Breaking news: Bernie Sanders to end his presidential campaign. That’s what my phone alerts from WaPo tell me, anyway. Will update as info comes in.
ETA: Here’s an excerpt from The Post article linked here:
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the liberal insurgent who rose from relative obscurity to build a movement and become a two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, is ending his 2020 campaign, clearing the way for former vice president Joe Biden to be the party’s choice to take on President Trump in November.
The exit by Sanders, a 78-year-old democratic socialist from Vermont, marked the apparent close of a roller-coaster primary race that started more than a year ago. What began as the most diverse presidential field in history, featuring more than two dozen candidates, is finishing with the victory of an older white man whose prospects were written off not long ago.
Sanders’s departure presents Democrats with an immediate challenge: Can the party unify as it failed to do in 2016, when a feud between supporters of Sanders and Hillary Clinton damaged its efforts to win the presidency?
Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? I think we can.
Nina
Finally
A Ghost to Most
Woot.
dr. bloor
I’d say something pithy and original like, “Our great national nightmare is over,” but you just know the BernieBots and Russkies are going to drag his rotting political corpse all over the landscape through the convention and after.
WaterGirl
Good job, Bernie. Should have been earlier, but without access to a time machine, today is a great day to do it.
Immanentize
Whew! Didn’t think it would happen.
Good
Baud
Great news.
David Anderson
Charluckles
Good. Now I hope he and his supporters go after Trump and his party with a white-hot fury.
Facebones
Finally acknowledged the obvious. If he’d done this 4 years ago at this point, things might be very different right now.
Immanentize
I suspect he got a read on how Wisconsin went for him and chose this route rather than the one of greater humiliation?
Gin & Tonic
Thoughts and prayers.
WaterGirl
As frustrating as some Bernie people have been, I hope we can say “welcome aboard” and let’s get to work beating Trump.
If their response to that is “fuck off”, then that’s on them. But we have to do our part, and that’s all we can do.
Baud
And an official congratulations to Joe Biden. I think he’s comeback in the primary will go down in the history books.
eric
Just as with the other candidates, the Establishment strong arms Bernie into giving up. The DNC has too much power, and the candidates are all self-serving sell-outs to the Party. /s
Shrillhouse
And now, Bernie begins the hard work of getting crushed in 2024…
Baud
@Immanentize: Me too.
trollhattan
If true, then good for him. All hands on deck for November. The nation’s fate literally depends on everybody pulling us across the finish line.
We owe this to the [checks] 12,912 victims and their families. We also owe it to our savaged Constitution and federal government.
Baud
Maybe this means Warren will officially endorse Biden today.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: Isn’t that like what Cole said about planting trees? Best time to do it is 30 years ago, second-best time is today.
gene108
@Immanentize:
Same here. Pleasant surprise
germy
Should have been earlier, but I’m glad he made this decision.
Central Planning
I’m can’t wait for the Bernie bros to start calling him a quitter/sellout/liberal fascist soy cuck/whatever.
eric
Bernie authentically likes Biden. I think things play out differently this time
opiejeanne
I love how they managed to “both sides” even this.
Sebastian
Realized I had a typo in my nym.
I am cynical about this but he might have contracted Corona. Don’t see many other possibilities why a narcissist would drop out.
In other news, I think we as a community should start calling media and slamming Trump for wanting to prevent our soldiers from voting. That’s a side effect of no vote by mail which he didn’t consider. Time to hammer him and make him backpeddal.
skerry
I’m happy dancing!
Betty Cracker
@germy: Kruse is right.
trollhattan
@Baud:
Have to agree. He’s been kicked to the curb multiple times and now, the presumptive nominee. Astounding, truly. I thought he was nuts and unnecessary, upon announcing his run almost one year ago (April 25, 2019). Nuts like a fox. Each frontrunner wore out there welcome and I have a sneaking feeling voter fatigue played a roll.
Baud
Oh my. This is on the front page of Reddit, posted 18 hours ago.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
This is great. I appreciate good news today. I appreciate the Exec Admin at work who is doing a company electronic newsletter and has asked for photos of the furry “co-workers” of our people that are working from home.
