times have clearly passed him by. And I like the guy!
5
Bernie represents a bygone way of thinking that has been repackaged for modern youth. He claims to want a Nordic style system but fails to acknowledge that those nations get there through low corporate taxation, low business regulation, and a tax system that requires shared sacrifice through high taxation on all, not just the rich. Additionally, Nordic nations have discovered that wealth taxes don’t work. He is selling those nation’s social safety net on the back of an unproven plan that is more likely to harm our economy than to help our people.
36
@John Don't forget that those countries also levy an exorbitant value-added tax to all goods and services - the most regressive form of tax since it hits the poor and the rich equally. The 800 lb gorilla in the room is that a large part of the reason why the number 1 consumers in the world are Americans is because the goods are cheap relative to buying power. Slap a 25% tax on everything you buy and you can basically guarantee an economic depression. Elect Bernie and you'd better start learning Mandarin.
11
@John Wow, I applaud the attempted role reversal there. The old guard, Joe Biden, somehow actually represents the new way of thinking! That's funny.
You have some points, but I think you're selling Sanders short. He has acknowledged taxes will rise on the middle class. In exchange they will get healthcare provided, childcare provided, higher education provided, etc., etc. No it isn't all going to happen on the backs of the billionaires but they WILL shoulder a greater burden. And why shouldn't they?
5
If it is unproven, how do you know it’s harmful??
"... the ad blitz will include a spot about Mr. Biden’s record on Social Security. It is considering running an ad ... that will emphasize Mr. Biden’s record on trade, including his support for the North American Free Trade Agreement..."
Oh great. In November, Trump will pose as the protector of Social Security, and remind us that he ended NAFTA. He'll play those ads against Biden, with Sanders' own voice speaking. And we'll get four more years.
Sadly, Sanders has given in to the temptation to put his own ambition ahead of the common good. Like so many others, Left and Right.
10
@Joe "Sadly, Biden has given in to the temptation to put his own ambition ahead of the common good. Like so many others, Left and Right."
Fixed it for you.
8
@Joe If Biden can't stand up to a competitor, now is the time to find out. That's what primaries are for!
1
The reality is, Bernie Sanders has accomplished very little for all of his time as an elected official and has shown no ability to work well with others. His approach was tried in Great Britain, with poor results, until they were saved by Margaret Thatcher. Biden or Bloomberg give us a chance to win in November, Bernie only gives us four more years of you know who.
21
@DickH Boris Johnson, the conservative who won the last election in a landslide, ran on increasing funding to their National Health Service. In Britain Bernie would be a centrist.
6
@KM
Then maybe he should run for office there.
7
I’m a 58 year old female for Bernie! Super disappointed Beto endorsed Biden! All respect to Biden but this is Bernies time!
34
@Kat
Why? Because you say so?
The voters will determine just whose time this is, thank goodness!
The foundation of America is not socialism and 78-year-old Bernie is not the answer to the problems in wealth distribution. He is the answer to four more years of the most vile President ever. Trump is a egotistical man and jerk as a private citizen but as President he is a danger to the country and the world.
Bernie you are not helping the country or the world. Retire to one of your three homes.
7
I advise Sanders to lead a third party.
The Democrats are dead to me.
3
He will if this goes on.
Why wouldn’t he? Why wouldn’t anyone with a brain and heart?
Sydney Ember is the wrong person to ask though.
As the daughter-in-law of a Bain Capital senior executive, would you?
1
Bernie Bros and Babes don't vote blue, they only vote Bernie.
7
“Caught off guard.” voters may not be caught off guard!! They’ve seen these do-nothing “centrist” Dems before!! They’ll vote for Bernie!!
3
So, Sanders over Biden's dead body? Is that it?
Sanders and Trump are two sides of the same coin, much like Stalin and Hitler. Tyranny of the few (Trump) vs. tyranny of the masses (Sanders) always exist in the same spaces in history, as it did in the early half of the 20th century. They're both malevolent, and for America to prevail, we'll have to be rational and choose the center instead of letting either the extreme left or extreme right take power.
5
The world is literally trembling with the idea of Democrats caring of their own narrow interests and choosing another inefficient candidate as Clinton. Biden? After the Secretary of the State, the VP?
And leaning us again with another 4 years of Trump on the wheel.
Thanks. Really..
You got this man over there , very strong grassroots support, polls better then anyone else you’ve got and you will damn 8 billion people to that because you are afraid he is not moderate enough? When his ideas are anything but already done since decades in the rest of the First World , successfully so?
Again, Thank you Dems. Bravo.. Slow Clapping of exasperate, true centre moderate European.
3
Here we go again. Democrat malcontents will stop Bernie and hand the election again to the incompetent liar in the White House.
4
*Off-guard? Shakir notes the speed (lateness?) of the coalescence. All sentient life expected such around someone Not-Sanders.
*Flash of magnanimity? I.e., He’s such a grump, anything else is notable.
*Disappointing news? Zero doubt Reid wouldn't endorse Sanders.
*Whirlwind? Runaway train? Trying to change the narrative much?
*Biden was at first up 50 in SC; won by 30. Shock!
*Hashed out a strategy? Biden was the frontrunner for a year. My cat would have had a strategy from day one.
*How is Sanders' network disjointed and uncoordinated? No evidence. What's meant is: "See, readers, he’s tottering and vulnerable! Abandon ship! To the lifeboats that will take you to Biden!"
*Frenetic, exhausting, leaving him hoarse. Two illuminating rewrites:
Pro Bernie: ...Mr. Sanders continued his barnstorming of states showing the passion for the underdog that at times left him hoarse...
Neutral: ...Mr. Sanders continued his campaigning though states on as grueling a schedule as any candidates’ that at times left him hoarse...
*Rabin-Havt's right. Not shocking.
*Bernie's right. Leading Demz were never going to back him. (Pretty magnanimous to say Biden's a nice guy but wrong on the issues, especially when people are calling Bernie a communist.)
*Crowd began to boo—you know those Bros!
*Cutting remarks? It’s not an insult; he’s citing his actual record. But you know those Bros!
Ember's back on this beat after being removed for her obvious slant. Can’t imagine why, or why now.
4
Some folks have taken umbrage with the term "establishment Democrat." I think this calls for a definition: since the birth and rise of neoliberalism (early '60s to mid-80s), a political "environment" arose wherein big business cartels (Wall Street, insurance, MIC, etc) banded together to flex their collective muscles, in reaction to what they perceived were social forces challenging them (and eating away at their profits). They followed the "prescription" or blueprint set for them in the Powell Memo.
This resulted in a wholesale "capture" or takeover of ALL governmental/political levers of power by large business interests and uber-wealthy individuals (some may call them oligarchs and plutocrats).
In the decades since, both parties establishments fell under the control of these corporatist entities. [Chris Hedges has written extensively about this.]
This situation led to almost-unprecedented levels of political corruption; pay-to-play; revolving door corruption; regulatory capture; dismantling of the regulatory infrastructure; monopolies, oligopolies, and business cartels.
Thus, the Democratic party "establishment" ceased to be the Party of the working people, and became the party of their corporate donors.
When people (like me) talk about "The Establishment," this is what we are referring to.
17
1) Sanders is seeking to be the nominee of the party, ie the ultimate establishment leader.
2)When Sanders people claim “the establishment” I hear “deep state.”
3)Without working relationships with elected Democrats, aka “the establishment”, a President Sanders won’t accomplish anything.
I'm not surprised that the Sanders campaign has learned nothing from 2016. They have no plan to win. If he wins, what is he doing to do to unify the party? I don't see any recognition that he will absolutely need to woo the 60-70% of Democrats who didn't choose him in the primary. He, perhaps like Hillary Clinton, just assumed that voters would come just because Trump was the opponent. Well, we know that assumption is wrong.
9
@Caroline
What is Biden's plan to unify the party? Call Bernie supporters not real Democrats who should be ignored and forgotten about?
Biden has a plan to win but he has no plan to govern.
1
And what's the plan to get progressives and young people out to vote for Biden? He hasn't been able to even raise the money or hold the rallies Bernie has. Do you really think the enthusiasm is with Biden?
3
@Caroline Medical for All will unify the party. His focus will be on that if he is elected. He can only get one piece of legislation through during his first term.
If you are Sanders, you run previews of the kinds of ads that the GOP can be expected to run in the autumn. Even make it meta, as in "You can expect to see this from the GOP. Is that what you want?" Feature the Iraq War vote, Burisma, Ukraine, his son, his serial plagiarisms, his malaprops, etc." It isn't nice, but no running for office isn't for nice people.
4
Those of us who are old enough remember the Marxists of various stripes in the late 60s and 70s. Most of those radicals grew out of their childish beliefs in utopian egalitarianism. Not Bernie. He's stuck in 1970, having learned nothing in the years since.
9
@Douglas
You mean back in the 1960s when you could have affordable housing because of government help, near-free college because of government help and nobody went bankrupt over healthcare? That 1960s? The time when the richest tax bracket was taxed at over 70%?
How hard you must have pulled yourself by your bootstraps under those "Marxist" conditions!
By these comments, the biggest opponents to "socialism" are people who live high on the hog from their government checks and government contracts.
1
@Douglas And also having accomplished nothing.
Well, I followed the link to Biden's talk with rich folk and what he told them was that they would be taxed but their standards of living wouldn't change....IOW, the exact same thing that Sanders and everyone else says, but without the gratuitous demonizing. That's the thing about the really rich: they can spare the money, but they won't accept that they are the enemy of all that's good.
3
I suggest a different headline.
"...Sanders' Campaign Caught Off Guard By Realization That a Large Majority of Democratic Voters Do not Want Him To Be The Nominee..."
15
@Lefthalfbach
That sounds closer to what it's about -- even though it's hardly surprising to anyone who's taken time to look outside the bubble.
Exactly how much change the people want and how many people want it will soon be evident. At that point EVERYONE else should drop out and pool their resources. Trump and his cronies mean to win. Any division at all surrenders the election to him. If Bernie wins- go with him- Biden go with him- EVEN IF Warren pops to the front go with her! Then circle the wagons and press for the win. Trump has 200 million dollars and is dragging Wall Street around like a trophy wife. Let us all get this done!
4
“Dragging Wall Street around like a trophy wife”.
Really, have you gotten out of bed in the last 10 days?
The Dow id down another 700 today, closing in on 5000 down in the last 10 days.
Read before you write!
biden can bring someone into the fold who can complement him and shore him up where he's weak. bernie doesn't think he's weak anywhere, and won't give an inch for anything. biden for the ultimate win.
i hope.
5
Bernie Sanders is one of the few high profile "uncorrupted' politicians left in Washington, yet, many Americans demean him and his desire to approve America for ALL Americans. It seems corruption in all its forms and the continuance of a "dog eat dog, winner take all" society is accepted by the majority of citizens in the country, too bad.
The 2020 election will not be about "right vs. left" nor "socialism vs. capitalism", BUT, it will be about "Oligarchy vs. democracy".
Clearly, if Biden is the nominee, then it won't really matter whether Trump or Biden is President, it will have been money well spent, The Oligarchs will have won and democracy in America is dead.
7
So the DNC fix is in against Bernie, it only gives me more reason to vote for him. Putin is no match for the DNC, that's for sure.
8
@John Doe
Since when are people who just vote for another candidate part of the "DNC fix against Bernie"?
1
Biden voted for the Iraq War and helped GWB round up Dem support for the war;
2) He has long demonstrated openness to a "grand bargain" cutting Social Security and Medicare;
3) Biden was a major force in the Senate behind the cruel "welfare reform" of the 90s;
4) He was the Democratic face of the infamous 90s crime bill and aggressively supported the death penalty;
5) He is a committed deficit hawk who went so far as to push for a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget - a profoundly irresponsible, economically innumerate idea far worse than anything the establishment fears about Sanders or Warren;
6) He has long favored "bankruptcy reforms" to make the system easier for corporations and harder for people;
7) He has long resisted regulation of Wall Street and the credit card industry;
8) He opposed Clinton's health care proposals;
9) He has long fought to protect Delaware's special status as the winner of the race to the bottom for corporate incorporation;
10) he still thinks Dems should compromise and negotiate with the GOP on everything, at a time when the GOP has lost all connection to reason. His career shows a long eagerness to sell out Dem values in order to make any deal;
Last time I held my nose and voted for Her.
The crooked DNC fed me a cup of putrid soup
and I drank it, and burned my lips on their wicked brew.
Now they try to shove some lame same old same old centrist Biden kind of looser down my throat,
I’ll vote for Trump, for spite.
7
I never hear anybody talk about Hunter Biden being on the Board of Directors of Burisma and that obviously Joe got him that position. For Democrats, it is as if because Trump focused on it (albeit wrongly) it did not happen. But it did happen and it was corrupt. Not in the way Trump tried to portray it, but let's face it... Hunter Biden made a boatload of money for doing nothing and never would have been in that position were his father not Vice President. Bernie Sanders hasn't got a corrupt bone in his body. He's been saying the same stuff forever. I trust him and I just voted for him. It is time for a BIG change in the way America does business.
5
If Biden is the nominee, Sanders voters will stay home.
4
@George Orwell If Sanders is the nominee then there will be plenty of moderates that stay at home.
3
@George Orwell not true, they don’t want another Trump term more than Joe does!
@George Orwell
I would suspect their very real concern about climate change and other important issues going in to the future, that neither Biden nor Trump will really acknowledge(Trump thinks it is a hoax)or do anything about, I would suspect this time around they will no longer be satisfied with the "lesser of two evils".
Praise the Lord.
It's becoming obvious that there are lots of people who really dislike Bernie.
5
@pkbormes
That's only part of the problem.
The real work involves trying to figure out why.
And it probably has to do with not only some of his ideas, but also his presentation.
Or more simply put: How is it possible to attract moderate Democrats while constantly insulting them?
Sanders hasn't figure that one out...since 2016.
3
"Nothing will fundamentally change" (Biden, to wealthy donors, 2019).
It's really not any clearer than that. If you, as a democrat voter, are largely content with the status quo, Joe is your guy. If you are rich and vote self-interest, Joe is your guy. If you can afford medical bills and aren't burdened by student loan debt, Joe is your guy. If you don't need the minimum wage raised in order to make ends meet, Joe is your guy. If you are an older voter untroubled by climate change, because you aren't going to get the worst of it, Joe is your guy.
8
If Biden is the Dems nominee, you can be sure allBernie supporters will boycott the 2020 election. Voters are sick of the monied and the powerful choosing presidential candidates. Bernie is the peoples choice. Biden is Wall St's choice
2
It’s time for Warren to join forces with Bernie and unite to defeat the politics of yesterday.
4
Don’t want progressives to latch onto the Democratic Party?? Support Ranked Choice Voting so said candidates can run as independents without the threats of “spoiler” and their followers being told they’re “wasting” their votes or “costing” your mainstream candidate the election.
2
No way anyone but Bernie will beat tRumf. Elites of both parties are stealing the election with their 'he who has the gold rules' synchophant social capital. Bernie or bust
2
I do not think any one foresaw what huge sell outs Amy and Pete turned out to be.
For all their words, their talk of try something new, down with the old, they bent the knee to the DNC's golden child overnight.
I can imagine that those who truly believed Pete, and Amy, who really thought these were the alternatives the new blood we needed, the different, the young, are sitting at home shaking their heads, wondering how did it come to this, where their favorites turned out to be just nothing but shills for the establishment.
Amazing. Just amazing.
If you cannot see that this is the DNC stealing the show in your face, then you deserve Biden.
6
@AutumnLeaf
For me, the most useful thing so far has been to listen to the debates and speeches on audio only. You get a dramatically different picture of the candidates than you do with visuals added.
I did not find it at all surprising that Pete and Amy sold out. Pete's rhetoric rings particularly hollow and meaningless if you just listen to the audio.
I was surprised they were so transparent about it, and figured they would announce their dropouts in a more believable way.
1
It's simple. People like Joe. People help their friends. And the public is tired of the anger and hatred. During Beto's campaign, one of his ardent supporters noted, "I want to live in Beto's America." In Beto's America, we see the problems and we do something about them. We care for the poor and fight injustice, but we do it in an inclusive way. As you could tell at that rally last night, Beto's America is Joe's America (and a lot of people want to live in it). Sorry Bernie supporters ... you can be passionate about your cause. You can be very progressive (remember Beto's the one who wants to take away AR15s), but you don't have to be disagreeable about it. Bernie, like Trump, is disagreeable. It's no surprise people swarmed to Joe.
3
The moderate Democrats, aka DNC, just don't like Sanders. The last time the DNC blocked Sanders it was for HRC and we know how that ended...
3
What on earth did the burn expect?
He’s not a Democrat and has outrageous ideas that no one can pay for.
He should NEVER have been allowed to run as a Democrat.
3
America was once a country that could do big things. It seems we have even stopped believing we can. I want that "big things" country back and we need it back, quickly, to address climate change if nothing else.
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are the only candidates brave enough to even speak of big improvements in the lives of working people and promise to fight hard to get them. The rest just offer dribbles and drabs and platitudes with the underlying message, "Think small and be afraid."
What has happened to my brave, bold country?
6
@abigail49
Ayn Rand is smiling from her grave.
I've got to hand it to the centrist dems. They are disciplined. Buttigieg has more delegates and has done better than Warren and yet Buttigieg and Klobuchar immediately and suddenly removed themselves from the process and coalesced around Biden, not because Biden would make a better president then them, but because its important for them to stop Bernie from being the nominee.
15
@grusilag
Dems fall in love, Reps fall in line... and Reps win elections. It makes sense to adopt a winning strategy.
3
@grusilag It’s moderates doing what’s best for the country. I appreciate their efforts.
1
@grusilag They will be shocked two weeks from now when Durham charges Biden. They wont make the Hillary investigation mistake again.
Wow according to the writer, Sanders has been caught off guard, by this coalescing of the moderate wing, but he's been fighting them this entire time. Only now he doesn't have to worry about being flanked on all sides. His whole campaign is about fighting the mighty machine. Now it finally comes out of the shadows.
7
@Charles Yes, Sanders has been fighting against what makes America great for a long time. If only he used all that enthusiasm for a good purpose instead of trying to derail the moderates as they fight to bring government efforts for the people back into line with our great private sector economy.
1
@John
Thanks for a great laugh.
