Democrats 2020

[Harry Bosch]

Sanders intends to spend the “next few weeks” assessing his campaign. He’s an idiot. It’s dead, Jim.

Well, I can understand how disappointing it must be to be so close. However, it is time to come together. We have to unite as a party to beat Trump. My sense is that we can unite better with Biden rather than HRC. But we really need to focus on building the largest tent possible as the system dictates that our side must have far more votes than the republicans in order to have a chance with the EC.

 

[Elixir]

Bernie best not play the shopkeeper much longer...

 

[ZiprHead]

I just heard Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is being bandied about for VP.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Sanders intends to spend the “next few weeks” assessing his campaign.

Quote?

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Sanders intends to spend the “next few weeks” assessing his campaign.

Quote?

At publication time, Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir released this statement, per NBC’s Shaquille Brewster: “The next primary contest is at least three weeks away. Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign. In the immediate term, however, he is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people and the most vulnerable.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/me...nders-faces-more-questions-about-his-n1162716

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

I just heard Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is being bandied about for VP.

She's already said it won't be her. But nothing is written in stone, is it?

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/n...female-vice-president-pick-not-me/5058449002/

 

[blastula]

"I'm going to help him vet and make sure he's got a great running mate. It is not going to be me," she added with a smile.

She could pull a Cheney who was Bush's VP vetter and picked himself.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Sanders intends to spend the “next few weeks” assessing his campaign.

Quote?

At publication time, Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir released this statement, per NBC’s Shaquille Brewster: “The next primary contest is at least three weeks away. Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign. In the immediate term, however, he is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people and the most vulnerable.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/me...nders-faces-more-questions-about-his-n1162716

You are making an inference which may or may not be true, but you made it look like you were quoting something. Where did you get "next few weeks?"

Let's review. The primary is 3 weeks out. So, there's little impact if Sanders decided to concede 1 day or 18 days from now. BUT he might decide to concede in 6 days. We don't actually know.

What you wrote though is:

Sanders intends to spend the “next few weeks” assessing his campaign.

What it actually says is "Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign." It doesn't say he is going to be doing that the entirety of the 3 weeks. The timeline for doing that is indefinite and unknown. IF for example, his supporters all tell him to concede in those conversations he could do it in the next day or two. Or if his supporters mostly tell him not to quit, then he's done with the assessment in just a few days and moves on to doing other things. In neither case is the spin that he's taking weeks to think about his campaign true.

Also, "next few weeks" is a quote. Where are you quoting it from? Where's the link that contains those EXACT words?

 

[laughing dog]

Sanders intends to spend the “next few weeks” assessing his campaign.

Quote?

If Mr. Sanders is not assessing his campaign at this point, he is pretty effing stupid. Mr. Biden is widening his lead. Mr. Sanders needs to start winning primaries by very wide margins to make up the difference.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

At publication time, Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir released this statement, per NBC’s Shaquille Brewster: “The next primary contest is at least three weeks away. Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign. In the immediate term, however, he is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people and the most vulnerable.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/me...nders-faces-more-questions-about-his-n1162716

You are making an inference which may or may not be true, but you made it look like you were quoting something. Where did you get "next few weeks?"

Let's review. The primary is 3 weeks out. So, there's little impact if Sanders decided to concede 1 day or 18 days from now. BUT he might decide to concede in 6 days. We don't actually know.

What you wrote though is:

Sanders intends to spend the “next few weeks” assessing his campaign.

What it actually says is "Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign." It doesn't say he is going to be doing that the entirety of the 3 weeks. The timeline for doing that is indefinite and unknown. IF for example, his supporters all tell him to concede in those conversations he could do it in the next day or two. Or if his supporters mostly tell him not to quit, then he's done with the assessment in just a few days and moves on to doing other things. In neither case is the spin that he's taking weeks to think about his campaign true.

Also, "next few weeks" is a quote. Where are you quoting it from? Where's the link that contains those EXACT words?

You are correct. The "next few weeks" was from a misleading headline.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

You are making an inference which may or may not be true, but you made it look like you were quoting something. Where did you get "next few weeks?"

Let's review. The primary is 3 weeks out. So, there's little impact if Sanders decided to concede 1 day or 18 days from now. BUT he might decide to concede in 6 days. We don't actually know.