SiubhanDuinne
High fucking time.
rikyrah
Good riddance ??
germy
Kamala Harris is on The View right now.
Asked about Sanders dropping out, she’s saying she admires him. “Thank you Bernie for your voice and your leadership and everything you’ve brought to this country.”
She’s calling for unity.
Felanius Kootea
Thank you Bernie! Now let’s focus on getting the guy who’s trying to steal everything that’s not locked down out of office.
Baud
Besides Warren, I wonder when Obama and Hillary will endorse.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Immanentize:
I had the same thought, some early exit or internal polling. More charitably (in the spirit of unity), there was some theorizing in the ‘tubes that he stayed in through WI to keep his supporters engaged in the state elections
TriassicSands
Bernie’s most loyal supporters may have to be treated like Trump — with kid gloves to avoid putting them in revenge mode. It’s hard losing a candidate in whom one believes so strongly, but the most important thing has always been to oust Trump. We can only hope Bernie’s supporters can see that. Similarly, those who have opposed Bernie should be restrained in their response to his withdrawal. Nothing is to be gained by either side overreacting.
patroclus
Oh Happy Day!!
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: My feelings exactly! My guess is that grifting Grandpa’s money was running out.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’ll give him this purely out of the joy I feel about never having to talk about him ever again.
Raoul
One does wonder what if any WI exit polling might have been done. It seems interesting that he is announcing right after, but before any tallies are up (it will be days and days because of the flood of mail ballots – and make no mistake, the GOP will flog the slow and messy WI tally even though of course it isn’t normally a vote-by-mail state. But I digress).
MattF
Good.
Betty Cracker
@germy: Harris is right.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Yep. Exactly. It’s true of so many things, and has been a comfort to me since I first heard it. Kind of an “oh well, can’t change the past, all I can do is more forward” moment.
I first heard it the D operative who is married to the horrid R operative – I can’t recall his name at the moment – during Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign. Or was it Jimmy Carter? No, Clinton, I think. Doesn’t matter.
Sebastian
@germy:
And that’s why she is a successful politician and I am not because I would have spoken what I really think of that dick.
Omnes Omnibus
Good for him.
sempronia
Thank goodness for Clyburn. I’ve been so glad that Biden became the clear frontrunner well before coronavirus and shelter in place became the only possible story. Can you imagine if Biden vs Bernie had still been up in the air while we’re all so angry about the White House’s active maleficence, people are dying, and everyone’s just trying to stay afloat and safe? I’m stressed enough as it is.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: My guess is Warren gives it a little time since she doesn’t share the Balloon Juice consensus on Sanders and wouldn’t want to appear to be rubbing salt in a wound. Hillary wouldn’t have that problem! :)
Don’t know about PBO, but I sure wish I could have a beer with him and pick his brain about this whole primary contest. I imagine his true feelings about how this played out would be fascinating, but we’ll probably never know.
catclub
@Baud: It is technically true. So are Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris.
Immanentize
@Sebastian: This is not true. There are very specific federal laws related to soldiers, sailors, etc. Voting absentee. It is still a large part of the work that the Voting Division at DOJ does (because, it favored Republicans in the past). Any limitation on state based mail in votes have nothing to do with the military voting by mail.
Interesting fact — no-lick stamps were invented in large part to serve the military and their ballots. The old lick ones kept falling off in the desert.
Raoul
@Baud: Not to pick on you, but it wasn’t ever really a comeback. It was a display of how out of sync with the larger nation it is to use Iowa and N.H. as leading indicators.
Is Biden the best choice? Who the frunk knows. But he is the presumptive nominee now, and he needs to stay healthy (this is a ‘rona reference only, thanks) and keep boxing Trump about the ears.
Bernie can help with that. And, the Senate is a Schumerian sh*tshow, so maybe Bernie and Elizabeth can help guide strategy there.
Redshift
@WaterGirl: James Carville?
satby
Co-signed. I never want to have to talk about him and national politics again.
Chyron HR
Breaking News: Bernie Sanders to commence his 2024 presidential campaign.