A person can either change the system from the inside or the outside. If you want to change the system from the outside, don't expect those on the inside to help. And here we are.
5
I believe sanders is well intentioned but he’s misleading his base when he campaigns for a single payer health care system and student loan forgiveness. He won’t get either with a Republican controlled senate. He needs to come down to reality so he can appeal to a larger base of people. That said, I still plan to vote for sanders in the Oregon primary.
1
@Prudence Spencer
Republicans won't be the problem if Sanders were to try to implement those plans. The problem would be the mass revolt that would occur if Sanders actually go his way, and took away voters' private health insurance. Even greater revolt would occur in response to "student loan forgiveness," as all those who actually paid college tuition or paid their loans would demand refunds. (I know I certainly would.). And do you know how much all of Bernie's "free stuff" will cost? It will bankrupt the country. (No. There aren't enough billionaires to pay for it.)
3
@Prudence Spencer Sanders won’t get either with a Democratic controlled Senate. It was a big deal for Democrats to pass the ACA under Obama when they had a huge majority in the senate. A slight majority couldn’t deliver the goods.
The differences between Biden and Bernie are stark, but that depends on how broad your view of the political spectrum is. The difference between Biden and Bernie is insignificant compared to the difference between Biden/Bernie and Trump.
The simple fact is that if you support what Bernie proposes, everything Biden will do will bring you far closer to your ultimate goal that anything that Trump does. Likewise, the reality is that Bernie wouldn't be able to do all he proposes and the policies he will be able to enact are likely to be much closer to Biden's proposals anyway.
6
@Christian So why go for Sanders if you think that Biden’s policies are the ones that can be enacted? In reality, Sanders will not compromise and he would be yet another get nothing done President.
“ . . . establishment Democrats are alarmed that moderate voters are too divided to stop Mr. Sanders, and fear his nomination would jeopardize Democrats’ House majority and many state-level elections.”
That sentence really sums up why I believe Joe Biden rather than Bernie Sanders, must be the Democratic nominee in November.
Bernie Sanders scares more “establishment Democrats” than he aligns with. Even if Trump should win a second term (heaven forbid) at least adding more Democrats to Congress and Senate would be a crucial way of keeping things from going sideways. Joe Biden is a known political force. I have no idea how good or effective he would be as president. But at least I doubt I would wake up most mornings not cringing from any headlines or tweets he may have created.
Enough with the Trump drama and the Sanders drama and all of the anger that seems to emanate from both of these individuals whenever they talk.
I want common sense, calm, professional, courteous and a compassionate kind of leader in the White House. And I honestly think Joe Biden is that leader.
5
@Marge Keller You do realize that the GOP won an enormous amount of seats when Hilary was put on the ballot.
1
You are entitled to your opinion and I respect that. Joe Biden is frail and doesn't know where he is half the time. We have got to have someone who is strong and competent and on the ball in the white house. We already have someone who is completely unable to do the job in the White House now.
Harry Reid's endorsement of Biden is the only one that could be even mildly surprising. He's a big-picture guy who probably understands the Sanders movement better than most establishment types. But at the end of the day the DNC folks are going to do what they do.
I'm glad they are doing it early so there can be a true battle between Sanders and Biden as determined by the voters and not in some smoke-filled backroom at the convention.
Let's have it out. If Biden is truly the best bet to beat Trump then he ought to at least be able to beat Sanders. And if Sanders is truly going to get this groundswell to overthrow the establishment, now is the time.
8
Maybe it would help if Sanders were in the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is wary of an independent outsider, what a surprise. Its like asking Microsoft to sell Apple software in there store, eventually you will find that Microsoft just isn't that interested.
6
@James:
Microsoft sells a Mac version of MS-Office.
1
@James Democrats and Republicans represent 29% of the voting population each. Independents represent 41%, what is so wrong about being an Independent if that is what most Americans are? It's not like Bernie voted with the Republicans.
1
One of the major problem in your voting system is the 2 party system, both which are rotten to the core and have been rigged for a very long time. It would have been more interesting and transparent to see Mr. Sanders being able to run as an independent. Also, I feel for the American people, being bombarded 24/7 year round, with political shenanigans when the majority don't really have a voice nor a choice as to which direction the country should be headed. I feel fortunate and blessed to live in a country in which, some of the main things you're fighting for, have been entrenched as basic human rights.
4
@Gaston Nothing stops Sanders from running as an independent. He is running as a Democrat because he has no shot at winning from outside of the two parties.
I had supported Pete Buttigieg however despite Pete's endorsement I can not support Joe Biden, as he will not beat Trump.
So I am left with Senator Warren, Senator Sanders , and Mayor Bloomberg . So lets break it down .
Bernie Sanders is a Populist just like Trump except on the left, under no circumstances 'ever ' could I support Populism it is undemocratic. Though I do believe Sanders does have a good shot of convincing disgruntled working class Trump voters to jump ship and support him in a general election. Perhaps those voters and his current supporters are enough to beat Trump. I do believe Bernie is sincere in his invitation to Pete and Amy's supporters to join him. I doubt that many will though especially Pete's supporters given the disgraceful way the Bernie Bros treated Pete.
So next we have Elisabeth Warren I could support her, however my gut tells me she will suspend her campaign after the inevitable debacle that befall her campaign today, so she is also a No.
So I am left with Mike Bloomberg, Yes he carries some unsavory baggage, nothing though as horrific as Trumps .
Yes he supported Republicans, but he also put over $300 million into Democrats house campaigns in 2018. I agree with him on climate change ,gun control, and abortion rights . He supports the Affordable care Act another plus. He is Presidential. Mostly though I feel under a President Bloomberg the craziness will end. For that alone he has my vote.
Sorry Pete , Mike my new bro.
3
Here's the truth. Either Bernie or Biden can beat Trump. We have to unite, and show up in huge numbers. No need to be fearful of Bernie or contemptuous of Biden. Let's just decide to win this thing no matter what. No matter who.
Get Trump out. Details to follow.
3
“...a progressive network that for all of its ambition remains in some ways disjointed and uncoordinated”.
As someone who is part of this progressive network, cite sources. Thanks.
The notion “the establishment” has coalesced is nonsense. It was the will of a large enough block of voters sticking with Biden not just in South Carolina but in the polls of all Super Tuesday states. Buttigieg and Klobuchar, many engaged center lefties favorites, did not convince the less than engaged or maybe never had a chance to in a field so wide and with so much noise.
The media establishment overestimates the publics level of engagement in this process. They largest block simply want someone to beat Trump. So while the rest of us spent a year watching every rise and fall, many were happy to pay attention in late February and early March and look at who was around. The most famous names in the race maintained the greatest support.
If the establishment had gotten it’s way, Joe Biden would have never run. Don’t forget that.
So a senator for 30 years (Sanders) is not part of the "Establishment"? Give me a break. Clearly this word is meant to refer nebulously to anyone who doesn't kowtow whatever Sanders' current line is. This kind of conspiracy theory oriented thinking is classic for left-wing and right-wing populists.
People like Joe Biden have spent years building coalitions with different interests across racial and socioeconomic lines. That's what politics is and now those people are voting for him. Sanders is in no way entitled to jump in and claim the mantle of this labor on the part of people he clearly despises. He could have spent any of the past 30 years doing the same, but he preferred to sit back in Congress and rename post offices.
5
@MM :
Technically Sanders has been a Senator for 13 years and a bit.
He's been in the Congress for 29.
In 2016, the “establishment” manipulated the process and got Hillary nominated. In the general election she was touted as a hands down, shoe-in by that same party establishment. In case people forgot, a significant enough chunk of D voters either stayed home or left president blank on their ballot (see Michigan results). Biden’s electability is a bigger myth than Hillary’s. We don’t learn.
5
I do not agree with Senator Sanders on many issues. However, he is correct in railing against the "establishment". The current top comment questions the existence of the "establishment". The establishment is those people who are defying the democratic will of the voters. Much the same as the electoral college, they are denying the candidate with the most number of votes through back room dealings, super delegates and such. The idea of rigging the convention should be abhorent to all. He is further right about the extensive amount of negative coverage he receives. These are not honest critiques but often, blatant misrepresentations of his policies. Let the voters decide.
Vote Blue no matter who. As the events these days show, our lives may depend on it.
2
It can't be a surprise that the Republicrats would gang up on Sanders and other Americans who want to civilize the country. How else can they continue to promote medical bankruptcy, grinding working conditions for non-union labor, etc.? Their corporate masters would also be displeased if they supported Senator Sanders.
4
@Eugene Debs Republicans seem to be supporting Sanders at this point as a way to make sure Trump wins.
1
It’s very clear after reading the comments in this article as well the comments in previous editorials that the Democratic Party will soon (or need to) split into two separate parties. The animosity between the moderate wing and the progressive wing is growing by the minute and getting ugly. My brother is a Bernie or bust guy and will never donate to the establishment Democratic Party. I myself don’t won’t want my Democratic “establishment” dollars going to Bernie. I just don’t see these two separate groups coming together.
4
Then you’ll get what we have here in Canada- Tories, Liberals and the New Democratic Party (from right to left). We also have the Green Party, but they only have 3 seats. It works pretty well for us actually.
3
The establishment fails to consider that they have declared open warfare with their voter suppression, division and lies, and therefore they just fully endorsed Bernie Sanders as the anti establishment candidate.
The only tricky one is Warren who still pretends to be a progressive Justice Democrat... with a Super PAC?
The only other anti establishment candidate picking up a delegate here or there is Tulsi Gabbard. Remember her? The one the DNC keeps changing the debate rules for? Watch her tonight because that’s our next VP.
Game on.
3
How did America ever pass Medicare and Social Security in the first place? Skeptics chanted socialism. While all the other countries with civilized societies and robust healthcare systems, have delivered healthcare universally since post WWII. It's the way it is done. Not just Canada. UK, Israel, Norway, Sweden, France...on and on. They didn't grow a billion dollar industry of medical insurance. Insurance does not provide healthcare. It's all a perception that we can't do it. We spend billions more in healthcare, and defense than all other countries. In a global economy where all other nations we do business with don't rely on a 1950's American model of company sponsored benefits. How can our companies compete? America supports the oligarch run industrial complex in healthcare and defense. Time for America to grow up. It's this old way of doing everything that keeps us from having nice things.
3
@jeansch We already have nice things. Most Americans select between Apple and Android.
It's really interesting that so many centrist Democrats keep telling us what can't be done, passed, legislated etc.
Elizabeth Warren nailed it when she said the very same thing in one of the earlier debates.
Why are any of you running by telling the American voters what we cannot accomplish?
Same old same old middle of the road, tired, do nothing outlooks from the "moderates".
They are really corporatists.
5
I keep reading comments decrying Bernie Sander's presidential run in 2016 as the reason Hillary Clinton lost and Trump won. But in the same breath they claim Hillary actually won the popular vote. You can't have it both ways. You can't blame Bernie for her loss while at the same time stating that she actually won.
My take on all of this goes straight to the top: billionaires paying millionaires to tell middle-class and working-class voters what to do. The system is indeed rigged in their favor.
Ask yourself why... billionaires have selected a candidate that will maintain a status quo that has allowed those billionaires to dodge taxes and amass obscene wealth at the expense of average citizens and the health of our republic. It's about money, power and control. And it's sick. They see themselves as masters of the universe. They have placed candidates at all levels of government so that they can continue their life of unchecked capitalism -- and they are willing to destroy our Constitutional rights and the foundation of freedoms and protections that once made America great in order to get their way.
Citizen's United, lobbyists, billionaires buying candidates, candidates buying their way into office, foreign government buying influence -- these are the things threatening us -- not Bernie Sanders.
6
What bothers me is how quickly these candidates dropped out and gave their support for Biden. If you're going to claim that you're not part of the establishment (Klobuchar), then adding support for THE MOST established Democrat in the race within hours of suspending your campaign is a completely contradictory action to that statement. The DNC is treading a fine line that could give them the same results as 2016. If they're not considerate of that perspective, then they are doomed.
2
Sanders socialist agenda has generated a lot of opposition. He is still in this until the convention, but more and more will switch to Biden despite his Washington insider reputation.
4
@Tom K :
" but more and more will switch to Biden despite his Washington insider reputation."
Say why you think so? What makes the bank favoring, Iraq war approving, Social Security cutting Biden a good candidate?
2
@Yaj It is the lesser of evils. Biden and his crook of a son are untrustworthy, But the economy will chug along and the stock market will not go in to a huge dive.
Sanders and his socialist agenda will destroy the economy as his multi-trillion $ handouts only help the bums of society. Not the working middle class who pays for all the handouts.
3
From reading this article it appears that Sanders and his minions calculated that they had built an impregnable Maginot Line of young people and true believers. I'm guessing that no one on his staff read the memoirs of Field Marshal von Rundstedt and how he brilliantly flanked the Maginot Line and destroyed the Third French Republic.
4
Warren will probably win California today. I'm guessing Bernie will be second, and one of the dropout candidates will also finish with more votes that Biden.
I do want to re-emphasize that despite all the "sky-is-falling" doomsaying among the democrats, Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 by 3 million votes, so with a little discipline and targeted campaigning, winning the White House is doable. Unless a "crabs-in-the-barrel" mentality wins out.
@GBrown:
Warren win in California?
She may not win Massachusetts.
1
@GBrown Warren is the one that will finish third or fourth in California.
1
Bernie Sanders did not become a " voice crying out in the wilderness " until he decided to run for President . For all the years he was in the Senate , he was indistinguishable , his votes non-important , mundane . His biggest talent lies in riding a wave of dissatisfaction , inequality , and all the problems that assail this country ; where was his heart , his voice back then ? He is no savior , merely another politician that whips people back and forth for his own ambition .
6
As it stands:
(1) Moderate Dems don't believe Bernie can beat Trump.
(2) Moderate Dems will still support Bernie if he's the candidate.
(3) Bernie supporters will not support a moderate candidate, which means:
(A) Bernie is a write-in candidate, dividing the Dem vote.
(B) Bernie supporters don't vote at all.
Sounds like losing to Trump is a self-fulfilling prophecy, no matter how it unfolds. The end game is beating Trump. Too bad some Dems are resolved to leaving the playground if the game isn't played their way.
We have to get back to the middle before we can push our agenda to the left. Progressive sounds over-the-top crazy to Repubs who already think moderate liberalism is plenty crazy. We can't beat right-wing extremism with anything that even remotely smells of liberal extremism to on-the-fence voters or wealthy Dems. And Bernie doesn't pass the smell test. His ideas aren't wrong, they just aren't sellable to a majority of voters. And voting requires a majority. (Unless you're talking about the electoral college. Ha.)
1
I didn't much care for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and I don't like him much now. I don't think he can achieve any of the very radical changes he promises, and think that even if he could defeat trump, he wouldn't be very effective as president.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, helped achieve the passage of Obamacare, and knows how to get things done. He also exudes such good will toward all Americans, and displays the type of honor Americans expect of their presidents, that I would feel really good voting for him to replace the foul show now playing in D.C. We don't need another cranky old guy in the White House telling us what is good for us, the way I imagine Bernie would behave. At 66, I prefer a happy warrior to an old grouch.
3
The South Carolina primary result was a pyrrhic victory for Biden. Ever since 1968, the state has voted Republican in presidential elections - with the exception of fellow southerner Jimmy Carter in 1976.
1
Bernie is the establishment, a lifelong politician who used to be buddy buddy with the NRA, and whose biggest political dollars come from people at Google, Facebook, Amazon, and other big tech firms. He even has a dark money group called Our Revolution. Sure they don’t coordinate with his campaign. He used to rail against millionaires and billionaires until he became a multimillionaire himself - now it’s just the billionaires.
3
How strange and sad is to see how media influence can make people go against their interests believing they actually defend them.
An example.. I live in Paris, French public health care is good by any criteria and none except the billionaires ( that are not as frequent around here) do use it. Millionaires included.
I had a curious conversation with a irregularly seen good ”copain” , born and raised in NY, American to boot.. New Yorker in addition. We talked some politics and his distaste about Sanders was explained with him finding Sanders policies as extreme. This person, while wealthy, does use and like a lot French health care which including for his family. But in his own country, shared by the rest of the people? no way.
So again and again, Sanders is all but extreme.
He will never be classified as left, what he fights for are public policies that none, even the more extreme of politicians will think to contest.
And the explanation that it is décidèrent out there, in US is beyond strange. Does people do not want a health security ? Do not people wish to live better? To be less poor?
And the worst? Vilifying someone who instead of enjoying his end of 70s, in comfort and largely admired by progressives Dems, he is running against the clock of his life and health to try to help his country? I have yet to hit the middle decade and I cannot stand what he does. It takes a lotta convictions and love to do that.
Chapeau mr. Sanders. You rock!
5
Hopefully Warren will hang on a bit longer and drain votes from Sanders. Otherwise we will not have a serious choice come November. Stay home.
4
I am sick of the media term “moderate” as applied to Democratic status quo politicians. First, its opposite is “extreme ,” and as such it attempts to alienate voters from Warren and Sanders, by implying that quick action on the environment, reigning in oligarchs and providing the same decent inexpensive health care available in most of the western industrialized world is somehow unreasonable or radical.
Furthermore, they apply it to Republican politicians such as Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who support the authoritarian party 90% of the time, but are somehow considered “moderate” because on a few lesser issues, or when it doesn’t count, they break with their parties.
Journalists need to stop being lazy and find more accurate terms, and not try to shape the discussion with loaded terms like “moderate.”
2
The only clear winner so far is Vladimir Putin. But I expect the Bernie Bros will keep amplifying the conspiracy theories anyway.
4
So tiring to see Bernie gearing up to place blame on someone else again for his losing. The “establishment” isn’t ganging up on Bernie, he just doesn’t have the support he claims to have. He has no chance to beat Trump, that’s why Trump wants him to be the nominee. Sorry Bernie, the blame is yours and yours alone.
4
RCP shows two national polls that only use data from after the SC results.
In both, Biden leads Bernie by at least a few percent and Bloomberg leads Warren. If Steyer's result is any indication, Bloomberg's support may be overstated at the expense of Biden.
There is a chance that most of the drama is over tonight.