What you wrote though is:

What it actually says is "Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign." It doesn't say he is going to be doing that the entirety of the 3 weeks. The timeline for doing that is indefinite and unknown. IF for example, his supporters all tell him to concede in those conversations he could do it in the next day or two. Or if his supporters mostly tell him not to quit, then he's done with the assessment in just a few days and moves on to doing other things. In neither case is the spin that he's taking weeks to think about his campaign true.

Also, "next few weeks" is a quote. Where are you quoting it from? Where's the link that contains those EXACT words?

You are correct. The "next few weeks" was from a misleading headline.

Okay, well, thanks for conceding that point. I am interested in where you got it from, though. Was it the Washington Post? I saw something there but couldn't read it because of the pay wall. Or somewhere else?

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

You are making an inference which may or may not be true, but you made it look like you were quoting something. Where did you get "next few weeks?"

Let's review. The primary is 3 weeks out. So, there's little impact if Sanders decided to concede 1 day or 18 days from now. BUT he might decide to concede in 6 days. We don't actually know.

What you wrote though is:

What it actually says is "Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign." It doesn't say he is going to be doing that the entirety of the 3 weeks. The timeline for doing that is indefinite and unknown. IF for example, his supporters all tell him to concede in those conversations he could do it in the next day or two. Or if his supporters mostly tell him not to quit, then he's done with the assessment in just a few days and moves on to doing other things. In neither case is the spin that he's taking weeks to think about his campaign true.

Also, "next few weeks" is a quote. Where are you quoting it from? Where's the link that contains those EXACT words?

You are correct. The "next few weeks" was from a misleading headline.

Okay, well, thanks for conceding that point. I am interested in where you got it from, though. Was it the Washington Post? I saw something there but couldn't read it because of the pay wall. Or somewhere else?

Yes, it was the Post, and they've changed the headline.

 

[southernhybrid]

There is no way that Sanders can win at this point. He needs to accept reality. If he ends his campaign now, and endorses Biden, he will have a more influence on the party platform when the convention is held. Biden isn't Hillary. Hillary's loss had little to do with her ideology. People just didn't like her, and a large percentage of people were sick and tired of the Clintons in general.

Biden was VP for dog's sake. Obama called him his co-president. He's the only one with the experience to do the job right now. He can choose to partner with a younger, more progressive female to help him draw in more of the younger and more progressive voters. But, if younger voters are stupid enough to sit this one out and pout, they are only hurting themselves. Younger voters have never been reliable voters. That's always been the case. If they care about the country and their fellow citizens, they will do the right thing and vote for the Democratic nominee, just like those of us who are older, have been saying we will support the nominee even if it's someone we don't particularly like. I've done that my entire life and I couldn't even vote until I was 21, so maybe the youngest voters need to give a little credit to my generation's activism which helped lower the voting age to 18.

It's not that Biden doesn't support progressive ideals. It's just that he knows what is possible and what is totally unrealistic. Sanders on the other hand is too stubborn and rigid in his thinking to understand that you can't always get what you want, but you can work to make some progress if you really try.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

It's not that Biden doesn't support progressive ideals. It's just that he knows what is possible and what is totally unrealistic.

I am not going to argue with your main thesis, not because I disagree, but I just don't see what would practically come out of it. However, this comment, I'd like to point out doesn't quite match to established legislation or policy positions. Maybe it mostly does. Maybe.

But let me ask you.

What drove Biden to WRITE the busing law in the '70s? You are arguing that he is a progressive realist. How does being a progressive realist lead one to proactively write something like that?

Later on in the 90s, when it was popular for Democrats to call themselves conservatives and promote a balanced budget above anything else, this is what he did. He said "no sacred cows." He rhetorically went after the liberals in his party, i.e. the vast majority. How does this support your thesis that he's a progressive realist? Or were his actions on his own behalf for his own political survival? and the whole progressive realist thing takes a backseat to this?

In the 2000s, the Bankruptcy bill...…….? Again, this is something he WROTE. There were versions that the vast majority of liberals were against. Elizabeth Warren was always against every single version. It wasn't good for poor people. How does writing the bankruptcy bill support your thesis that he's a progressive realist?

I have maintained and continue to maintain that the majority of Biden's positions have been centrist and left but some also to the right....that he can be a good ally but he cannot always be trusted. It's not about survival, but instead some mixture of what he knows is the right position on things--and seeking to make himself look unique for sake of political power with moderates, right-wingers, and corporations. Therefore, keeping an active left movement or other kind of populist pressure on him is in the best interest of Americans. This can be now Bernie Sanders whose policy positions have altered how other campaigns take their own positions on issues, it can be from documenting his response to nuanced policy questions in a debate and then holding him to those things later because that is in his self-interest, it can also be from pressuring not to leave the primary until he agrees to choose a progressive VP or make some other cabinet concession involving Elizabeth Warren....for example.