Ivan X
@WaterGirl: I’m so with you. Spite and superiority are ungraceful and unhelpful when something good happens, however deserved one may feel that it is. In this election, what’s past is past, there is only now. Congrats to Biden and to the Democratic Party generally for selecting a candidate, and thanks to Bernie for exiting now, and not later.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I’ll ask Obama for you at our next Zoom call. :-)
My guess they space out the endorsement announcements for news cycle purposes.
David Anderson
Just a quick note:
To Sanders Supporters: Take a few days, losing sucks. We’ve all been there and will be there again. We’ll see y’all in a week to start working for November.
To everyone else: We’ve all been there and will be there again with a candidate we like losing. Act with some grace. If need be, mute/block relevant trolls but go forward with grace as we work towards November.
feebog
Twitter is going to be carpet bombed by the Bernie Bros. today. No snarky posts or replies from me, I already know what it feels like to have your favorite candidate suddenly drop out.
Jeffro
@germy:
@Betty Cracker:
I just edited my gleeful FB post about this to project a more serious, thoughtful, and party-unifying Jeffro. Same with Twitter. “There goes the GOP’s hopes for fracturing the party and this blessed ‘brokered convention’ nonsense – thank you for your service, Senator Sanders”
But here? Can I just say LONG OVERDUE and TFG he finally got the message.
More importantly: WE ARE *ALL* OF US DEMS COMING FOR YOU, TRUMPOV CULTISTS
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I hope he’s capable of being a unifying force
@WaterGirl: James Carville. I don’t like him either, but he said some things in the last few months that a lot of people should have heard in 2019.
Betty Cracker
Barbara
Mostly, I feel relief for voters and poll workers, first, and second, that we can create unity in opposition to Trump.
FelonyGovt
I’m glad he’s out, but the seriousness of what we’re going through right now keeps me from doing a happy dance. I’m not going to gloat in the faces of my few Bernie friends because we all need to work together now.
Baud
@Raoul:
Those aren’t mutually exclusive.
mvr
Yeah. And the part about all having to do our bit to beat Trump is important. Some people won’t take up the “Welcome” but getting too pissy about that might drive away others who would be happy to, or at least are on the fence about it. We need their help.
Mike in NC
About fucking time! How many BernieBros will flock to Team Fat Bastard?
Jeffro
@germy: She’s going to make a great VP
tam1MI
We’d of all been a lot better off if he had never run in the first place, but better late than never.
Baud
@mvr:
Welcome the people who want to fight with us, and don’t chase anyone who doesn’t.
senyordave
The optimist in me likes t think that he called Biden, offered support, and Biden promised him a voice on some of his pet issues like MFA and student debt. And in return Bernie will tell his supporters to work there ass off for the Democrat in November, because we now know many thousands of people will die because we have a horribly unfit person as president. Hopefully all but the most strident Berniebro will see the light.
MattF
Just to note: Sanders supporters are currently flooding the intertubes with a ‘Biden is senile and is going to lose to Trump’ message. Ignore it.
stinger
At last I can discard his “Not Me” flyer, which I have kept in a prominent place and nodded sagely, “You got that right” every time I’ve passed by it.
schrodingers_cat
@Mike in NC: Last time it was about 25% (12% voted for T, rest went Jill Stein or other 3rd party or didn’t vote).
Redshift
I will remain hopeful that his dropping out this far out from the convention means that most of his supporters will at least be grudgingly on board, instead of pulling stunts like trying to embarrass the nominee during their acceptance speech.
There will be a hard core (including the Ron Paul types) for whom the Democrats are the real enemy, but it will be better not to give them any oxygen.
Jeffro
Andrew Yang’s tweet: “Bernie Sanders is a fucking hero. Let’s come together and beat this guy.”
WIN WIN WIN
SiubhanDuinne
Bernie’s talking now. I want to hear a full-throated unqualified endorsement of Biden.