It's been clear that Democratic primary voters are split between moderates and progressives. When we had 3-4 credible candidates splitting the moderate vote, and only 2 credible progressive candidates, Bernie had the appearance of a frontrunner. But when you add votes up, it shows that more Democratic primary voters are voting for moderates than progressives.
Now we are down to 2 and 2. Sanders is right to be afraid there, because the numbers have said that more Democrats want a moderate than a progressive.
10
I’m a senior citizen, a widow and I’m living off a small pension and social security, both of which are being reduced by my increasing Medicare costs and increases in my supplemental policy. I keep wondering just how much those not on it understand the limits of Medicare! I believe most are under the impression that Medicare covers all healthcare costs. It doesn’t by a long stretch; every day one learns of some new test or ailment Medicare doesn’t cover and because Medicare won’t neither will your supplementary insurance! Does any one really understand what Medicare for All means? If it really does cover everything , then our country needs a really healthy, productive economy to pay for it! Taxing the top one percent won’t do it.
18
@anselm I think taxing the 1% AND putting all Americans under the age of 65 on a public insurance will pay for it - and be cheaper. Why? Because those under 65 are a lot healthier than those over 65 (who we already cover; albeit, as you say, not completely), and pay for many expensive procedures up until their dying day, which is the most expensive medical event of all. Why don't I hear this argument used when we talk about "Medicare for All"? Seems like a no-brainer to me.
3
The rally's supporting Sanders are overwhelming. The support and the movement he has created is not something to toy with. His supporters are young, motivated and their passion is a wave for the future. I hope the Democratic old establishment gets out of the way this time.
25
@jeansch
Nader's rallies in 2000 were similar, and we all know how those turned out . . .
5
@jeansch
Now we are down to four candidates:
1. Joe Biden
2. Bernie Sanders
3. Elizabeth Warren
4. Mike Bloomberg
Delegates so far:
Sanders 60
Biden 54
Warren 8
Bloomberg 0
Drop outs who endorsed Biden
Buttigeig 26
Klobuchar 7
If you add those up:
Moderates 87 (Biden, Buttigeig, Klobuchar)
"Progressives" 68 (Sanders, Warren)
Why should the moderates "get out of the way"? Because people come to rallies and scream? Or because people go to vote (and do not make a big deal out of it)?
Let's see who gets the most DELEGATES.
6
All the ‘but what about me’ kids just see the free , free, free and don’t stop to think and realize just how unrealistic sanders ideas are.
3
What is the problem, people?
Now we are down to four:
1. Joe Biden
2. Bernie Sanders
3. Elizabeth Warren
4. Mike Bloomberg
So far in the caucuses, NOBODY got a MAJORITY of the vote. Bernie got 46.8% in Nevada.
So far in the primary votes, NOBODY got a MAJORITY of the vote. Biden got 48.4% in South Carolina.
All of those results were with 7, or 8, "major" candidates.
So now we get down to TWO major candidates (Biden and Sanders) and two lesser candidates (Warren and Bloomberg) and a few "also-rans."
Sanders has a few more pledged delegates than Biden (try SEVEN more). Call it a tie so far.
NOW, FINALLY, we get to see which of the two (Biden and Sanders) the people really want to see running against Trump.
Unless there is a surprise and either Warren or Bloomberg lap the field, somehow.
What is wrong with that?
Today, they are firing the "starters gun" on the race, and Joe and Bernie have a lead on Elizabeth and Mike. I think we just ran the first mile of the marathon (155 delegates out of 3978 pledged delegates = 3.89% times 26.2 miles is 1.02 miles).
Lots can still happen in this marathon, that runs to June.
We will defeat Trump if everybody takes the "Vote BLUE, no matter who" pledge.
If not, we might get Trump for 4 more years. (No thank you.)
9
@Joe From Boston The DLC has two choices at this point: Lose to Trump or win with Progressives. Either way the clintonites are going to be put out to pasture, thank goodness.
@Joe From Boston :
"Now we are down to four:
1. Joe Biden
2. Bernie Sanders
3. Elizabeth Warren
4. Mike Bloomberg"
Well, five. There's Gabbard.
Ohmigoodness. A sort of Republican boomer vs one of 3 pre-boomers, who are sort of Democrats, will probably create the lowest voter turn out possible in November. “Beam me up Scotty.”
2
@Muffin
I think "wanting to DUMP TRUMP" will create a RECORD turnout in November.
@Muffin
To which 3-pre boomers you referring.
There's one pre-boomer in the race, unless you count Mike Gravel; that's Sanders.
People over 75 are pre-boomers
As capitalists, Joe, Pete and Amy know how to place lets make a deal. And they have...stay tuned if Joe pulls it off?
Revolutionaries are so...disenfranchising to so many. Downright unsportsmanlike in politics.
5
@WorkingGuy People day capitalist as if it’s a four letter word. Capitalism has done more to eliminate poverty than any other economic system ever devised.
2
@John
I wholly agree.
Bernie is more an out in the open Russian candidate that 45 could ever be.
2
So I clicked the link to Biden’s speech to the wealthy donors & establishment democrats in the room. I give you the statement from the Bloomberg article (now ain’t that rich, wonder if they’ll do a piece on Mike B. like this, naw) for those that didn’t.
“Remember, I got in trouble with some of the people on my team, on the Democratic side, because I said, you know, what I’ve found is rich people are just as patriotic as poor people. Not a joke. I mean, we may not want to demonize anybody who’s made money,” Biden told about 100 well-dressed donors at the Carlyle Hotel on New York’s Upper East Side, where the hors d’oeuvres included lobster, chicken satay and crudités. “
“Truth of the matter is, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done,” Biden said. “We can disagree in the margins. But the truth of the matter is, it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one’s standard of living would change. Nothing would fundamentally change,” he said.
Remember Hillary Clinton’s various paid speech’s to the cream of Wall Streets predators, it’s like that, again.
I’ll vote for Biden if he’s the nominee, I did it with Clinton and will do it again. But as much as I would like Sanders to temper his aspirations & language or let someone else like Warren carry his ideals forward I have to say in this he’s right. Since the Clinton years the establishment democrats and their leaders have sold us out to the financial elites & been well rewarded for it.
15
@John Chastain
It has been said countless times that Trump was "forty years in the making" much of it caused by a democratic party that chose to ignore its roots and the millions of "former democratic" party voters who felt by choosing money over winning elections, started to feel left behind and ignored by democrats culminating in the election of Trump who told many what they wanted to hear.
Democrats who continue to believe that a corporate/establishment moderate centrist candidate like Joe Biden is the answer, continue to ignore the reality of how and why Trump got elected in the first place. The "status quo" always benefits the top 10%, no one else.
1
sanders is in the WRONG country at the wrong time.. its NOT his time.... he is a good Senator.. compared to the gop senators who are obedient to trump like puppies
6
An unflattering photo of Bernie, not unusual given the commercial media’s war on his campaign. The number of anti-Sanders pundit and so called news stories on the race for the Democratic Nomination has been truly astounding. So much for the “free marketing place of ideas.” You have undermined confidence in not just the main steam press but the NYT as well.
12
He’s always red faced and raving, it’s his standard look.
Republicans run to the right not the center and they drag the middle with them. Most of you moderates would have been Reaganites 30 years ago. Bernie’s been a true liberal for 50 years. Biden has supported a lot of repugnant things like the Iraq War, the ‘94 crime bill, NAFTA. He’s basically Hillary 2.0. It’s Bernie, Warren or bust for me. There’s not enough difference in actual policy (not temperament) between him and Trump for me. All Clintoncrats must go ! Purge the party or start a new one.
7
I think Sanders is going to learn the hard way that young 20-something-year-olds alone are not going to catapult him into the White House.
14
I’m a 50-yr-old former corporate lawyer whose clients included Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and a bunch of PE/VC firms, and I’m voting for Bernie (again) as is my 81-yr-old father and 51-yr-old wife. Oh, and yes, our 18-yr-old is bigger into Bernie than all of us combined.
3
@Nancy It's not just young twenty-somethings who support him.
This was fishy, especially Buttigieg dropping out. He did well in Iowa and NH and had raised more funds in 2019 than Biden in every quarter. Clearly they offered him something to step down.
11
@Dottie Yes something is not right. Who is funding Warren? Why hasn't see dropped out?
No surprise.
The big question is when Bernie does not win the nomination, will he be willing/able to put his support behind Biden in order to defeat The Orange Menace? Or will he sit on his hands and thereby keep his faithful at home on election day and deliver the office to #45 again? Or go third party??
I hope his ego will allow him to do the former. I am not so confident in that happening...
7
@Jeremy Sanders didn’t fully support Hillary and he won’t fully support Biden. In reality, Sanders wouldn’t fully support Warren and they are very ideologically similar.
Nope, he will let his ‘followers’ act the same way they did with HRC amd be happy if they stay home.
His ego is too big for him to get behind a real Democrat.
@Jeremy Bernie has already said that he will support the DNC candidate. I believe him.
After years of worry about Trump's mental capacity it is almost incomprehensible that the media is ignoring Biden's obvious slide into senile dementia. This guy is no longer functional. Obama knows, that's why he's refusing to campaign for Biden. What is the game plan when he breaks down in public? What are party leaders thinking? Or maybe they are secretly in Trump's pay? Because that's where this is heading.
6
@Cloudy Regardless of Biden’s cognitive health, Obama has stated he will not endorse ANYONE during the primaries. He is letting the process play out.
He will start campaigning for the nominee (including Biden if he wins) once that is determined.
1
@Cloudy
Yes, yes, yes! What on Earth is going on here?! Biden is showing such blatant signs of cognitive decline that it is unbelievable that he has so much "support" from the Democratic population of leaders and voters. He will be so easily manipulated by the people around him (maybe that's what the Democratic party leaders want...seems to work with Trump, after all). I do not want this person to be President of the United States.
4
@Cloudy Oh, as a medical expert who is so skilled that you can make firm neurological diagnoses based on watching someone on television, can you please do something about this Coronavirus rather than writing comments on the NYT?
Bernie. The DNC will prevail. You and your supporters will either be faced with becoming Biden's people or form a third party.
6
@clarity007
Or vote for Trump, like I intend to do.
3
Who do you want on the debate stage with Trump?
Someone sharp as a tack or someone who occasionally blurts incoherent sentences?
6
@PM There’s an option other than Sanders or Biden?
Its Biden vs. Sanders or should we say dementia vs. socialism. The combined age of these two predate the civil war. I though Democrats disavowed old rich white guys. With approximately 160 million Democrats in the USA how is it that these are the only two left standing? I'll be voting for Tulsi Gabbard.
What party eats its own young? The reality for today's 35-and-unders is very different from that their parents and grandparents had to work with "back in the day" and they are crying for help. The crushing student loan debt, the housing costs, the low wages, the childcare costs, the gun violence, the advancing climate change, the ever-higher cost of private health insurance and medical care. The Obama-Biden-Clinton Democrats have said, at best, "We hear you but we know better." At worst, "Suck it up, kids. You're on your own."
Bernie Sanders is speaking to the on-the-ground challenges young adults face. Democratic Party leaders may think they're saving the party and the country from "socialism" and Trumpism by crushing Bernie Sanders but they are also slamming the door in the faces of a younger generation. Not a wise political calculation.
8
If you tell your 8-year-old (grand)son, "Jason, today you get to decide what we'll be having for dinner tonight", You shouldn't be surprised to end up with a meal packed with 5,000 calories and 3,000 mg of sodium. You then don't turn around and say, "Wait a minute, Jason, when we said you could pick what we'd have for dinner tonight, what we actually wanted you to pick were celery sticks, broccoli, cauliflower, and plant-based burgers." But this is exactly what the leaders of the democratic party are doing. They give supporters the opportunity to pick their nominee through caucusses and primaries, but when they see the kind of candidate a section of their voters are favoring, they go, "Hey, wait minute, when we said you could vote for your favorite candidate, we actually meant the candidate WE think makes the best opponent for the current president." And we wonder why the youngsters don't go and vote. Maybe its because they've figured out what we, old folks, haven't, with all our years of wisdom: That it just doesn't matter because the people at the top of the party don't really don't give a blankety-blank about what, they, the youngsters, are thinking.
5
@steffie Your analogy is completely off base. You are free to choose the candidate of your choice. You can pencil in Taylor Swift if you want. On the other hand, if you are truly an engaged, concerned citizen, you would use your vote to actually promote someone who most closely aligns with your values. If your approach to voting is "this game is unfair so I'm deflating the ball," then that is on you and only on you.
1
I like a lot of Bernie Sanders's ideas - but I'm always taken back when he wants to identify as Independent, use the tools of the Democratic Party, but complains about "establishment Democrats" working against him.
20
@brian
We have a two party system. The DNC let him run because he has so much support from democrats and the people they have driven away from the DEM party.
Does it make it ok not to be fair with him just because they are trying to use him to get votes for the people they want but really don't want him around at all?
1
@brian ...and therein lies the problem with Bernie. You can't take politics out of Politics! To be an effective politician, you have to be personable, likable, trustworthy and able to forge alliances with people on the other side. With Bernie, you get someone who is the exact opposite of personable and someone who cannot muster up coalitions on his own team, let alone the opposing team. The evidence is in Bernie's complete lack of accomplishment during his decades in Washington.
@brian 29% of Americans are Democrats and 29% are Republicans. 41% are Independents, what is so wrong about being an Independent? Does the Democratic party not want the Independents to vote for them?
Biden may embody the American Value at a Moderate Corporate level but he in no way embodies American Virtues. Sanders is the American Goal. He has a respectful tone towards Biden always, he may disagree respectfully, but respectfully. Sanders isn't the End Justifies the Means--that is Biden whether cheating in college of in renditions of the past as in Mandela Past.
9
None of this is a surprise.
Most of the elites in Washington, GOP and Democratic alike, benefit from Trump's tax cuts and investments (though coronavirus may impact that) and don't seem to care much how their policies harm the middle class and drive people into poverty (and while this is happening, the GOP will go a step further and make it harder for those in poverty to qualify for benefits simply by adding layer upon layer of red tape).
And I doubt Warren will back Sanders, either. Recall in 2016 how she endorsed Hillary right before the Democratic convention; keep in mind, too, that her own plan for taxing the ultra-rich keeps her from having to pay tax on her $12 million, which is ultra-rich by most people's standards. I start to think she used him to ride off his popularity for progressive issues, but never really seemed to intend to support him back--and I *do* hope I'm wrong. It just seems that given where she's been polling, she could have at least helped unify the progressive movement by dropping out before today, and then working with Bernie to implement HER plans.
Warren seemed to have gone wrong talking about what she can do "all by herself" because no one gets anything done in Washington all by oneself--not even Trump, (though his game often makes me wonder what kind of dirt he had on people to get them to line up so easily).
I support Sanders, obviously, but I don't think he always gets his message across.
8
@Rhonda I’m more convinced than ever that Warren lied when she said Bernie told her he didn’t think a woman could win. All her previous instances of being fast and loose with the truth factor in, but what really convinced me was her blatantly dishonest answer to a question about super delegates. She knew darned well that Bernie wanted no superdelegates at all, but could only get the establishment to agree that the superdelegates could only get involved in the second round. Nonetheless, she said with a straight but smug expressin that Bernie got what he wanted. Such transparent dishonesty told me a lot.
3
The not too distant future: The Democratic party becomes the progressive party our country needs and the moderate Democrats shift to the Republican party, thus moderating its extreme tendencies. It's a win-win for Americans.
4
I like Sanders, I like his ideas but he is not a Democrat anymore he left the party. There is an " I " after his name, not a " D ". Bloomberg has joined the party after he migrated from Republican to Independent to Democrat. Frankly I don't understand why he is running in the Democratic primary anyway,
and no one seems to have the answer to my question. Maybe he needs to start the Democratic Socialist Party
1
@Laura Miller Republicans and Democrats each make up 29% of the voting population. Independents make up 41%, do you not ant Independents to vote with Democrats? Do you suspect that Bernie leans toward Republican values?
As a child and as an adult Bernie was always an outsider on the block. As a loner he never displayed the leadership skills in the Senate that a required to be president of the USA and commander and chief.
13
@David Were you his next door neighbor, or are you just completely making this up?
1
@EJS Until we attended Brooklyn College together Bernie and I lived on the same block with lots of other kids who attended the same elementary and high school. The narrative that Bernie has always been an "outsider"
even as a child is well documented and supported
by the kids on our block. We attended PS 197 and James Madison High School together.
I think it is wildly presumptive to say that the Sanders Campaign was caught "off guard".
Bernie has been very clear that the Establishment Elite Democrats, who want to have their cake and eat it too, have always been undermining his attempt to be the nominee. It just took longer for the Clinton Cronies to get at it this time.
Biden, who Obama must have felt was unlikely to be able to carry his mantle forward in 2016, has decided to channel Bill (or at least lie down with his old crowd) instead of his venerable boss. A shame.
It would seem worthwhile to define "have their cake and eat it too" here as well. This refers to the Elite Dems who want no change to the economic system that benefits the big-end donors who wear their concern for the environment and social tolerance on their sleeves while keeping a firm hand on their profits at the expense of the working class--you know--the people who work in companies that make Musk, Bezos, Bloomberg et all the billions.
lt will not work. Bern will burn right through the stale fog of the outdated Dem political machine is trying to throw up.
8
Bernie handed victory to Trump by siphoning votes away from Hillary. While there’s a lot of blame to go around for Hillary’s loss (starting with Hillary), Bernie played a significant role
10
@Marc
At the very least, Bernie could have done a lot more to get his people to support Hillary.
1
@Marc
I agree. I will never vote for Bernie in a million years. He is the reason Trump is president.
1
@Marc
I completely agree. I have said this to Bernie supporters, and they don't even want to hear it.
1
Perhaps we should examine the votes cast by real people (myself included) beginning when the polls close today. That is democracy in action.
I have no doubt Biden leads in the small southern states that will never go in the Democratic column in November. I’m more interested in the results of the VA, NC and CA contests.
The tenor of this piece is unmistakable: Sanders is back on his heels, Biden is ascendant. Oh my!
Oy vey!
2
@Michael ...meanwhile, in the real world, don't Democrats in deep red states get to have a voice in the nomination process?
Sanders cannot even handle direct opposition from his own party. How will he ever handle real adversaries like Russia and China? He is ill-equipped in that regard.