Giving him carte blanche control to do what he's always done ensures he moves too far right later.

Now, again, I do agree that Sanders ought to concede and I've said this in this thread and elsewhere. But I'd like you to explain Biden.

 

[Koyaanisqatsi]

There is no way that Sanders can win at this point. He needs to accept reality.

Exactly what he was told at exactly this time in 2016 and instead he went zombie; got further weaponized by Russia (and the GOP) knowingly; inflamed a bitterly divisive civil war within the party HE chose to align with (flipping it off as he did so); and gave us Trump. All the while simultaneously denying everything and encouraging his followers to blame the "establishment"--not him--thus deeply eroding confidence that has only exponentially grown, not lessened since.

Iow, he's the fucking coronavirus, exponentially infecting more people with the same sophistry and false equivalence bullshit about how he's somehow been a magical "outsider" the whole time he's been a confirmed insider and part of the establishment he's never done shit to change while in power.

 

[Copernicus]

Sanders knows that he isn't going to win the nomination, but he has to contend with his ego, his fans, and a feeling that he can still find a way to leverage his influence to stay relevant. As someone who is comfortable with being an outsider and having lots of "insider" establishment types mad at him, he probably feels that his leverage and influence builds the longer he holds out. He is used to folks yelling at him for being obstinate. I will be surprised if he holds out for weeks. The pandemic has a way of burying all other news stories, so people will likely lose interest in what he does or has to say as time goes on. So he could move more quickly than he did in 2016 with Hillary to acknowledge reality and to start working to help get Biden elected. I hope so, anyway.

 

[laughing dog]

Sanders knows that he isn't going to win the nomination, but he has to contend with his ego, his fans, and a feeling that he can still find a way to leverage his influence to stay relevant. As someone who is comfortable with being an outsider and having lots of "insider" establishment types mad at him, he probably feels that his leverage and influence builds the longer he holds out. He is used to folks yelling at him for being obstinate. I will be surprised if he holds out for weeks. The pandemic has a way of burying all other news stories, so people will likely lose interest in what he does or has to say as time goes on. So he could move more quickly than he did in 2016 with Hillary to acknowledge reality and to start working to help get Biden elected. I hope so, anyway.

In other words, Mr Sanders is the ultimate "Bernie Bro".

 

[southernhybrid]

NM

 

[lpetrich]

Bernie Sanders To 'Assess' Campaign After More Primary Losses : NPR - he is reportedly "having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign," according to a top aide.

Seems like what happened with Elizabeth Warren after Super Tuesday, or Kamala Harris or Marianne Williamson earlier.

But on the bright side for the Left, Marie Newman successfully primaried 8-term incumbent Dan Lipinski, in a victory much like AOC vs. Joe Crowley in 2018. This is after Jessica Cisneros failed to primary 8-term incumbent Henry Cuellar two weeks earlier.

 

[Copernicus]

Bernie Sanders To 'Assess' Campaign After More Primary Losses : NPR - he is reportedly "having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign," according to a top aide.

Seems like what happened with Elizabeth Warren after Super Tuesday, or Kamala Harris or Marianne Williamson earlier.

But on the bright side for the Left, Marie Newman successfully primaried 8-term incumbent Dan Lipinski, in a victory much like AOC vs. Joe Crowley in 2018. This is after Jessica Cisneros failed to primary 8-term incumbent Henry Cuellar two weeks earlier.

I don't think that Bernie was rejected for his policies. He just wasn't considered a good fit for the general election. More people had faith that Joe Biden would be the strongest candidate against Trump. If it came down to a contest between Biden and Sanders, I definitely agreed with that calculation, but I never believed he was our strongest candidate for the general. Anyway, the decision has really been made by the majority of the Democratic base, so we need to move on and prepare for a very difficult struggle to remove the president who is arguably the worst in US history.

I believe that progressive candidates in downballot races will stand a better chance with Biden at the head of the ticket than Sanders. If changes are going to take place at the top of the ticket in the future, we need to broaden out the lower ranks with progressive candidates. We are heading into a deep economic recession, if not an actual depression, so people are craving stability, not revolution.