Geminid
I am happy for @Riotwommen, some of whose pro-Biden tweets were posted by Annie Laurie during the primaries. @Riotwommen kept the Biden faith long after it seemed he was chained up, triple padlocked in a trunk and dropped into the bay. She must have felt very gratified when he suddenly burst to the surface.
yellowdog
Unless I missed something, he hasn’t endorsed Biden. So he is still being apouty child who display well with others. I will welcome him when, and, considering Bernie’s history, IF, he endorses Biden.
randy khan
@germy:
Exactly the right tone. Whatever people here and on other blogs think of Sanders and his supporters (good or bad), that’s what needs to be said.
Immanentize
@Redshift: The possibility that the convention will be “virtual” is also a good way to keep the party poopers from, well, pooping.
NotMax
Let the shout drought commence.
Betty Cracker
@senyordave: I don’t doubt it. It was obvious Sanders viscerally disliked Clinton in 2016. He seems to genuinely like Biden and has never been as personal in his attacks on Biden during this campaign.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jeffro: John Lewis and James Clyburn both said pretty plainly– for the old pro pols that they are– that they expect of woman of color to be Veep, and Jaime Harrison on the night of the South Carolina primary all but pleaded for Biden to announce Harris now.
Josie
@WaterGirl:
James Carville?
Sorry. Others beat me to it. Note to self — read all the comments first.
germy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/bernie-sanders-speaks-to-supporters/2020/04/08/74683300-79d3-496a-acbb-188a90630b36_live.html?itid=hp_no-name_multi-video-bar%3Aposttv%2Fvideo-live-bar-2018
SiubhanDuinne
Jesus, he’s just giving his stump speech.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Socialist Santa is a misogynist and a racist xenophobe.
chopper
nice of him to wait until *after* everybody in WI had to wait in line during a pandemic, but better late than (COUGH COUGH)
RobertDSC-Work
4 years too late. Go fuck yourself, Sanders.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Once there’s a de facto nominee, are endorsements from within the party kind of presumed? Sanders is different of course, not being in the party.
My assumption is Warren and Obama et al will campaign for him and that whatever tussles lie ahead revolve around the platform.
The DNC Brought to you by Zoom will be lit.
Elizabelle
Thank Dog.
Amir Khalid
@WaterGirl:
I wonder what kind of “the dream will never die” statement we’re going to hear from the leading Wilmeristas.
Ella in New Mexico
@David Anderson:
THIS. Over and over again, please.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: So awesome.
Biden/Harris 2020…VERY excited for this November!
schrodingers_cat
@chopper: It also gave his supporters and surrogates one entire day to call John Lewis a sellout and worse.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@senyordave:
as long as somebody can sit Bernie down– maybe Merkely– and explain to him that while “Medicare For All” is a popular slogan, “we’re going to eliminate your existing insurance” is political suicide.
Redshift
@Baud:
The main thing candidates tend to get in return for an endorsement is the nominee adopting their issues (or a position in the administration for them or their staff.) Warren seems to have gotten plenty of that already from Biden. I wonder if when the campaign books are written, we’ll learn that they agreed it would be best if she didn’t endorse until after Bernie dropped out.
randy khan
I’m glad about this. And I realize it likely was hard for him – it’s hard for any candidate who has had the dream in his grasp, but particularly hard when there were a couple of weeks of headlines about how you were the likely winner.
But now the Dems get a chance to pull together early, to plan for the convention and for November, and to have their best shot at whipping Trump and the rest of the Republican gang. So it’s great news.
(And a note to Sanders supporters – I hope you do keep pressure on Biden on key issues, because they are important. For instance, you may never get him to support M4A, but if he knows full coverage for everyone is a priority, he can be nudged in that general direction. *Any* progress is important. But please please please support and vote for him in November.)
doesntmatter
@dr. bloor: This is why the answer to Betty’s question will likely be “no”.
ThresherK
@Immanentize: I remember the Let the Soldiers Vote chants on my teevee in 2000…Thursday after Election Day.