3
It's not his party. He is not a Democrat. He's just using the party in his quest to be president.
3
I saw a clip of Bernie live this morning, speaking in DC or NOVA. He was flat-footed and a little panicky. Everybody not for him was part of on e Establishment or another. The two he mentioned specifically were the politcal and the corporate. When the CNN panel came back on, Joe Lockhart promptly pointed out that the black people and suburban women can hardly be accurately classified as part of the Establishments.
538 is showing polls from yesterday in VA and NC putting Biden in the 40% range, with Bernie plummeting. Reminds of the old Python line- "...Notice Icarus does not fly so much as plummet...".
The reality is that a large majority of Democratic voters- regular-everyday people- just do not favor Bernie. That is going to be brutally clear today- and from here on out.
It is going to be a bad day for MIke Bloomberg, too. He is not going to reach 15% viability in too many places.
4
What didn't Bernard Sanders learn from the hostility of the old DNC leadership to his candidacy for President in 2016 that hostility to his candidacy for President in 2020 from the new DNC had been carefully preserved and protecfed?
But Vladimir Putin instead of being for Hillary Clinton like 2016 if hacking,interfering meddling on behalf of Bernie in 2020.
1
The DNC has pulled off its gloves. Four years ago they tolerated Bernie while casting shade on his campaign. They knew Hillary would win the White House, it was inevitable. Today, they're pulling out the stops to crush Bernie and his supporters, even calling them thugs on national TV. True, it was an overly-made up Republican heiress calling him that, but a lot of people saw it. The DNC will be just as big an obstacle to Bernie, as the Trumpers.
5
While I like some of his policies, I am afraid he would be a disastrous nominee and an equally bad President. He does not get along with anyone in DC which would make negotiations and compromise impossible. He would also be equally as divisive as Trump.
3
The corporate Dems are up to their old tricks again. If they take a fairly won nomination away from Bernie they are signing their own death warrants. The progressive wing of the party will walk away. Enough is enough.
3
none of the Democratic candidates has in their possession a "fairly won nomination." that's what today will guide along, that's what 3/17 might cement. it's called the primary election process. what part of our government do you and too many Bernie supporters, and Bernie himself, not understand about other people voting for and supporting who they believe is best for America?
They are not scared that Bernie will definitely lose to Trump but are terrified that he might actually win.
And that victory would come at an unbearable cost to them.
Before you ask, 'they' refers to people who talk the talk but have no intention of walking the walk; people who have trouble putting their money where their mouth is. In other words, those clueless people who do not realize that they probably enjoy privileges that a majority of this country cannot dream.
People who want others to pay for their idealism.
6
This is reminiscent of the last election when the Democratic party establishment went to war with Bernie, handed the nomination to a loser, and alienated a lot of people in the process. Please stop trying to pretend this is a redo of the 2016 election, and stop making the same mistakes.
4
Michael Moore, the documentarian and Bernie Bro, was on TV last night. He urged Dems like me not to give in to fear that voting Bernie means a McGovern-like loss to Trump.
We're to resist the urge to jump on the Biden Bandwagon instead jump on the Bernie Bandwagon.
He said that (paraphrasing) every time the Dems nominate a candidate out of fear and vote out of fear, we always lose.
I am fearful. I'll cop to that. I'm fearful that voters who've had a bellyful of Trump and want to vote Dem will take a look at Sanders and say, "No thanks, I'll take the devil I know" and vote Trump.
6
The hatred of the anti-Sanders comments is chilling. What do you hate so much? Do you hate the idea of raising the minimum wage to $15/hour, which would raise living standards for 30 million people? Do you hate the idea of joining the rest of the civilized world and having universal health care? Do you hate a campaign that is funded entirely by individual donors, and that accepts zero corporate PAC money? Do you hate the millions of people who are not only voting for Sanders, but are giving their time and money to his movement?
8
@Andy Dwyer Where to begin... we hate the fact that he is giving away freebies like college education and healthcare without a cogent plan for how to pay for it. He is threatening to collapse one third of the U.S. economy (healthcare) and double the size of the government. He thinks he can use the golden eggs to pay for this despite killing the goose. He will impose much higher taxes on the middle class, eliminate private insurance, force everyone onto Medicare, which provides minimal coverage and sell everyone onto this myth that innovations in medicine will be spurred on by making sure that drug companies are no longer profitable. He uses Scandinavia as a role model, yet conveniently leaves out the fact that these countries, especially Denmark, have the highest tax rates in the world and that much of their entitlements are paid for by value added taxes levied on all goods and services. So let's see... we have major shocks to the economy, increased unemployment, higher income taxes, zero economic growth, zero private sector investment into medical research, value added taxes... Just ask anyone from Denmark how happy they feel about forking over half of their paychecks for the "greater good."
@Ed Sounds like you should vote Republican. In fact, sounds like you already do. Please understand, Ed, I'm not talking to people who are wealthy. I'm talking to normal Americans who are, right now, living paycheck to paycheck. I really don't care what the one-percenters think.
After the complete failure of a presidency under the current incumbent, the last thing this country needs is another extremist. People are fed up with the fireworks. We want someone steady, reasonable, unremarkable - a man who promises to “build on Obamacare”, not wipe out the system overnight. Bernie has accomplished almost nothing during his years in the Senate, but the possibility of a “Socialist” president would ensure another 4 awful years of Trumpian chaos.
4
Mr. Biden should suspend his campaign. He is showing significant cognitive decline, which becomes more painfully apparent by the day. It is stunning to behold the vast amount of "support" he continues to receive from professionals in the public and private sectors, respected community leaders, party leaders, and influential donors. Not to mention, (likely) voters.
Folks, it does not matter that he is a "decent man" with "experience"--this is not enough to make someone fit to serve as leader of the free world. I know this may sound harsh to people who want Mr. Biden to be the nominee, perhaps even harsher to those who want him to win the general election and become our President. It would be unwise to assume that the exhausting daily controversy/hype news would go away and the world would "return to normal" if he beat Trump. He consistently says things that cringe-worthy and embarrassing, shows confusion, slurring speech, memory loss, inappropriate interactions, etc. Anyone who believes that he will get anything "done" should take the time to watch him being interviewed and speaking at rallies.
I understand that many people do not want the other candidates to be President. Two of them are basically the same age as Mr. Biden. Compare them side-by-side and it's sadly clear that only one of them is senile. Please don't throw away your primary vote on someone who will fail miserably.
10
I do think the establishment is going to find themselves outside looking in just like the GOP did.
5
Bernie lost me with the Castro nonsense, and no viable plan of how to implement his vision.
6
By the logic of any Sanders supporter, Klobuchar, Butigieg and O'Rourke are all establishment democrats. Anyone who disagrees with him is the enemy. This all or nothing nonsense doesn't work in politics. What's his plan for getting his more progressive agenda through the legislature, likely with a GOP Senate?
3
Hoping that the nominee my party supports is Joe Biden - with Elizabeth Warren for VP and future President. Bernie would be a huge gift wrapped birthday present to trump, Mitch, Barr, Graham and the phony patriot Tea Party Republican Senators. Their Socialism spear points have long been honed, sharpened, and are already in use. They know that Socialism is and has long been the 3rd rail in American politics. Reality first!
1
Bernie: please paint the Medicare for all policy as a $10,000 refund from the federal Government each and every year. And yes, you do get to keep your doctor!
@Joshua ...except for the 280 million of us that already have healthcare coverage and who will end up paying much higher income taxes to pay for mediocre coverage under M4A.
Sanders was "caught by surprise" by the Democrats. He hasn't been paying attention for thirty years. But then he's arrogant enough to run in a Democratic primary (to take advantage of the in-place structure) rather than as the independent he is.
3
Just want to point out this is still the primary and no one should be in a position to be surprised. That Bernie was sounds to me like the oft-observed arrogance ouzing out of his speeches and his support. Candidates who expect the kingship? We're seeing how that works out, via Trump. No thanks.
It’s always been more about stopping Sanders than beating Trump.
4
It is truly shameful to see the way Sanders is being treated given the consequences of 2016. Seems the party is much more interested in giving Trump another term then actually trying something different with someone who clearly has a massive appeal with young voters.
5
Why does the Democratic Party establishment continue to support presidential candidates who voted for the Iraq War? To the members of the Democratic Party establishment, support for this war does not matter as long as the status quo is maintained.
The pandering by Democratic candidates to a donor class? Candidates who insult liberal policies? Candidates who do not polls well as Sanders against Trump? Superdelegates??? Democrats, your Party has been crashed.
5
@Raoul And why do Bernie Bros keep trying to back a candidate who voted against the Brady Bill and believes that gun companies should be protected from liability?
As a liberal, I fear Bernie mostly because he may not be able to control some of his followers. He shares with Trump hateful rhetoric. Bernie calls successful entrepreneurs greedy, evildoers. Trump calls Democrats , the media and immigrants the enemies of our society. Regardless of affiliation, any politician who calls out enemies represents a red flag. Moderates are opposed to a fanatical approach that is foreign to our culture until Trump came along.
5
Democrats support Democrats. The campaign for the Independent in Democrat clothing shouldn’t be surprised or even caught off guard by this.
4
Here's my problem with Sanders -- he's exactly the same as Trump. When looked at with total neutrality both surround themselves with bigots and praise them -- Trump with full array of white supremacists and Sanders with a full array of anti-Semites (e.g., Sarsour and Shakir for starters). Both pander to bigots to get votes. Both campaign on radical ideas that most Americans don't want based on the polls -- Trump's wall and Sanders' medicare for all and elimination of private insurance. Both campaign without giving specifics -- how is that wall and medicare really going to be paid for? How much will the middle class have to pay? Neither really answer the question. Both are out of touch with the "average" Amercian. Is there really a difference? I'd take my chances with a moderate on either side.
5
@Mark B. Oh, and what about the right's obsession with hating AOC and Ilhan Omar? The optics of hajib-wearing Omar stumping for Bernie, along with her past comments highly critical of Israel and America, will be raw red meat for Trump's base.
It seems to me that the DNC and the NYT will do anything and everything to prevent Sanders and his supporters of achieving any chance of success. I just don’t get it. Never a positive article or pronouncement of support. The Times promoted Warren and Klobuchar just before the first primaries. The DNC orchestrated Klobuchar/Pete circus on the eve of Super Tuesday. Despite these efforts, Bernie is succeeding. Embracing the voters’ enthusiasm vs. condescension will only dampen voter turnout, as it did with Hillary, and the Democrats lose. I guess they would rather have Trump, again.
4
Senator Sanders does not play well with other Congressmen during recess.
Bernie will never keep a single promise, because the majority of both political parties cannot play with him, because Bernie sleeps in Castro and Stalin pajamas.
People really need to ask themselves this question.
Did anything change since 2016?
5
@C
Our environmental protections have been gutted.
Our global standing has been wrecked.
Our deficit and national debt have ballooned.
Our national discourse has been dragged into the gutter.
3
Remember Pearl Harbor. The Empire Strikes Back. Regardless of the outcome, the all-out attack on Bernie Sanders and his supporters, rivaling in intensity any campaign mounted against Trump, McConnell and the Republicans, is going to rip the Democratic Party apart. Sorry to have to say that, as I have always been a Yellow Dog Democrat.
5
For the sake of our country I wish Bernie would drop out. He cannot win. What makes him think he would appeal to people in the red states. He is clueless.
5
The 19-29 years old voters who support Bernie won’t vote if Joe is the nominee. Hillary scenario!
2
The 19 - 29 year olds must be okay with another four years of Trump, if that’s what they do. This is what scares me about Bernie voters - they all seem to be religious zealots when it comes to him. Scary stuff. He’s not only going to lose the Presidency, but both houses in Congress.
@M
Many of us will vote for Trump, for spite.
The "Establishment" - its been 40 years since that particular word has been so over-used. We really are back in 1969 with the Berniestras ready to lead a "revolution against the establishment." To think that Bernie and Donald are considered the best men to lead the country - what have we come to when we are presented with such a choice. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, and Americans couldn't get any stupider, along comes Bernie to prove me wrong.
5
Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat.
8
Democrat party establishment hates Sanders more than Trump. To them, Trump is just an election cycle of 4 years. Sanders is a revolutionary figure who will change the system forever.
4
@S. C. Eh. I suspect that he will be just a footnote in history. A dozen years ago we thought the Tea Party Republicans were going to be the next big thing and it pretty much fizzled out in due course.
The corrupt DNC plutocrats are at it again. They want a puppet that they can fund and control. They are in full panic mode. Sadly, they may be "successful" again and get the candidate that they want, only to lose in the general election again. Either way, they are the ones responsible for the destruction of their own party.
You see, in a democracy, elected officials are supposed to represent the voters. The party insiders and power brokers have completely lost sight of this basic concept. This is true within the DNC and the RNC. It's why the republican party is now in shambles. It's why the democratic party will be soon, too.
What chance does a democracy have when its fundamental concept has been abandoned?
6
Who is Trump most afraid to run against?
Joe Biden.
He’s an impeached President because of that fear.
That tells me all I need to know as I cast my vote today to rid the White House of Donald Trump.
7
@Scott
Also, who do the Russians want to win? Bernie. "That tells me all I need to know as I cast my vote today to rid the White House of Donald Trump".
A socialist who proposes 60 trillion dollars in additional government spending without any idea how to pay for it.
Good luck with that in November
7
It's really simple. Vote for Warren.
4
Oh, the irony. There's an image of Sanders driving himself to the polls, in a gas-guzzling SUV(?)...
1
Political favors called in on Harry Reid, now publicly supporting a Biden run. Wonder if he'll privately vote for Biden.
The Machine vs. the People - Act II
1
The government does not have a funding problem; it has an allocation problem. Apart from Bernie--and maybe Warren on good days--no other Dem candidate is recognizing that.
222
@K
Which is why the right wingers keep saying "socialism" or "it cannot be done even if we need it to be done:.
5
@K I will abusing on that particular sentence in the next days.
“ The government does not have a funding problem; it has an allocation problem. ”
3
@K We all recognize that there is an allocation problem with the government, just like we do in our own budgets if we are responsible. Allocating huge amounts to pay off debt is not wise. That is why, when Sanders can not tell anyone how his medicare for all, his free college, heck his free-for-all is going to be paid for, thinking voters get nervous.
So yes, the other candidates do understand an allocation problem. That's why they're not making the types of promises Sanders is.
11
The fact remains Bernie will never be able to pass a 30 trillion dollar Medicare for all package through Congress. Never, it will never ever happen not in his short lifetime or his afterlife. I don’t think millennials grasp how much 30 trillion is. The entire US economy in 2018 was 20 trillion, the entire economy all of it. Bernie wants to blow it up completely but won’t tell them any details and they are perfectly fine with it. Blank checkbooks on their future debt on top of the trillion dollar debt. They all LOVE DEBT.
218
@tiredofwaiting
1. The 30 trillion dollar figure is over the next 10 years
2. He has laid out how he funds M4A on his website.
3. Why is it when we try to pass social welfare programs, people shout "how do we pay for it?" but when we start needless wars, no one asks "how do we pay for it?"
66
@tiredofwaiting I'm genuinely curious how you think that other industrialized nations have managed to offer single-payer healthcare for all of their citizens? It seems like in your view, this is a fantasy yet we have nothing but evidence to suggest that you are wrong.
46
@tiredofwaiting I suggest millenials like myself move away from the USA where there are basic economic rights, universal healthcare and tuition free education. As you admit it's will never happen in the USA but not for the reasons you put forth.
30
Is it the establishment or moderates? I believe Bernie's camp is struggling to differentiate between the two. Just because I prefer Biden doesn't mean that I am part of establishment. I rather be with someone who has a proven record of getting something done than someone who talks big but has nothing to show.
8
@SHY I agree, I don't really care what it is they do, but doing stuff is always better than not doing stuff. If Bernie had been more like Biden, he could have helped get done the war in Iraq, the bankruptcy bill, the crime bill, and free trade agreements. Instead Biden had to do that stuff without him. And if Bernie had been more of a team player, Biden probably could have succeeded in cutting social security! Bernie's so ineffective.
"(Sanders and company) seemed as if it was on a runaway train to the Democratic nomination.
That's the problem with runaway trains. They are totally out of control and often simply derail.
7
@Mark Shyres
And your post is exactly how propaganda works on "thinking" people. It tricks them and gets them to improve on it.
2
We don't need a revolution. It seems that many of the Bernie Bros think the President has imperial powers to change healthcare and rearrange the tax code. Sure, he'd be better than any Republican, but tell me which of his ambitious initiatives he has gotten through Congress during his many years there. President Obama promised change but was only able to get a severely wounded bill through a divided Congress. Now the ACA is facing repeal. And Bernie is going to do better?
29
I'm not for Sanders, but I expected the "Dem powers that be" would come out behind a moderate candidate. A moderate is needed and I'm not surprised it is Biden. I like him; I don't think he can beat Trump. This is Hillary Clinton 2. He will lose because he is the same establishment, lifelong Democratic politician. Bloomberg should be the nominee.
3
@Marian
The big mistake was "allowing" Biden to run. He crowded out any moderate candidate who had a chance of beating Trump.
I suspect that Biden might have been allowed to run because deep down they knew they cannot beat Trump. Knowing this has led to their own Sarah Palin election.
2
Up to now, other candidates have been reluctant to launch a serious, sustained look at Sanders history and the positions he has taken even as Sanders availability for press-conferences or media interviews has been both limited and very selective. His recent 60 Min. interview was an exception that showed just how necessary such scrutiny is--for the benefit of Democrats and American voters. One thing is certain--what is not fully discussed before a Sanders nomination will be afterward.
6
@Want2know
If you had something you'd have said it.
1
I believe, from this point on, the scenario of what will be the ultimate decision in Milwaukee is quite clear. The circumstance of Buttigieg and Klobuchar quitting their campaign the day before "Super Tuesday" is unprecedented, yet, because there will be ultimately something in it for them, it should not be surprising.
I would suspect during the convention, even if Sanders has a delegate lead of any sort, Biden has already stated he will contest it, he will then announce Stacey Abrams as his VP pick, the super delegates will vote for him on the second go around and he will be announced as the nominee.
The problem is, of course, Biden's(Hillary 2.0) nomination will all but guarantee that Trump gets another four years, the democratic party implodes and the only winners are the corporate/establishment who don't really care whether or not Trump is re-elected. Of course, the loser will be the majority of America, all its working people, the environment and democracy which another Trump term will make sure to destroy whatever is currently left of it.
23
@Deus
Voters who really care whether Trump is re-elected will go out and vote for Biden.
It's the Bernie supporters who don't mind four more years of Trump.
5
@Sarah
Clearly, you have not learned from the history of 2016 and before and why trump got elected in the first place.
The masks are off - the DNC corporate Neoliberal establishment Democrats are fully baring their teeth and exposing their contempt for progressives and all notions of fair play and democracy.
As Glen Greenwald recently wrote, they are replaying the dynamics of 1968.
If they succeed in sabotaging Sanders, that not only guarantees a second term for Trump, but the Democratic Party is finished and the progressive left will form a third party.
21
Bernie Sanders is winning the young, and Joe Biden the old. (Odd since they are both old themselves.) Following the pattern, I voted in California for Joe Biden, my son for Bernie Sanders.
It's hard to know who's going to come out on top. Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren say they will stay in as spoilers if nothing else, but will they? Hard to know.
The bloom is off the rose for Mike Bloomberg, and Elizabeth Warren has struggled when voters actually put their ballots in the box.
I say, go Joe. Beat Bernie. We don't need a socialist in the Oval Office, democratic or not.
12
Think of it this way. If you add the votes from the first four primary states, Biden has more than Bernie. That is democracy.
13
@Brian This is a wonderful example of a red herring. Introduce a related topic that has no direct bearing on the conversation at hand so you can make yourself feel better about your point.
3
@Kevin McManus
Yes, of course. Votes have nothing to do with elections; everyone knows that.
Sanders' candidacy is like an x-ray machine on the true motives of the establishment, whatever political brand it may wear:
See a man who brings his whole political life to bear on poverty and corruption, and see him get a huge crowd. Now, watch the knives come out. Count the articles and chart their negativity: Unelectable, extremist, old Sanders. Count the naysayers who suggest that anything more than a marginal life on a poisoned planet is more than we should hope for; pie-in-the-sky.
And then go see Sanders speak. Follow his arguments (whatever 'arguments' Trump attempts to articulate, there is no sane way to follow them). He speaks his truth. He shares the same message he has for years; about the economy, about the planet, about the common good. Too much to hope for? Don't vote for him. But look at what happens when a person with integrity gathers a crowd. Take a critical look at what you read. Sander's candidacy is like an x-ray machine on the motives of the establishment elite. The masks are off, the objectivity is dropped, and the knives are out.
19
I wonder if he could tone it down enough to comment on a good job the next President does to promote a sustainable economy for-the future which will require wider participation and for success up and down the ladder. His recognizing the problems is great but he only goes as far as what meets his solutions which he has held in to for years.
@C. Whiting It's all too simple to go out and promise free stuff for everyone, cast aspersions on the rich and blame The Man for rigging the game. Of course low-capacity/low-information voters will lap that stuff up in droves - that is Bernie's base. Sure, everybody wants everyone to succeed and be happy and healthy. But most Americans believe in working hard to achieve the dream, rather than relying on some savior to deliver them to the promised land. For those who know better, Bernie is not The One.
Interesting that the Sanders campaign’s first instinct is to tear down the competition, rather than give a good positive reason to vote for Bernie.
Quit playing the victim.
46
Sanders' platform, a truncated list:
Medicare for all
College for all
Eliminating all college debt
Eliminating all medical debt
Housing for all
Green New Deal
Expand Social Security
I defy anyone to say with conviction and a straight face that Sanders will accomplish even one or two of these. Noble, but delusional.
I'm not voting for Sanders not because he can't beat Trump (which is true) but because I'm weary of politicians who say whatever it takes to get elected and then don't make good.
43
@SD
So of course because the forces of evil are so strong we should not even attempt to give the forces of goodness a lift up.
He has already made the country better by losing the run for POTUS in 2016 than any other national politician has done in any office since LBJ.
4
@SD He's setting the goalposts on all of them. Will he getting everything he wants on every single one of them? Of course not, nobody ever does. That's the beauty of democracy. But if you set the goalpost at some tepid plan that doesn't even come close to meeting the challenge of the times, you are going to fall far, FAR short (see, e.g., Obamacare).
2
@magicisnotreal
oh, good lord, this isn't a Star Wars movie! Grow up!
So sad to see Biden standing in front of the great orator mayor Pete who seemed to be scared the VP would deliver a spaghetti salad. He flubs and forgets so many words and phrases I wonder what the Democratic party is thinking? Is it an emotional appeal From Biden they are banking on? Warren is a street fighter, brilliant in her expose of her opponents. Just about every other candidate seems agile in comparison. of course we will all rally behind him if he gets the nomination but I am terrified if he does. It’s feeling like 2016 all over again. Sanders is drawing enormous crowds and his establishment opponent has small crowds. This time around I fear Biden is less powerful than Clinton was. Yesterday he seemed on the verge of tears, so overwhelmed was he at how he was rescued in South Carolina and by the smart young moderates coming to his side. Of course he has the media on his side too. As in the last line of this article the reference to a “grinning” Bernie Sanders. Just the way to describe the open warm smiling face that his supporters love. Submitted @ 12:30 pm Super Tuesday
8
I respect Joe Biden. He was a good VP implementing Obama’s policies, good connection with working class voters despite that later was tarnished to dust with Biden support for NAFTA.
Many seem to forget or refuse to see the affection between Sanders and Biden. Two aged men representing the opposite currents of the party, but for all it is worth, they do like each other which in my case does makes me even warmer to Joe.
But he will not cut against Trump for me and his nomination will mean couple of things.
First, the divorce between the growing and equally numbered Democratic progressives and moderates.
Second, the utter disillusion of the young “might be” Democratic voters. Which in perspective might spell the end of Democratic Party in the decades to come.
To all who fear Sanders as much as a political figure and policies, much has been written and I will not probably do better to change your mind.
Fact is that much of his proposals are already thoroughly implemented in Western Europe , Canada and they so much part of the social tissue that even far right politicians have them as a must, as if they don’t chance is null. Fact is that we who live there consider your refusal to implement them as puzzling as your resolve to have guns as human right. Even more to be honest.
But my question is the following, are you ready to do that to your children? Give them a precarious taste of loss of ideals for better, for more human and caring society as it is their future you decide.
5
The US copying Europe won’t work. The US I spread over multiple cultures and 3 million square miles. The culture is different. France didn’t copy England’s health system, England didn’t copy Germany’s and nobody copied Italy or Spain. There is no doubt need to address this but it must take into account what the US is. Remember that the US supports the defense of Europe with its huge defense budget but it saves the Europeans a lot of money.
Only someone who can see how interconnected these issues are can turn things around, not buying modules from different countries. Personally I think Bloomberg can do it.
The comments posted here (91 as of the time of writing) are a distressing illustration of how divided we are, and unable to talk to each other across the divide. This will only serve to hand the election to Trump. After another four years of a Presidency and an administration increasingly untethered to either reality or morality, what will be left of American democracy, and of the international rule of law? Will the world still be liveable -- socially, economically and above all environmentally?
By the way, maintaining a Democratic House and hopefully taking back the Senate are almost equally important goals, and who the Presidential candidate turns out to be will play a role there too. Why are we not talking about that?
9
Bernie is the only one who can beat Trump. If the democrats undermine him again in 2020, they are handing the election to Trump. The democratic voter turnout will drop and we will go through four more years of chaos. Trump said himself that he was worried about facing Bernie in 2016 - and that was as a VP to Clinton. Trump will not be able to defeat Bernie.
7
Trump was elected because of people like you who essentially say if Bernie’s not the candidate, you won’t vote. Don’t blame anyone for Trumps re-election except yourself if you stay home.
3
@Lisa
The only reason Bernie is the only one is because his supporters have made it so - they won't vote for anyone else. He's holding the rest of us who are willing to vote blue no matter who hostage.
His supporters are entitled to vote for whoever they want, but don't feed us "he's the only one who can beat trump" nonsense.
1
I don’t think that’s true but even if it were, the Congress will be gone by 2022 and the Supreme Court will be list as a protector of human rights.
I will cast my absentee ballot in November for whomever the Democrats nominate. That said, I have always been puzzled (and more than a little entertained) by the capacity of supporters of the Bernie "revolution" to simultaneously proudly describe themselves as "anti-establishment" and be annoyed that "the establishment" doesn't show them more love. My problem isn't with Bernie's ideas so much as it is with the naivete of a movement that thinks creating change, to say nothing of carrying out a political revolution, is supposed to be frictionless. I don't see how a campaign/movement that was "surprised" by the resistance the sole non-Democrat openly challenging the Democratic establishment is getting is going to create the change it is promoting. Bernie and his supporters have consistently shown little interest in considering more nuanced messages that could help bring persuadable voters outside their movement onto the Medicare for all and tuition free bandwagon, opting instead for ridicule and disdain. His Fidel commentary alone demonstrates their tone deafness. Governing is to campaigning what running a marathon is to a walk in the park. If Bernie wins in November, his movement will be the establishment, with all the messy negotiating, compromising and responsibilities that entails. Students of history know victory and its aftermath typically presents more challenges than the black and white simplicity of war. The revolutionaries may be about to get a long overdue education.
15
@Craig Axford
Quite a lot of Bernie's supporters and endorsers have experience in union organizing and local/state government. Since his days as a mayor, Bernie has a fair amount of experience negotiating with committed adversaries.
You write that " Bernie and his supporters have consistently shown little interest in considering more nuanced messages." What nuance? You either have a comprehensive health care system or you don't. You either have relief from predatory lending or you don't.
The Republicans don't care about nuance--perhaps that is why they have been so successful in waging class war since the Reagan years.
2
@K Yes, you either have comprehensive insurance or you don't but communicating to average voters (as opposed to Republican strategists) in a way that speaks to their values requires nuance and and awareness of your audience. If persuading American voters to go with single-payer or any other universal healthcare system was as simple as asking "do you have comprehensive healthcare or not?" America would have had it decades ago. Before you can get to single-payer you have to address people's concerns about that system, even if you don't think their concerns are legitimate. That the facts/data are on your/our side isn't going to be enough if we haven't sold the program in a way that speaks to the average American's values. Maybe you value fairness but they value personal responsibility or something else more. If that's the case, then build your argument for single-payer around personal responsibility or whatever when necessary. Doing so doesn't require you to sell out. That's nuance. Unforuntately, Bernie's message is the same over and over again - meaning it's worked on about as many people as were ever likely to be receptive to it. What's the message for the rest? That's the nuance I'm speaking of. And for the record, I supported Bernie in 2016. Unfortunately, like Trump, he seems unwilling to do what he needs to in order to substantially increase his base. That he's unlike Trump in just about every other meaningful way may not matter in the end if he's unwilling to do that.
I’m a Warren supporter. I know it is lIkely I will be choosing between Biden and Bernie. My choice will be Biden. The people who helped me make up my mind? Bernie supporters. They seem to believe they can bully people into voting for their candidate. That’s not how it works. Their tactics have imperiled Bernie’s primary campaign—and will doom it in a general election.
33
@KLM Blah, boo, sneer says I, the horrible and toxic Bernie supporter. Why on earth do you care what I, some random person behind a keyboard, is saying online? Look at the candidate at hand. Yours has a glass jaw. Good luck with that.
1
@K "Look at the candidate at hand. Yours has a glass jaw." And yours has coronary artery disease. There. Even?
If Sanders's strategists did not see this coming, he needs to fire them all and get new ones. The idea that this was not expected almost strains believability.
Younger candidates like Amy and Pete annd Steyer can always run again and will thus drop out sooner. No one wants a repeat of 2016 Trump trampling a divided field.
18
Wake up, Dems!
Biden winning meaningless Southern states that will have zero impact on the general election is far, far different than Bernie winning all the key states that will be in play in November.
Sanders is way up in the polls for Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania - not just in the primaries against Biden, but in the general against Trump as well. And that's what matters!
Please take a look at the Electoral College. Hillary ignored the Midwest and barely won Minnesota, while barely losing Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Bernie won't make that mistake, and if he takes back those three traditionally reliable Blue states it doesn't matter what happens in Arizona, North Carolina, Florida or even Texas - Bernie will win the election!
Frightened centrist and establishment Dems need to take a deep breath, calm down, and understand that Bernie's path to victory is clear and attainable, as long as the Dem party bosses don't do what they did in 2016 and work behind the scenes to undermine Bernie.
It worked in 2016 but it will tear the party apart in 2020 and guarantee Trump four more years. The people are speaking and the Democratic Party apparatchik needs to listen.
The Dem Party needs to stop trying to protect the establishment gravy train and finally agree that healthcare should be a privilege (like in all civilized nations) and not a right!
'Ol Joe has been in government a long, long time and had his many chances and didn't get it done...
8
@Bill We are not meaningless southern states. We care about democracy just like many other Americans. If you’re a dem in a red state, this primary may be your only opportunity to vote for your choice candidate.
@Bill: I would say that Ol’ Bernie has been in the business of politics a long time as well, and has accomplished NOTHING, except a lot of smoke and noise. Giving the nomination to him will be like voting for four more years of Trumputin. Or eight. Or maybe we won’t even need to count any more ...
@Bill
I believe that you meant to say that healthcare is a RIGHT and not a PRIVILEGE.
To all of these Bernie supporters with fairly hysterical takes about what the Democratic Party is “doing to itself” by consolidating around the moderate (Biden) who actually went into Super Tuesday with the most votes: Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat.
The party first welcomed Bernie to campaign as a Democrat in 2016. The party has benefited by not splitting allied votes. And Bernie has benefited by having a platform for his “movement” and with it the legitimacy of a national candidate that he would realistically never have had otherwise.
Biden is a member of the Democratic family, who was splitting the moderate vote with 5 other moderates until two days ago.
Bernie is a house guest who has decided (and whose limited if spirited supporters have decided) that winning less than 30% of the total vote after 4 contests should entitle him to take over this family. Good luck with that.
21
@On2ndThought Trump isn't a Republican either, but the GOP didn't care so long as he won the election.
"... the ad blitz will include a spot about Mr. Biden’s record on Social Security.... [and another] will emphasize Mr. Biden’s record on trade, including his support for the North American Free Trade Agreement...."
Oh great. Then in November, Trump will pose as the champion of Social Security and the President who ended NAFTA. And he will throw those very same ads in Biden's face -- with Sanders' voice speaking. And we'll get four more years.
Sanders has just given in to the temptation to put his own ambition ahead of the common good -- as so many of them do, whether on the Left or the Right.
The Feet of Clay wing closes ranks. No vision, just fear. I'm voting hope, compassion, and meaningful change. Voting for Bernie today in Boston.
12
Sanders and Sanders peeps: News Flash- Sanders is not a Democrat, neither the party nor actual democrats are beholden to him, just like he's not beholden to them.
He should have done a Ross Perot if he wants to succeed.
I have zero interest in a non-democrat.
6
@JA Are you sure you would rather have Sanders run third party and split the left-wing vote? Clearly you also have zero interest in winning.
@KM,
neither is Sanders, so he may as well start building an infrastructure for a true left-wing party. and what makes you think he won't split the tRump vote?
of course I will vote for Sanders over tRump if I have to. but then again I'd vote for a rock too.
I've been supporting Bernie. I agree with his policies.
Last night I channel surfed Trump's rally, Bernie's rally & the Biden rally.
Trump's rally was his usual nasty stuff.
Bernie's rally struck me as cold, w/ Bernie grousing "The establishment is trying to make sure we don't prevail". It wasn't the message I wanted to hear: Us v. Them.
The Biden rally surprised me. I often see Biden as dull & entitled. Last night Biden seemed moved by the endorsements like finally he's realized he has to fight for this, not expect to be crowned - & he was grateful for the help. I was glad to see Beto. Biden's remark Pete shares qualities with his beloved Beau was moving & both Pete & Biden seemed touched by the moment. I really like Pete. Most surprising was Amy who, freed from being a candidate, seemed relaxed & for the 1st time recited her talking points with joy. For the first time, she seemed happy to be at a rally.
The Biden rally was people who were happy to be together, who like & respect each other & are ready to work to put this country back together - unlike the tense, combative Trump & Bernie rallies,
I felt relieved watching the Biden rally. I thought "Thank God."
I've supported Bernie for 4 years but I've never felt Bernie was inviting me in.
I was being invited into the Biden rally w/ warmth & hope.
Watching it I thought:
Maybe feeling relieved is the way to go this year.
Thanks to everybody at the Biden rally.
You made it feel like home.
43
@fast/furious ... YOU GET IT!!!! Bless you for such an eloquent description of what is at the core of this election
I’ve seen so many comments complaining about Bernie’s lack of loyalty to the Democratic Party. Politicians shouldn’t be loyal to a party they should be loyal to the people and the people of the party.
6
Respect for the perspective of commenter @DDD:
It gives me hope that you are able to weather an attack on your political choices and still retaining an open mind toward the candidate your attacker espouses.
I think that's what will turn this ship around: Debate (honest, unflinching, but deeply respectful of personhood) comes first; a scrubbing of one's perspective to see what's solid, what sticks. And then comes the critical need for an open mind, and the confidence and courage to change one's mind if the evidence supports that change.. Trump supporters, like the man himself, just double-down in the face of damning evidence.
What we need, instead, are folks who may find another's way of sharing their political arguments grating, yet are still be able to retain an open mind toward what truth those perspectives may contain.
I'm a Bernie Sanders supporter, but it isn't being or not being a Sanders supporter that will save our democracy.
It is having, maintaining, and cherishing an open mind.
5
At the end of it all it will be Bernie’s blind devotion to Medicare for all and removal of private insurance that will do him in and tilt the nomination to Biden.
There are reasonable ways to expand the ACA and move towards more full coverage for more Americans without cancelling existing plans.
That is what polls show is favored by the majority of voters and would be easier to pass than anything Bernie is proposing.
Biden could also help secure down ballet races and retake the Senate easier than Bernie, I believe.
If Warren and Bloomberg remain engaged after Biden gets the nomination, DJT’s stint will be confined to one term.
11
I am in awe of Bernie’s strength of character and his moral courage.
I pray that the voters have the wisdom to see the beauty in this candidate.