Thanks, Joe (Blowmentum) Lieberman, for being on the wrong side of just one more issue.
trollhattan
@MattF:
‘Bernie is senile and would have lost to Trump’
Fixd
So soon they forget the whole Ukraine affair. Trump badly wanted to face Sanders.
cmorenc
@Felanius Kootea:
Not just unlocked stuff – he’s also smashing as many locks as he can (e.g. firing the inspector general who was supposed to safeguard the $trillion stimulus against pilfering – why would he do that unless he intended to corruptly divert it into his and his cronies’ pockets?)
germy
“I cannot in good conscience mount a campaign that cannot win”
He’s saying the stakes are too high this year.
Jacel
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s the silver lining I’m seeing to him remaining in the race through yesterday. His presence motivated his supporters and Biden’s supporters more to endure the crap Wisconsin threw at voters there.
The Moar You Know
I’m not a fan of his but I’ll say this: we need him. He gets people riled the fuck up and we need a big dose of that. We need the shouting and the wigglefinger directed squarely at the GOP and the monster squatting in the Oval Office. He’s good at that. REALLY good. So let’s get him a role in the campaign where he can use those strengths and let’s all get that mad motherfucker Trump out of office.
schrodingers_cat
Twitter update:
BS supporters are throwing the mother of all tantrums on Twitter calling Biden names
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@randy khan:
I don’t know if Biden needs to be nudged in that general direction– remember where “big fucking deal” comes from?– I think Bernie needs to explain to his supporters that ‘incrementalism’ is not the Deplorable Word of American politics, it’s how things actually get better.
germy
“Standing united, we will fight to defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in our history.”
(from Bernie’s speech)
Redshift
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yep. I’ve long said I love “Medicare for All” as a marketing pitch, their “we must go straight to nationwide single payer immediately” not so much.
schrodingers_cat
@germy: It took him a month to come to that conclusion? It was fairly obvious after Super Tuesday.
Jinchi
Trump is president during a pandemic and Bernie is your nightmare?
Baud
Speaking of endorsements, AOC will be interesting to watch.
stinger
@Josie: James Carville has never struck me as the tree-planting type. It’s as if I used a hockey metaphor. Not impossible, but it would come from reading or the zeitgeist rather than from personal experience!
AxelFoley
Fuck Bernie and his supporters still. Fuck being nice to them. We don’t need them assholes. Dems have kicked ass in elections since 2017 without help from them, so no one needs to kiss their asses.
Baud
@Jinchi:
We can have more than one nightmare.
BR
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s fine — let them. Every response should be unifying. We need to channel the Obamas — when they go low, we go high. No upside to getting into the mud with them.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m telling my Bernie peeps that if Congress passed M4A, Biden would sign it. I truly believe he would. Biden is not an ideologue.
Redshift
@trollhattan:
I tend to avoid making arguments that depend on Trump actually knowing what’s good for him. He badly wanted to ignore coronavirus in hopes that it would go away before November, too.
C Stars
I read some Twitter speculator yesterday saying Biden was going to pick Warren as VP. Seems to me if that were the case, would be cause for Bernie to drop out. Then again, it’s probably a long shot given that Warren and Biden hate each other, right?
In any case, I’m glad he’s dropped out; the Bernie bros on my timeline have been gunning hard against Biden and the Dems and I don’t imagine they would’ve switched focus without him dropping out. Some have grudgingly stated to me that they’ll vote for “whoever the opposition candidate is”…others… Yeesh, I dunno. I can’t see them going for Trump but if there is some other wackjob spoiler candidate on the ticket they might check that box in the name of hipster purity.
Mai naem mobile
I wish Bernie had scheduled this last minute to coincide with Orange Douchebag’s COVID19 reality show episode today. I think most stations would have gone with Bernie.
Baud
@C Stars:
Cite?
BR
@AxelFoley:
The vast majority of Bernie supporters supported Obama in ’08 and (less so) in ’12. They’re the less-likely-to-show-up-at-the-polls-unless-excited Dems, plus some independents, and skew young. We *do* need them and want them. I don’t get the anger towards them, unless we’re just as shortsighted as we say they are…
MisterForkbeard
I’m keeping it positive on facebook (“Bernie did some good things and did push the national conversation to the left” kind of thing. But my god am I angry at the sheer idiocy of people screaming about the DNC and how Biden is just like Trump.