39
@Annie Gramson Hill
As a Trump supporter, I do as well. The republicans could use some extra help downstream.
1
This morning, Sanders drove to the polls with his wife. Alone.
At the same hour, Elizabeth Sanders was greeted by 1000 people as she and Bruce walked to the polls. It was inspiring.
Elizabeth is truly loved by people who understand her biography, policies and remarkable dedication to getting things done. Bernie - he is worshiped by people who want slogans, false promises and pink ponies.
15
@Cousy
You forget to mention this nugget from the Times’s coverage:
“
He accidentally locked his wife, Jane Sanders, out of the family Subaru.
“
;)
It’s remarkable what his campaign has painted him to be... “Not me, us”
Trumpian, in its projection.
Bernie's 2020 numbers are much lower than his 2016 numbers, so far.
He won NH by less than 2%. He won it in 2016 by over 20%.
He was up only by 4% in SC over his 2016 numbers there.
He won NV by only 1% more than he had there in 2016.
Buttigieg was better at bringing out new primary voters in SC.
The only group Bernie is showing growth with is Latinx voters. Are there enough out there who are going to vote for him to change things? FL will be interesting, seeing how the 3 populations of Cuban voters (those in FL before the Revolution, those who came to FL immediately after the Revolution, and those who came later) respond to Sanders, plus how Puerto Rican voters displaced by the hurricanes respond.
Bernie's clear shot is no longer there.
He isn't bringing the big numbers, big turnout he needs or claimed to have. He may well win CA, but if Biden carries NC and TX, then a state like GA or TN? Biden cancels out those CA votes.
14
@SouthernHusker
Agreed. Bernie's numbers are not solid. His campaign is premised on an unrealistically high turnout of young people and Latinix voters. Hard to see that panning out.
6
@SouthernHusker and Bernie's newly discovered affection for Castro is not exactly doing him any favors in the Cuban American community.
I am confident that should Sanders win the nomination that the Biden supporters will work for and vote for him in the general election. The questions is: should Biden win the nomination will the Sanders supporters work for and vote for Biden in the general election?
In 2016 Sanders won the Michigan primary. I ask the question about the the Sanders supporters intention and motivation because in the 2016 general election the Sanders supporters who then voted for trump in Michigan were the difference in Michigan going for trump.
11
@A Citizen
A Sanders supporter who would vote for Trump does not understand the first thing about what he or she purports to support.
I am a Sanders supporter. If Biden becomes the Democratic nominee I will do everything in my power to get folks to the poles to vote for him, and I will be first in line.
21
@C. Whiting Biden won't be President three months before everyone agrees he is senile. Who is his VP?
@A Citizen Bernie supporters in 2016 were more loyal than Hillary supporters were in 2008. And if Hillary wanted those Michigan votes maybe she should have campaigned there?
it sure looks like the democratic party plans to and will undermine Bernie. The democratic party elites do not believe that the party's majority are capable of selecting a viable and functional candidate and will step in and insert their own. Although they are correct, so much for democracy. Sander's supporters need to mobilize and try to prevent this, even if it means running Sanders as a third party candidate in the general election.
11
There is nothing undermining about Democrats endorsing the Democrat they feel is most representative of their values and most capable of both uniting the country, and beating Dolald Trump. This narrative needs to be smashed. Pete, Beto and Amy are not part of some establishment rigging the process against Bernie - they just simply want Biden, a true lifelong Democrat at the top of this ticket. Politics are like sports, you pick the man you think can win. This is a dangerous talking point you are pushing. It seems to me that Sanders and his supporters are more interested in beating down the "Democratic Establishment" than actually beating Trump.
6
@sh If Bernie thinks he needs to go 3rd party, then all he does is hand the election to Trump by diluting the Dem vote. He will also show he doesn't believe in the rules of the primaries. Let the primaries play out. If Bernie is the choice of the majority, he will prevail. If not, then you have to accept that.
@sh,
go ahead and run third party, it's essentially what he's doing anyway, except he's exploiting the DNC infrastructure while bad-mouthing the party.
bernie will be the death of all of us.
1
How on earth can they be surprised that the party consolidation is strongly against them? Just add up the voting results from the recent primaries and one can see that the Majority of voters do not want Bernie.
Guess they expected everyone to stay in the race, split the delegates, so Bernie could demand the nomination with his 30% of the vote.
43
@Heidi False logic. A vote for another candidate is not necessarily a vote against Bernie. He polls at about 75% favorability in the party so my guess is that your claim is, in fact, completely wrong.
1
Thirty years ago, one of the most successful and brilliant entertainment producers was once dealing with pushback against accepting funding from the tobacco industry. He said something that made me pause and consider: "Those folks are going to get their big tax write-off from somewhere... why shouldn't I use their money to provide special opportunities for great artists?"
When huge corporate profits can be redirected and used for positive things for society, I don't necessarily see it as blood money at all. I greatly admire Bernie's amazing small donation network, but big corporations that employ hundreds or thousands of people can donate money to good people and issues and not just those that are questionable or bad.
I say this as someone who believes that Citizens United should be the very first law gotten rid of on Day One next January. Life is complicated, requiring a balance between thoughtful discussion and compromise on the one hand and very aggressive tactics for with the best motives on the other hand.
8
@solhurok
The ends do not justify the means.
A great TV show does not offset giving millions lung cancer.
In 1941, Germany had some truly beautiful art collections.
4
@solhurok He who pays the piper calls the tune. Clinton and Biden spent their careers bending over backwards for Wall st. They aren't Democrats anymore.
1
Centrist for Bernie here, he is the best for the moment, down-ballot will survive, his fundraising is phenomenal, and in fact, we will see in the at least a slight tack to see what comes next. The Bernie that endorsed Hillary is *a* real Bernie. I won’t drag on other candidates, but rather point out for those who think the agenda is too radical, for those who know the realities of politics, this is all going to spin out in a healthy way — accomplishing a healthy Democracy is still what Bernie Sanders is about, we will see that in the general, if nominated, and more so as President. I voted today in Mass, and proudly for Sanders. He can, in fact, win this, I just can’t see that with other candidates, frankly. As a centrist, somehow he has the best chances, for those who are numbers driven, the numbers are there, too.
16
@Dean Rosenthal
Where are you getting the numbers saying "down-ballot will survive?"
1
@Eye by the Sea well, that part in terms of numbers (not national) is indeed just kind of a hunch — but I would refer to Nancy Pelosi’s statement about being “comfortable” and Obama’s lack of involvement before Super Tuesday as important signifiers. We won’t know anything for certain for anyone until we see it, polls for Trump were a mess. I really think the people who need to separate themselves to get re-elected or to run will succeed at it. And some will need to do that. Thanks for your question!
1
@Dean Rosenthal
And thank you for your reply as well.
It is important to note here, that any President elected must both be an accomplished orator and speech deliverer, as well as someone who can negotiate with the Congress. We are not a dictatorship, so no matter how conservative or liberal, Congress is a key factor whether policies become adapted.
I am hoping we don't become divided as Democrats, since that will spell a win for Trump. It is important for the moderates and for the left wing of the party to come to some kind of understanding. Warren represents that middle place, to me.
7
Sadly a vote for Bernie is a vote for Trump. Many Americans are simply not ready for Bernie's political views. The main reason Democrats regained the House and downhill races in States flipped flopped to Democrats is that moderate Republicans, including suburban women are sick of Trump. I guarantee if Bernie becomes the Democratic nominee we lose Trump.
25
@DB
Oh for god's sake - a vote for Bernie is not a vote for Trump. Many people were not, and still are not, ready for Trump's political views!
1
@DB And if Biden is the nominee it will be Hillary all over again. I don't understand how moderates are so sure their candidate will win when the last one crashed and burned so spectacularly.
1
Sadly a vote for Bernie is a vote for Trump. Many Americans are simply not ready for Bernie's political views. The main reason Democrats regained the House and downhill races in States flipped flopped to Democrats is that moderate Republicans, including suburban women are sick of Trump. I guarantee if Bernie becomes the Democratic nominee we lose Trump.
6
@DB
Oh for god's sake - a vote for Bernie is not a vote for Trump. Many people were not, and still are not, ready for Trump's political views! Vote Democrat, okay?
I agree with Bernie 100%.... “Joe is a decent guy. He’s just wrong on the issues. He’s just wrong with regard to his vision for the future.” Being a kind person, he didn't take that as far as my own... Joe is a decent guy, but belongs on a golf course in FL with his Corvette. He's got zero ideas for the future other than becoming president. And that's worlds apart from Bernie's consistent statements about all extremely important current issues, least of all is equality.
100
Paul G, sure, Bernie Sanders is good with talking the talk. But how good is he at walking the walk? How much has he accomplished in his four decades as a politician? Pretty close to zero. All hat, no cattle.
Joe Biden's record is mixed. He has his successes and his failures. But at least he's been out there trying and doing, not just talking. Anyone who tries things will find that they need to compromise and deal -- they won't get everything they want. They have to take what they can get.
I'll take Joe Biden any day over Bernie Sanders.
8
@John Smithson Accomplishment is not equal to bills passed. Sorry bro.
1
@K
Actually, it is. What metric would you prefer? Number of times you yell and scream and bark at the moon? Number of times you blame society's problems on "millionaires & billionaires"? I will concede that Bernie wins by those measures.
6
Message to Bernie - You're not a Democrat. You're an independent who continues to make demands on a party that you only caucus with.
43
The Democratic establishment of Clinton gave us the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act. That was by far the worst decision ever made by any president, Republican or Democrat. It was a gift to Republican oligarchs by the Democratic establishment. It’s the foundation of Sanders and Warren campaign to address the problems caused by the repeal. This is why I supported Warren and seeing her campaign fizzle, I voted for Bernie, even though I know I disagree with his forced M4A, while I believe in M4A as an option.
17
@BWCA On what planet does M4A pass? Certainly not ours, what with the Republican senate we will never defeat. M4A is such a pipe dream, it should not even be considered as a factor.
In 5 years of campaigning, Sanders has never been on the receiving end of anything but kid-glove criticism.
To his supporters who point to favorable polling data vs. Trump, where do those numbers go after 6 months of bare knuckle negative advertising?
24
Not a staunch supporter of Sanders, nevertheless, where will Biden be after several months of ads featuring his many and continuing series of gaffes and exaggerations, his mediocre record, and his obvious frequent confusion. Something that applies to all of the male candidates still in the race, does anyone think they’ll be competing for a second term at 82? What a sad sad situation the Democratic Party finds itself in.
2
I remember getting up to turn off the television after
Bobby Kennedy won California and being told to "Stand By"
and then hearing that Bobby had been shot, sadly he would die.
That meant the "Old Guard" of the Democrats would be in
power once again and the changes that RFK said he would
do all he can to help the less fortunate of Americans would
be delayed and denied once again.
Biden is not only old but is what remains of that Old Guard -
they are servants of the Elites who intend to not only keep their
ill-gotten wealth but increase it.
I feel as if I am reliving those two days after Bobby was shot -
watching Bernie being bushwhacked again and again by the
DNC, for surely it was no coincidence that Pete and Amy both
dropped out just before Super Tuesday and both appeared at
the same Rally to endorse Biden.
There is no excuse that America cannot have Health Care
as provided by Canada, there is no excuse that the Homeless
have no where to go, there is no excuse that the Poor are punished for their poverty.
There is absolutely no excuse for the Elites to treat their
fellow Americans the way they do.
Vote for Bernie to make America great for the first time.
96
@John Brown
The history of America has not been kind to those revolutionary leaders who believe that America must change direction. In the 1960's we had JFK, RFK and MLK, all of them suffered the same fate. Coincidence?
2
@John Brown
I was a teenager when RFK was shot. I was working as a volunteer for his speechwriter, Dick Goodwin.
That was shattering.
The assassination killed everything the Democratic party could have been if Kennedy had lived: he was a candidate for everyone, who wanted to bring this country together and focus on helping the poor and minorities to better lives.
That was the death of the great Democratic Party. It slowly morphed into the machine corporate-friendly party we have now that doesn't care what happens to ordinary people.
If Robert Kennedy could see what became of the Democrats - and this country - he wouldn't be surprised. b
But it would break his heart.
9
@John Brown I think the Republican senators provide at least 51 excuses.
3
It bears repeating that it really wouldn’t matter who the Democratic nominee is if we didn’t have an electoral college because there are way more people in this country who want Trump out of office than support him. It’s just that they’re strategically placed in Florida, Ohio, etc. Doesn’t it make you feel a little left out if you live in a solid red or solid blue state? It’s like, what’s the point of even voting? Haven’t we arrived at a point in our history where we should let every vote count? The problem is that these authoritarian Christian conservative Republicans don’t want to get rid of the electoral college because they’d be forced to adopt a more progressive platform. Heaven forbid they join the 21st century.
13
your deep red state elected a Democrat to the Senate.
Rejoice, then vote.
@Corrie I'm neither authoritarian or conservative but I suggest you might want to read the Federalist Papers as well as a little history and you might see why the Electoral College exists and it's not for Republicans or Democrats, although both parties have benefited at different times in the past. It's primary purpose was to protect the minority from being trampled by the majority and also ensured that all parts of this nation would have to be at least acknowledged, not just the largest urban centers of the country.
And no this is not a new phenomenon- goes back to literally the founding of the nation.
A lot of people including some not so vocal Democrats support Trump for his economic policies and his stance against illegal immigration. They will never support someone like Sanders who pushes identity politics and politics of victimhood to get votes. It will be wrong for the Democratic Party to assume that immigrants support illegal immigration and would vote in herds for the Democratic Party. In fact, immigrants choose to come to the US because it is a law abiding country where law is followed not broken. Sanders and his group of left radicals will realize this after the election when President Trump wins another term, which he undoubtedly deserves.
9
@CT Resident
Mr. Trump deserves (undoubtedly) to retire and play golf.
1
Here's what Bernie supporters are missing: his strength in the polls, both in 2016 and now, reflect the fact that the Republicans haven't gone after him yet. In 2016 he was useful to them, attacking Hillary. Today, they hope he'll be nominated, and their actions (Ukraine) show they fear Biden more.
If Sanders is nominated, the very next day will see a firestorm of negative ads funded by bottomless oligarch money. And he gives them a lot to work with. They'll tie him to Venezuela, Castro, taxes. Believe me, by November the average American will think it's Sanders, not Trump, who is beholden to Russia. For younger readers, go back and read about what they did to John Kerry, turning his wartime heroism into a liability.
This is why I support Warren. Similar progressive policies without the baggage.
16
@Jomo Warren... who was against big money/PAC money until she was for it... is indeed like Kerry.
I'm sorry but maligning the "establishment" is no better phrase than Donald Trump's "deep state" perjoritive.
Let's parse it for a second. How can Sanders present himself as an "outsider" when he's been in Congress forever? And how can he malign the establishment, if he's leaning on the Democratic party to establish his candidacy?
He's never taken the time to register as a Democrat, and now he's expecting to win the hearts and minds of Democrats by attacking their long proud history?
Why should Obama Democrats trust this insider-outsider promising "revolution" with all the buzzwords and past statements that have Trump salivating at the chance to run against him?
I do want this contest to play out and present every registered Democrat (as well as disaffected Trump supporters) the chance to vote their conviction as to who presents the greatest challenge to the most dangerous man in America.
93
This is the natural result of his alienating all the other candidates and most of the base. The relentless attacks on Warren don’t help. People are tired of screaming and demonization.
19
Bernie or Joe will nominate good people for the Supreme Court, EPA, CIA, FBI, NSA, Human Services, Education.
Don't do anything that will help Trump.
16
I’m not at all surprised that the DNC and moderate Democrats are ganging up on Mr. Sanders. This is 2016 all over again. Where did that leave the US last time? With Trump.
It would be interesting to see the differing results if the pundits would actually discuss issues rather than presenting biased and divisive rhetoric. Maybe discuss more issues like climate change, healthcare, poverty and racism? Only then can people unite.
The establishment are scared because if Mr. Sanders wins it means they actually have to fight for something for once.
Let’s leave this up to the voters.
If America wants “same old” we find out very soon.
581
Well stated!
22
Anna, pundits in articles like this are trying to predict who will win. That has to do with political strategies and polling, not views on the issues. Plenty of other articles discuss the issues. Read those.
22
@Anna
Sorry Anna, but self-righteousness is not going to take Trump out. The issues, as usual, come last in elections. Identity comes first.
30
This is disheartening. The Democratic Party is destroying itself instead of evolving, progressing, and yes, keeping up with policies that many western nations implemented with great success.
639
@Nicholas I think the policies are buried under (or hidden by) the personalities. And the enactment of those policies in real numbers and real personnel/effort is 100% a mystery in Sanders case. "Free" doesn't exist even in those "many western nations", for one thing.
11
@Nicholas -- The oxymoronically-named 'democratic' National Committee is, lest we forget, a very Private Corporation; and, like all private corporations, is beholden to nothing, and no one, but itself.
Oh -- and its Corporate Donors.
That we, the People have the temerity to want
the most excellent things for We, the People -- just like every other Industrialized country, on this Planet, already has, for their Citizenry, well, it's enough to make the 'd'nc's corporate mindset get rattled to its core, for sure.
20
@PS Free Money you say. Wasn't two trillion handed to the rich "free money?"
I can keep listing where the "free money" goes, but shall we call it loot and treasure, much coveted by the rich? While the working folk are kept in Economic Bondage?
20
Of course. The Democratic establishment is lining up against Bernie Sanders. Just like last time. And maybe they will succeed in getting a terrible candidate upon whom Trump will feast. Hillary redux, anyone?
680
@Michael Skadden
Except that if you remember correctly, Hillary won the popular vote.
If there's anything of a "redux", it will be Trump crushing Sanders -- which sadly for the U.S., he probably will.
104
@N. Smith Well, Sanders also won against Hillary in many of the swing states the Trump ended up winning in 2016. Also, Hillary won against Sanders in the states the Democrats had no chance of winning in the general
69
@N. Smith
To what end (Hillary's popular vote count)? The Trump presidency.
34
The problem is that no one really WANTS Joe to be president. They just want someone to beat Trump. Bernie has 1000's and 1000's of people who WANT him. If everyone gets behind whoever the democrat nominee is the dem wins. Bernie's more radical proposals aren't going anywhere anyways. But, let's push the needle a bit left. We will be far better off.