The saving grace are the people angry at Bernie because he’s let them down by not… magically winning the race somehow. That’s darkly hilarious. But some of those same people are screaming about how the DNC screwed him or how he’s really taking the high road because Biden wants people to kill themselves voting for him.
Sigh. You go to war with the leftists you have, not the leftists you want.
schrodingers_cat
@BR: That tactic got the Orange One in the WH.
Redshift
@AxelFoley:
Bullshit. They may think they’re more important than they are, but they have been part of the Blue Wave voters and volunteers.
Betty Cracker
@AxelFoley: We need every vote to overcome the onslaught of cheating, suppression and disinformation that’s about to be dumped on our heads, so that attitude is just plain stupid.
MomSense
@Baud:
She wanted to endorse Sanders, but his campaign couldn’t get its act together to arrange it with her.
Chyron HR
@BR:
“Only 10% of Bernie’s supporters voted for the nazi” is not the crushing argument you seem to think it is.
BR
@schrodingers_cat:
Ah, so an intraparty fight is a better option?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
here’s Warren from a few days ago
Baud
@MomSense:
Isn’t that based on a single unsourced story? I’m a little skeptical of it.
satby
@germy: oh, great. NOW he grasps that.
WaterGirl
@Redshift: Yes!
Amir Khalid
@schrodingers_cat:
Please share any doozies.
BR
@Chyron HR:
Um, yeah it is. We need everyone we can get, and I’m tired of the pettiness from the so-called adults in the room.
Ohio Mom
I wouldn’t have guessed this would be my feeling — I would have guessed relief or smug — but I feel liberated by this news. I feel as light as air.
I actually grew to appreciate Bernie’s work in moving the Overton Window but never wavered in knowing he was poison as a candidate.
Onwards!
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Doesn’t seem like she hates him.
Hungry Joe
Waiting for a reaction from my swing-state Bernie Bro relatives. In ‘16 they insisted that Bernie only endorsed Hillary because the DNC and the Clintons sent a guy to put a gun to his head and threaten to blow his brains out. I’m expecting the same this time. They already told me that they will not vote for Biden because he’s a warmongering, senile, corporate-owned rapist, and they have standards.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: and conversely, if Majority Leader Schumer can get a public option or Medicare buy-in, or lowering of the eligibility age, past Minority Leader McConnell, I’m sure Bernie, and even Joe Manchin, will vote for it
C Stars
@Baud: I got nothin. In fact, that’s a rumor I read here on BJ a couple of weeks ago. I think it involved Biden supporting big finance against the CPB? But again, completely second hand. I love the idea of a Biden/Warren ticket (well, mainly I love the idea of a Warren anywhere near the levers of power).
L85NJGT
WI is the great progressive homeland, La Follette and all that. If he took a thirty point beating maybe he finally realized Democratic voters just weren’t that into him. Cash flow certainly has done and gone dried up.
He also “likes” Joe. What that means idk, but I’ve never heard it adequately explained why he doesn’t “like” the former Secretary of State.
germy
BR
@Hungry Joe:
What did they think of Bernie’s 2001 AUMF vote or the…colorful…fictional stories he wrote in the ’70s? I just never get the inconsistency…
NotMax
I suppose one could describe this development as socialist distancing.
Baud
@germy:
I’d like Bernie to do what he didn’t do in 2016, and respond to Trump directly when Trump invokes his name.
WaterGirl
@Baud:
Yes! Stated with all the enthusiasm of Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally.
Redshift
@MisterForkbeard: I made the mistake of looking at the replies to something on Twitter a week or two ago, and there was a Berner pointing to an article about how a lot of people who voted for Biden weren’t enthusiastic about him as cheating and evidence of a DNC conspiracy!
Sigh. If you are impervious to the lesson that you win by getting the most votes, not by having the biggest cheering crowds, you’re going to lose a lot.
Jinchi
And 8% of black voters and 23% of Latinos and 9% of Obama voters… This has always been a stupid argument.
Bernie’s out, get over it. This obsession with him is toxic.