740
@Mikeyz "no one really WANTS Joe to be president"
Honestly, this erasure of the democratic consultant class is shameful. They may be small in number, but they are determined. And with a little boost from the media, their voices will be heard!
43
@Mikeyz Not enough to say Sanders' wacky ideas aren't going anywhere anyway. Need a strong leader with good judgment. He doesn't have good judgment. And I'm not signing on for a revolution. Not yet. Sound judgment. Compromise. Stop the anger and fear. We've seen that before. And by the way, where has Bernie been over the past 40 years when the party could have used him? He's been flitting around, proud to call himself an independent and then surprised when that left him irrelevant in the Senate because he didn't have seniority. Democrats stick together! Some of us worked hard, sometimes for lower wages, to earn our health plans. We want to keep them, and want to improve ACA so all can have the same sense of security. Stop threatening to burn down the house, stop railing against the unfair media (gosh -- who does that sound like) and stop fomenting party disunity with your pretend grievances about how Dem party leaders worked against you in 2016. Rules are rules, and they had been in place for a long time. If you had a history of party involvement you might get that.
73
@Mikeyz - Sanders is a far left as Trump is far right. Same words; different wrapping.
24
I get a little tired with the Sanders campaign (and the media’s) regular use of “the establishment” to refer to those Democrats who oppose Bernie! I am a Democrat, I’ve worked at the polls, gone door to door for candidates and given money to both the party and individual candidates. Am I one of those “establishment” people? Are my Democratic senators and representatives establishment simply because they were voted into office? No, I’m just a Democrat like many others who don’t think Bernie can win against Trump because his “something free for everyone” policies are totally unrealistic. I also know a little history: the losing far right candidacy of Goldwater and the far left candidacy of McGovern. I just want Trump and his Republican lackeys gone.
1002
@anselm your income percentile would tell the story. . .
72
@anselm
Well said. The Bernie folks just holler about the "MSM" and "the establishment" and "corporate Democrats" when they don't get their way.
222
@anselm
It is beyond ironic that the guy who's been in DC politics for 30-some years calls other people 'the Establishment.'
I mean, Pete has been in politics for 8 years and somehow he's 'establishment' but Bernie, with 20+ years in DC plus his time as mayor of Burlington, is not.
477
Only in America can a former aide to a US Senate majority leader and a senior US senator refer to their opposition as the “establishment.”
23
NYT: Why call Bittigeig “Establishment.” He is actually quite progressive.
10
@Susan Tarrence Well, he talks progressive...doesn't really walk it.
7
@Susan Tarrence "McKinsey Pete" is hardly progressive.
@Chris from PA
Why do progressives have such disdain for people who work hard and get good jobs? Would Mayor Pete be more acceptble if he were a barrista who lives in his parents' basement?
If people really listened to what the candidates were saying and understood the math behind their promises I do not feel Sanders would be in the position he is in today. His promises concerning health care and student debt are very expensive with no clear proposal concerning how he his promises would even be paid for in our federal budget. It is unrealistic to think his proposals would actually pass both houses of Congress. He seems stubborn and not one to compromise and work both sides of the aisle. If Sanders were to be the actual nominee it seems highly likely Republicans would take over the House and have control of both the Senate and House for years to come.
Biden is scary, both in terms of his past record and the plethora of gaffes he makes on the campaign trail. (Is there a "Gaffe Meter" yet?) I feel it was a mistake for Klobacher and Buttegieg to over-react and quickly endorse Biden as the logical alternative to Sanders without considering the "weirdness" of some of Biden's remarks and his overall health.
Warren wasn't my first choice but with Klobuchar out of the race Warren seems like the best choice in terms of her experience, intelligence, and level of energy (health).
5
With the sudden, seemingly orchestrated campaign to "Stop Sanders!" with both Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar simultaneously dropping out, and then immediately dropping in to endorse Joe Biden in Dallas, we are in "deja vu, all over again" with a reprise of the 2016 campaign where it was Sanders versus the Democratic establishment. Whether Joe Biden is really any better than Hillary Clinton is the big unanswered question. But an even bigger risk is that it may, as it did in 2016, leave Sanders voters alienated and bitter resulting in lower turnout and another Trump victory. If Biden ends up with the nomination, his first task will be to unite the party by choosing Elizabeth Warren as his running mate. Otherwise, the late Yogi Berra may proven right once again.
8
@Paul Wortman Can't live in fear of Sanders' folks being embittered to the point of not voting. That's like holding the rest of us -- lifelong Democrats like me -- hostage. They need to grow up. Work hard, battle through the primaries and then support the eventual nominee. That's what most of us are going to do. But not Sanders and his folk. They threatening to take the ball and go home. Grow up! Show up!
1
I do t think it’s going to work this time!
Yes everyone is conspiring against Bernie Sanders. It has nothing to do with HIS alienating everyone who doesn’t march lockstep with HIS vision. Give me a break. He’s reaping what he sows... again.
1
What was once boring now has spark and mystery. Who knows what today will bring, including, as I once thought, finality. That said, I think it will result in Bloomberg withdrawing and throwing his money Biden's way. Today will also mean the end of the road for Warren.
3
"Establishment Democrats would rather lose to a Republican (Trump) than elect a progressive (Sanders)", Thomas Frank, "Listen, Liberal".
Parentheses mine.
14
@Tremolux: I suspect it's the other way around. How many Sanders supporters, commenting here on various reports and opinion pieces, have said "If I can't have Bernie, I won't vote at all" -- thereby handing the election to Trump? How many of them have said, in so many words, that there's no difference between an "Establishment" (i.e. moderate, centrist) Democrat like Biden and Donald J. Trump?
It's very hard to have much respect for such views, but we have to take them seriously, because of the great damage they can potentially cause.
5
Bernie very well may win the nomination. And I will vote for him in November if he does.
Banking on masses of new voters is a fools errand though. Past behaviors being predictors of future behaviors. Which means the “He is a communist who wants to take away your health insurance and guns” dog whistle will give us four more years of Heir Trump.
That and I am sure there will be plenty of protest non-voters to muddy the waters.
6
@rob brown, if we are looking at past behavior to predict the future, I fear trump will beat Biden as he beat Hilary. And, the Obama coalition will stay home once again as it did with Hilary
@San
FYI. It wasn't the "Obama coalition" that stayed home -- and the fact that Hillary got 3+million more popular votes proves it.
1
Dems only had to look back 4 years and see what happened to the Repub's. They sat back scheming that trump, Christie and Cruz would destoy each other and Bush would come riding to the rescue. By the time they woke up, trump was in the WH.
5
So instead of 45 doing it, the Democrats are doing it themselves: throwing red meat to the cult of 45. They see democrats in disarray already in February/March and they are licking their McGovernite chops to bulldoze Biden or Bernie in November. As John Ralston Saul observed, when political parties become conduits for corporatist democracy, then elections and voting become a sham... futility every two/four years. Abolish the Electoral College and let every vote count. The country would not be in a quagmire, if those 3 million votes in 2016 had been certified and legitimacized as the will of the people. In the face of a nascent and dangerous, embryonic dictatorship, a government of the people, by the people, for the people...? What a quaint and pathetic refrain in the 21st century.
2
We need a third party. The GOP has gone extreme left, the Democrats are center-right, and the progressive movement within the Democratic party should split off. The new Democrat party could combine centrists and never-trumpers, and the NEW progressive party would represent Sanders voters.
I don't see a path forward with a united Democratic party. Sanders does not appear able to take over the party like Trump did to the GOP, so that tells me we need a hard split.
Sanders 2020.
5
Democrats have fought for years for the rights of all Americans, and to build a better country.
Bernie wants to trash all that, and slander Democrats as some sinister force..
He is wrong, and loses my vote.
57
@mike
This is correct. He is a destroyer, and he appeals to people with nothing to lose.
The part of his message I do agree with is that we can do much better than to subscribe to a brutally capitalistic Darwinian model of economics and survival. I just do not agree that his style of forceful demolition is the way to achieve that.
6
@mike that's an absurd misrepresentation of Sanders' message and goals.
5
What I’ve observed this past year and in particular the last few months, is the Democratic Party is splitting in to two different parties within itself. The far left Bernie supporters and the moderates.
I got in to a heated, possibly friendship ending, discussion with a long time friend who is a Bernie supporter because I voted for Joe Biden. How could I want the same old thing? etc., etc., I’ve also seen many of the commentators here in the NYT articles lambasting people who don’t support Sanders, for being part of the so called “establishment”. I made my decision solely based on who I thought had the best chance of getting the votes to defeat trump because this election will truly determine the fate of this country. That being said, should Bernie win the nomination, I will vote for him. Not happily, but I will. The in fighting needs to stop and the party needs to come together.
121
@DDD A split the media, the Republicans, and the Russians have been pushing for since 2015. It would help if Bernie would join the Democratic Party and make some tones of conciliation and cooperation with the Democratic Party. I like Bernie and many of his ideas but he needs to show that he can work with others and compromise where necessary.
24
@Paul @DDD
Respect is a two way street. Or at least supposed to be. It should take less than 3 minutes on Google for you to find our just how much Bernie has compromised and supported Democrats throughout his career, in words, votes, and actions.
30
@DDD
After all Trump has done - if you are a Democrat
and won't vote for Bernie, if he wins the nomination,
then don't blame Bernie, only blame yourself.
7
I watched some of Bernie's responses to the race's shifting dynamics on the news. He was visibly shaken, his uncompromising ego showing through.
With fury, he blamed the "establishment" for Biden's rise.
Who, what, is that exactly? Anyone who is not him? His ideas and core are much, much better than Trump's, in my opinion, but he has the disposition of a dogmatist, and his core followers reflect that with their fervor.
I want to see Biden address all of the accusations Bernie throws at him, as Biden has been shown to be flexible, which is what is needed in our turbulent time.
What I don't want, is another righteous, uncompromising cult of personality.
165
@Frank Scully
"he has the disposition of a dogmatist, and his core followers reflect that with their fervor."
Yep.
26
@Frank Scully
Look at Bernie's record. A real look. He has spent his entire career compromising with and supporting the Demcratic establishment in words, votes, and actions. He also has a distinct record of working with Republicans on major issues.
The votes he did not support like NAFTA, Iraq, Defense of Marriage Act, Wall Street Bailouts, prove that his record in the past and vision for the future has always been more in line with what Americans need and want than the Establishment's.
When people equate his personality with a cult of personality it dismisses the voices millions of voters who see him as the conduit of change that Obama promised but failed to deliver on.
22
@Frank Scully
Isn't it something, all those African-American voters in South Carolina were the "establishment." Who knew?
8
If Buttigieg and Klobuchar really want to draw votes away from Sanders they should endorse Warren. Warren is more energetic, more unifying, with less baggage than Biden. She'd be an excellent president.
29
@Scientist I agree but I would rather see her on SCOTUS.
2
@Scientist But Klobucar and Buttigieg moderates compared to Warren are clearly motivated to defeat Trump and are supporting the candidate that they feel has the best chance.
4
@Scientist Yeah, but if Klobuchar backed Warren, she wouldn't have a chance at being the VP. It isn't going to happen for Warren.
2
It was no surprise. Their backs were against the wall facing a Super Tuesday that was not looking very good. Everyone knew Pete and Amy had to go. Neither of them were registering with non-white or younger voters. They had no way forward to the nomination. Their presence was helping Sanders. I wonder what promises they got in return? If they had stayed in through Super Tuesday it would have been Good Night Irene for the Democrat establishment. It wouldn't have been Bernie's doing it would have been on Pete and Amy's shoulder. Their name would be mud in Democratic establishment circles. S.C. was a hail Mary pass for Biden. The stage is set. Let the festivities begin.
8
One can only hope that the people who would benefit from Medicare 4 all and student loan forgiveness get out and vote for Sanders... People like to complain more than they like to take action.
12
It should not come as a surprise to someone who prides himself on being an independent. It should not surprise someone who has branded their campaign as being different from everyone else. I was turned off from the sanders campaign after the 60 minutes interview when he wouldn’t back down from his effusive praise of Cuba’s education campaign.and look where Cuba is now!! I do not want to live in a country that forces things down my throat. I have had enough of his finger wagging and lecturing me from his podium. To all others who say congress will keep him in check- the executive branch has considerable powers and Trump has set a new precedent with that one. “Buyer beware” for those who still want to vote for him.
23
He’s telling the truth about the education Cubans under Castro received- they’ve turned out amazing musicians doctors etc.
5
@Momof2boyz
Sometimes the truth is the truth, if you can accept that then it says more about you than about the Senator. Did you support President Obama? Was it okay for him to laud Cuba's achievements in healthcare and education?
As for his finger wagging and lecturing, why do you think that's aimed at you when it's only ever directed at the billionaires and corporations who consider labor as inventory instead of human beings. Case in point, after the Trump tax cuts and his trade war, manufacturing did see a rise in employment but little in expenditures in capitol ie new machines, infrastructure, etc. This is because despite the "best economy ever" businesses know they can shed a worker far easier than those kinds of investments.
Right now some of the Democratic superdelegates have extreme conflicts of interest in determining our president. One who is leading the movement to stop Sanders is a lobbyist for the healthcare industry and donates to McConnell and other Republicans. It's not right. After Biden spoke at the Poor People's Campaign event, he flew directly to a Wall Street fundraiser in NY. If you don't wanr to hear Bernie lecture, turn off your TV, his policies will still help your family, regardless.
1
@Kat,
Mussolini made the trains run on time - should we praise him for that and forgot the fascism?
1
The fact that the Sanders campaign was “caught unawares “ is a telling bit about their arrogance and preparedness. Did the campaign assume they would just breeze through that nasty old nomination process? It’s like saying one wins after playing 2 innings of a 9 inning baseball game.
66
@Armo You must know the saying, "Don't believe the hype." There is little basis for describing Sanders as arrogant. He has been the underdog for most of his life. But maybe he can win this. It will take young people and LatinX people and those who have not been represented in the political process.
15
@Armo
Buttigieg was sending out fundraising requests the very afternoon before he dropped out later that evening. It's not a wild conspiracy theory to suggest that immense behind the scene pressure and coordination from the establishment occurred that lined up Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Beto, Harry Reid and half a dozen senators to blunt Bernie's movement. Especially given the number of Buttigieg and Beto's supporters being comprised of, if not a majority, a significant number of progressive supporters. Bernie takes nothing for granted, ever. As far back as the 80's he continued to knock on his constituents doors *after* he won as Mayor of Burlington.
Caught off guard, sure, arrogant and unprepared, not a chance.
3
Put your support behind Biden, and Trump will win.
So-called moderates represent more of the same old defense of the status quo, but we are in unprecedented territory with climate change now; we simply don’t have a minute to waste with this. Do you think that Biden is going to bring voters to the polls? Do you think he represents the change that we need?
For the fact of Trump we can look to the history of our corrupt politicians, not just the reactionary policies of Republicans, but also their Democrat counterparts who have abandoned the working people of this country these last 40 years.
41
@nina nina
Biden certainly will bring voters to the polls. He will get Democrats, Independents, and Republicans who can’t stand Trump. That’s a winning coalition.
7
@Vicki
Biden is mentally declining, he is not fit for this duty--period. I hate to say it, I really do. There are two other candidates of the same age standing next to him, neither of which are showing Biden's severity of cognitive decline. Bernie's got recent heart trouble. He may not be fit for this, either, but I'm less afraid of the POTUS dying than I am of a POTUS who is so out of it that he can't remember which office he holds and will be easily manipulated by anyone who wants to do so.
1
I don't know why the Sanders campaign should be caught off guard or surprised at the quick massing of opposition.
After all, they have been giving out the same message all along to all those who aren't with them.
So who could expect anything else after months of their vilifying Democrats, moderates, centrists, calling them every name imaginable while forgetting that sooner or later these are the exact same voters they'd need in the end.
No surprise.
What goes around. Comes around.
69
@N. Smith
When has Bernie "vilified" Democrats? Does contrasting his correct stance on NAFTA, Iraq, Bailouts, the Defense of Marriage Act, and the Establishment's lip service towards the corruptive influence of money in politics truly count as vilifying? Or questioning the reasoning behind the DNC spending $700M of voter donations on just 5 consulting firms alone in 2016 instead of voter turnout...and that none of them managed to suggest Clinton campaign in the Rust Belt where Bernie beat her?
No, vilifying is when you compare a Jewish candidate and his supporters to Nazis, Communists, and the Coronavirus. Or when you dismiss the millions of women, minorities, immigrant, and all other types of good regular folks who support him as Bernie Bros. That is actual vilification. And it's a good time to remember the Establishment once did the same thing to Obama, with the so called misongynist "Obama Boys" or calling out his affinity for Cuba. Although she never ended up publicly questioning his lack of American "roots", ie what would become Birtherism, it was a very real strategy the Clinton campaign considered employing.
1
@Aran
Are you new to these pages or the online community in general?
I suggest you take the time to go through some of the comments to see how Sanders' supporters speak of Biden or any of the other candidates and centrist Democrats who don't agree with his platform.
Start there.
3
I really wonder what kind of world it is where it is only Sanders and Warren that represent "the liberal wing of the party". I have considered myself a "liberal" for years; in any of those silly online quizzes to categorize yourself I show up as "very liberal". By almost any standard, Amy Klobuchar has a liberal voting record, with (as with Sanders on guns) some outlying votes. Until this weekend, I was on Team Amy. Do we on the center left have to give up our membership in the liberal club?
57
@David WOHl
Steven Pinker, hardly a rabid righwinger by any standard, and a professor at MIT to boot has used (perhaps coined) the term Left Pole. Just as an inch away from the true north pole is technically south, the slightest deviation from a constellation of left wing positions will instantly classify you as a right wing and illiberal. The aforementioned list of pure positions is constantly growing and don't be surprised when a day comes that nobody on the planet will qualify as a liberal.
6
Come on, Elizabeth W., you should be a team player like Pete B. and Amy K. and drop out of the race!
11
@Andy. Absolutely. As you can see, I'm from Amyland, and was lobbying for her exit months ago. We need her to stay in the Senate, where her presence is much more imperative than the presidency, anyway. Warren needs to swallow the ego, and step aside. Time for all the spoilers to do the same if there's any chance at removing the growing malignancy in the Executive Wing...
4
@Andy No way. She is the best candidate of the remaining by far. Hoping she stays in it til the convention!
4
She’ll drop out if and when she wants to.
2
It's disappointing to see an "establishment" structure that tries to crush grass roots campaigns. On the other hand, look what Trump did to the RNC, he took over the party completely, steam rolled a plethora of establishment candidates. So why is Bernie, clearly the antiTrump, not embraced by the establishment? He probably is the best chance for real change in this country...I guess we're all too scared of changed; we'd rather wallow in mediocrity and watch our health care system, infrastructure and institutions disintegrate before our eyes....I'm voting for Bernie.
247
@Brian, Trump turned out to be backed by Russia, which hacked the RNC and is blackmailing the entire party with endless dark money. Bernie is not presenting a coup against the democratic party like Trump did to the republicans. Bernie is simply offering up himself, his policies and his supporters if the dems are interested. Bloomberg's tactics are much more similar to Trump (if you looked closely the parallels between the two are numerous).
8
@Brian No -- some of us don't want a Revolution. They are messy. There are casualties of all sorts. I want my health care. I worked hard to get it and to keep it. At times, I made less in wages but stayed with the end game -- protect the benefits. I saved to send two kids to college. We all sacrificed. We took out loans. We went without vacations. At one point, we had four licensed drivers living in our house and one car. And now, we are proud of what we have done and what we have achieved. So what is Bernie promising for me? Retirement years with a fledgling health care system -- the only thing left in the smoldering ruins after he demolishes private health-care insurance. Let's work to give others the kinds of benefits I have, not trash everything that exists and promise it will all be better in some Never Neverland of Sanders' hallucinations.
15
@Brian But we can't have the same progress as every other developed country! That simply isn't feasible! /s
6
Biden is a weak candidate against Trump, against anyone. He can't remember his own train of thought, which is honestly sad to watch. He has lied repeatedly on the campaign trail. He is Hillary Clinton Part II. Do NOT be surprised if he is nominated he will lose. I'm honestly not worried because Bernie's going to win big today and keep winning. I don't know how anyone who has watched a debate this year would think Biden is a good candidate to run against Trump.
308
He’s not great, but Bernie is much worse.
28
@LK Joe Biden has had a stutter his entire life. Are you criticizing him because he has a disability? This isn't a public speaking contest. Sadly, that's probably why Trump was elected four years ago. All people care about now are appearances and how candidates look and sound on TV.
If Biden is elected in November, he would surely assemble an excellent team who would run the country with everyone's best interests in mind.
Can you honestly say as a Sanders supporter that Trump would do the same? Trump is the worst president ever and getting him out of office needs to be the number one priority.
Believe me, I think Sanders is great. But I just don't think he can attract the moderate voters in swing states that are desperately needed to win the Electoral College in November.
31
@LK Biden is worse than HRC. She is bright and articulate and intelligent. Biden looks like a film B actor playing an unsuccessful candidate. Forgetful, not analytical, emitting silly white lies... and his baggage - Anita Hill, criminal reform, credit card companies, war in Iraq... couldn't the DNC do better?
46
Senator Sanders, please please please, for the sake of our country, end your campaign.
Even if you win the general, you will also need to maintain/win majority seats in both chanmbers to have any hopes of implementing any of your plans.
And even if you and the Dems sweep all three branches, your Medicare-for-All and other "revolutionary" social programs will not have enough support to pass. For starters, we can count on the RepubliCons to obstruct and oppose ANY idea that comes from the Dems. But I believe you will even have difficulty garnering needed support from House and Senate Dems to enact your programs.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against public-funded social programs like Medicare, Social Security, education assistance and your other proposed revolutionary programs. You just haven't convinced me HOW you plan to pay for your revolution.
82
We apparently can afford to spend 3 trillion on corporate tax welfare problem and bailing out farmers for a trade war. I not worried about funding these programs. I am more worried about the economic fallout of not funding Sanders programs. We will pay one way or another. I prefer to invest in the future generations, instead of another recession business bailout.
142
@Know/Comment I near this so often...but we've tried the other way, has it ever worked? The rich get richer and poor people don't know what hit them.
42
@Know/Comment
well said.
7
Uh, Bernie? Did you notice the sign said Party after Democratic? You need an invitation and they're out.
13
@Robert He's running according to the party rules, just like he did last time. Or would you rather he ran third party?
What remains to be seen is if the DNC sticks to their own rules when he wins. They already bent them to allow Bloomberg on the debate stage.
2
Bernie and his staff and many of his supporters have brought this on themselves. We have had 3 years of a hard edged guy in the WH; a guy who believes that he knows it all; a guy who is a rotten listener. We don’t need another person with those traits...and Bernie has them.
As a corollary, just who is the Democrats’ establishment? Anyone who disagrees with Bernie or his base? Seems that way to me.
169
Comparing an intelligent human being like Bernie with the likes of Trump is outlandish, insulting and mean! Don’t hate Bernie because he’s popular!
What are you all afraid of? Fear is false evidence appearing real! Bernie has integrity, wisdom and passion! I’m for that!
5
@Kat It's not outlandish at all. Sanders is rigid, dogmatic and refuses to compromise or work with others. Bernie is for Bernie. And he likes to see himself as a super-hero on a white horse. He's scary to those of us who have seen what happens to extremist nominees. (See: Barry Goldwater and George McGovern.) Too bad his burn-down-the-house rhetoric has succeeded in building another fan base of zealots and reactionaries. Lifelong Democrats have seen good and bad. We know the value of supporting the party's nominee. Bernie's childish supporters are don't get it. And yeah, Bern -- keep talking about that massive turnout you're going to inspire. Too bad Bernie ruined it for Elizabeth Warren. Gee -- do you suppose gender had anything to do with it? Is there a Sanders version of the MAGA hat for the Bring-on-the-Revolution zealots?
14
Looks like 2016 all over again. DNC (with tricks) vs Sanders.
159
@Linda The DNC has every right to organize around the candidate with the best chance to beat Trump. And having that candidate actually BE a member of the party seems as if it should be a basic qualification.
According to Bernie and his supporters:
"Establishment" = anyone who doesn't agree with Bernie.
"Tricks" = when Bernie is behind in the vote count.
"Record" = just saying stuff and not doing it.
61
@Sylvia P. You forgot
"Surprise" = the same strategy in 2016 loses democrats the election in 2020
8
@Linda
The DNC doesn’t owe Bernie anything since he is not a Democrat.
25
At this point I am torn between Bernie and Biden. I don’t vote until April so hopefully the wisdom of voters across the nation will be enlightening.
We don’t need the chaos a contested convention so I suggest Warren and Bloomberg drop out tonight.
4
@CP
If you're torn between Bernie and Biden, consider Warren! Super Tuesday may bring her back bigtime.
1
Bernie represents an existential threat to our way of life. He loathes capitalism, including private property. Aside from the lack of democracy in places like the former USSR, Cuba and elsewhere (Bernie says he doesn't agree with the loss of human rights in those places), he sees nothing wrong with a centrally planned economy. Empty grocery store shelves, no big deal, Americans are over weight and need to drop a few pounds anyway. Major drop in GDP, great for slowing down global warming. Loss of private sector jobs, no big deal, just create public jobs where people get paid with monopoly money for pretending to work.
32
@bill
Are you a billionaire? If so, yes, he's an existential threat to you.
23
@bill
If Bernie is an existential threat to our way of life, Trump is an existential threat to our liberties.
I grew up in a Third World country under military dictatorship. Between giving up the shopping mall and freedom of speech, freedom of the press, imprisonment, torture and disappearance of those who speak ill of the government, it’s an easy decision for me. I’ll take Bernie in a heartbeat.
35
@bill
15 million households are food insecure in America
45 million Americans rely on food stamps, including nearly 13 million children
Grocery store shelves are plenty full, it's just that people can't afford the food on those shelves. I'm sure you're not one of them. This is the "way of life" that you want to preserve.
12
It would be a lot easier to vote for a Democratic candidate if we a) knew what they endorsed and b) thought there was a reasonable possibility of enacting their programs and changes, and c) that they could still win the election over Trump. I honestly don’t see any Democratic candidate having credibility to do all three. No one wants to cast a vote that ends up being wasted. Pro Tip: your political campaigns assume that everyone watches television, listens to radio or engages in social media. A lot of us unplugged from those channels years ago.
5
Sanders' socialism is hardly tenable. Nothing in his platform is socialist except for his health care proposals which exist happily in every capitalist country on earth. He is not advocating that the government take over any industry or fix prices and production goals. What he is proposing is that we return to the 1950s when college tuition was $8.00 to $12.00 per credit hour, people could afford to get sick, America was building our crumbling infrastructure and the distribution of income favored the lower and middle classes. As Paul Krugman said, Sanders only plays a socialist on TV.
56
@Harry,
"Nothing in his platform is socialist except for his health care proposals which exist happily in every capitalist country on earth."
European countries achieve healthcare in many varied ways, with a mixture of public and private. except it's guaranteed for all. that is something we could do.
We do not necessarily need to have "Medicare for All" but "Healthcare for all" is something everyone can get behind.
5
@Jackson
Here's a quote for you about that:
"By the 1950s, the flow of Puerto Ricans to the mainland United States had increased so drastically that historians dubbed the phenomenon the “Great Migration.” An estimated 470,000 people—or 21 percent of the island's total population—left Puerto Rico for the United States between 1950 and 1960."
4
Seeing footage of Sanders pontificating at one of his rallies yesterday I saw something I had not noticed before: he sounds exactly like Trump! Not just in tone but also in substance.
Throughout the last three plus years, from the Mueller investigation to the impeachment inquiry, Trump has pushed a narrative that (paraphrasing) “the Democrats are out to get me!” coupled with the assertion that the effort is motivated purely by animus, not by any remotely legitimate purpose.
Yesterday I heard Sanders saying essentially the same thing: (paraphrasing) “the [Dem] establishment is getting very nervous, they are out to stop us!” coupled with a subtext that the effort is motivated purely by animus, not by any remotely legitimate purpose.
There is no surprise in hearing Trump vilify the Dem party which, with the abject abdication of integrity and constitutional duty by the Rep party, stands as the only obstacle to his imperious ambitions. But there is something very unseemly in a candidate who is not even a Democrat impugning nefarious motives to the party under whose banner he is pursuing a nomination.
Sanders is spinning a narrative that there can be no legitimate political strategy other than his own, and his supporters are lapping it up. So Klobuchar, Buttigieg and even O’Rourke uniting to endorse Biden must be proof of an establishment conspiracy.
I think Sanders has great policy ideas, but absolutely no prospect of achieving them. I must be part of the conspiracy, too.
276
@Migrateurrice Please do note equate Bernie with Trump. Trump says he would like to punch and beat up people who disagree with him. Trump lies and spreads conspiracy theories and has torn the fabric of our society. There is legitimate room for a person, like Bernie, to say that a large part of existing members in a party are opposed to his platform. He is not inciting violence. In fact last night he complimented his opponents, even Joe Biden. When's the last time Trump complimented a current opponent? Never.
28
I agree. Bernie - if president - would need to work with a wide array of people in DC to get things done. It doesn’t seem like he wants to work with anyone but his own supporters.
19
@Migrateurrice
Just because Trump happens to tell the truth when it suits him to fire up disaccord, it does not mean that this is not the truth.
Don’t tell me that Klobuchar and Buttigieg who went of line at the very same day in condition that a day before they were seriously campaigning is by accident. And they endorsed immediately Biden. Do not insult your own intelligence.
4
"The swiftness of the coalescence around Mr. Biden caught the Sanders team off guard. "
Really? I doubt it, but keep loading on the negativity. I'll donate money to Bernie again today, as will many others.
I fully expect that if and when Warren withdraws from the race, she'll endorse Biden instead of Bernie, because that's how she rolls. If I can think that, so can the campaign, and I'm sure they're bracing for it.
I don't give Klobuchar any weight because she didn't have much as a candidate. Buttigieg is after his own ends. It will be interesting to see how he props up Uncle Joe. I'd expect more Obamaesque inflection with cotton candy content.
77
@Penn I was surprised because I thought Pete and Amy would hold out until Wednesday. To me it shows they were only really auditioning for vice president.
28
@Penn
Your comment perfectly embodies the hostility that Bernie people exhibit towards, well, everyone. That does not bode well for a general election, let alone a nominating contest.
46
@Penn
No, that's not "how she rolls." If she's not the candidate, Elizabeth Warren will endorse Bernie. She rolls as a true progressive.
A more interesting question is whether Bernie will endorse Biden if the superdelegates give him a majority.
10
Elizabeth Warren is my candidate. I resent hearing from Ms. Ember that her "staying in the race" is "complicating matters."
You vote with your vote, Ms. Embers, and let me vote with mine. There is zero democracy in the 24/7 handicapping from the press, the constant horserace coverage, and the press's lopsided and non-comprehensive questions at the debates. All of that is just Tyranny of the Fourth Estate.
Get your hands off the scales, and find something else to cover. N-95s are going for $250 a five-pack on Amazon, maybe cover the fact that the company who's corporate headquarters is at the center of the largest coronavirus cluster in the country is price-gouging supplies.
So sick of this press coverage. My candidate got zero coverage during the press's begrudging 3 days of coverage of Super Tuesday after a year of covering South Carolina.
I'm so going to resent how you robbed me of my vote.
31
@ondelette - I'm sick of the "blah Warren"/ "Warren who?" vibe of this whole primary cycle. Some people are scared of Bernie and he's got heart problems anyway, other people know that Biden is mentally declining (and/or there's zero possibility that he can win with all of his baggage), and Bloomberg has largely escaped his own baggage enough to likely end up winning some delegates. All are old, white men who don't know what it's like to be marginalized and helpless. I don't love Warren, but COME ON! She's not a "scary socialist", not senile, and not so old that she can't possibly be a two-term president.
3
The proposition that Sen. Warren got “zero coverage in the media” at any time in the past year is demonstrably false.
The growing phenomenon where Americans blame social prejudice or conspiracy (or both) when their candidate or policy ideal fails to garner sufficient support (or some stranger just happens to disagree) seems to be a foundational element of the Trump-world in which we currently live.
“Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?”
2
The Sanders people want everyone to think that the “establishment” is lining up behind Biden to protect “corporate interests” and “politics as usual”
But that’s dead wrong
The Establishment is lining up. Who do Biden because he can win and Sanders can’t
It’s that simple
17
Bernie: Some things you always forget:
You aren't a Democrat!!
You run as a Democrat as a convenience and are concerned about your presidency without paying attention to the on the ground Dems who try to build up.
You're angry and saying the Establishment is out to get you, bit it's the mid/left part of the party, progressive, for the working man, but aware that YOU want to just tear everything up and launch programs which YOU can't explain how to pay for,
Now, are you that surprised that the party is trying to avoid a disastrous failure in November leaving a vileTrump in power and the party in shambles?
345
The power of party is demonstrated during Impeachment vote and trial. Bernie will not help the Democratic PARTY.
16
@Ira Cohen
If Bernie weren't a Democrat, would it mean that his supporters should vote this November for trump?!T
12
@Ira Cohen I just can't wrap my head around how progressive Democrats aren't backing Warren in any real numbers, but instead back someone who's not even a member of the Party. EW is educated, is accomplished, is smart-as-a-whip, studies the issues and comes up with a plan for them, even a plan on how to pay for the programs she wants to enact. This is the kind of person who we need to seriously back for president.
69
For all the talk about how Warren will blunt Sanders on Super Tuesday, there is zero mention of the much larger factor of Bloomberg. The Bloomberg Affect will ensure Bernie maintains a comfortable delegate lead after Super Tuesday and beyond, which is great news, because I don't see any other candidate with the organization, the fundraising prowess, the energy, and the sheer moral and spiritual force to beat Trump than Senator Sanders.
118
@Valleycat We actually don't know what effect, if any, Bloomberg will have on the election. The biggest issue is that so many in CA and TX have voted early. Mike's poll numbers show him as barely viable in CA, he is more likely to help Bernie than Biden by being in the race. If Biden does well today I would suspect Bloomberg will throw his support to Biden quickly, as he is only in the race because he thought Sanders would get the nomination and lose in the general.
19
@Valleycat
So, Bernie's fundraising prowess is a good thing but, I'm guessing here, Bloomberg spending his own money is a bad thing, right?
Bernie lost SC by 30 points.
I bring that up because the Bros online went on and on about Pete's lack of black support but are strangely quiet about Bernie's.
30
@Valleycat
"...I don't see any other candidate with the organization, the fundraising prowess, the energy, and the sheer moral and spiritual force to beat Trump than Senator Sanders..."
Funny, you don't mention voters or turnout. Those are the metrics that matter. Just ask Howard Dean.
12
Surely, it can't be that tough to beat a guy who challenges voters to push-up contests. Sometimes our politicians really show how antiquated and anachronistic some of their beliefs and values are.
70
It's strange that the Sanders were caught off guard. Have they not been paying attention? Have they not been listening? Have they not seen the rise of Bloomberg in the polls?
My North Carolina cousins voted for Biden. All they care about is beating Trump. That is the story in most swing states and states with a lot of Black people in them.
It is plain to me that Bernie has a hard ceiling of support. There is no evidence that he can galvanize Black people, white suburban women and moderates - in other words, the reliable base of the Democratic party. He and his supporters have thumbed their noses at those people, and it makes him unelectable.
230
@Cousy He also cannot show he can bring out those new voters he claims to be amassing. He got half the vote in NH as he did in 2016 and the youth vote dropped over 2016, while total number of voters went up. Similarly in SC. Biden even got the majority of the millennial black vote, something the polls showed would not happen. If the trend continues Bernie will fizzle out as the youth vote to date has not materialized as predicted.
31
@Cousy
As for the moderates, it's kind of hard to galvanize that support when the Bernie Bros have been online trashing every single moderate candidate.
As a Mayor Pete supporter, donor and voter, I would not feel welcome if I were to say I would join the Bernie revolution, so, I guess I won't.
48
@Roger Binion
And I'll go on to say that anyone who supports anyone other than Sanders -- be it Mayor Pete, Amy, Biden, or Warren would not be welcome in their camp.
So why they're caught off guard by any quick massing of the opposition, is beyond me.
22