WaterGirl
@MattF: Well, on the upside, you now know who to avoid and ignore. Starve them of oxygen. (Not literally)
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: and when people remonstrated with me about how much Wilmer was like Drumpf, the fact that pretty much all he has is his stump speech is my exhibit A.
BR
@C Stars:
I think the Bernie folks would be more mad about Warren as VP rather than Harris, just because they’d think that it was all a scheme to siphon votes away from Bernie so Warren could get VP.
AxelFoley
@Redshift: Bullshit back at ya. Every candidate Bernie and his people endorsed since 2017 lost their races, while so-called centrist candidates won all across the country.
WE. DON’T. NEED. THEM.
SiubhanDuinne
Meanwhile …
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/07/trump-mining-moon-executive-order
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Exactly right.
kindness
Let me take a moment to praise Bernie for his good judgement. Let me also take a moment and hope Bernie’s most virulent supporters don’t go out and torpedo Joe Biden’s campaign like they did Hillary’s.
Just sayin’.
AxelFoley
@Betty Cracker: Fuck that noise. We don’t need the fuckers. If it weren’t for those assholes tearing Hillary down, we wouldn’t be in this mess. I refuse to make nice with them. I hate the fuckers as much as I do Trump and the GOP.
WaterGirl
@Josie:
If we all did that, all the threads would be dead before we could comment!
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Worth remembering that Joe Fucking Manchin from West By God Virginia voted to remove Trump from office.
dogwood
@Baud: Endorsements are meaningless at this point. It’s over. It would have been a political disaster for the party if Obama and Hillary had stepped in and endorsed; and they would have been the only story the media would have chased. As for Warren, if she didn’t want to weigh in while voting was going on, why bother now?
CaseyL
@chopper: Actually, no: there was an important local issue on the ballot as well, a WI Supreme Court judgeship. A GOP hack who would have expanded the current GOP majority v. a Democratic candidate who would have made it a one-vote GOP majority.
That was, IMO, more important than the Presidential Primary.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne:
Me, at comment #83: Maybe I should listen to Bernie’s speech.
Me, at comment #84: Nope.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: She doesn’t really command a mass base of voters as her performance in the primaries amply demonstrated.
Baud
@dogwood:
Not unimportant. Each pol has his or her own network of supporters and voters. Important to get all hands on deck.
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: Grandpa BS is a one trick pony.
dr. bloor
@Jinchi: It was a joke.
Were you too young or simply too uninterested in the world around you the first time the phrase was used?
WaterGirl
@chopper: Not sure whether you know that there was a HUGELY important supreme court race in Wisconsin yesterday? That could have a huge impact on the outcome in November.
Origuy
@Barbara: There are still going to be primaries for state and local elections. There might not be as much interest, but they are still important.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Let them say what they want. We just have to get the gettable Bernie folks on board, and ignore the rest.
BR
The easiest and least contentious thing Biden could do to win Bernie voter support is go big on climate change. It’s not one of the main fault lines, and the differences in the plans are relatively minor. So he could say he’s adopting Bernie’s X, Y, and Z on climate (which probably are the same as everyone else’s) and asking him to advise the campaign on climate policy or something. (Not that I think Bernie actually is a wonk, but more as a messaging strategy.)
schrodingers_cat
@Amir Khalid: https://twitter.com/doyalikebaileys/status/1247919631391735808/photo/1
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dogwood: those endorsements will generate media coverage and probably fund-raising, both of which Biden needs
Just One More Canuck
@Betty Cracker:
Like FDR said, ‘I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it’
Jinchi
I don’t think Biden is looking at Warren and she’s repeatedly downplayed the idea of trading her Senate seat for the Vice Presidency.
Paraphrasing her comments in the interviews I’ve seen, she was running for President, not VP and Senator is a really good job.
Frankensteinbeck
I heard part of his concession speech. It seemed gracious. As long as he doesn’t encourage the “The DNC cheated you” conspiracy theories AGAIN, I will try to be gracious in return.
Jinchi
@dr. bloor: The reply was a joke too.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: Is he going to sell the rights to the highest bidder? New moon race, who can drill first.
Betty Cracker
@AxelFoley: When you shit all over “Bernie supporters,” you’re talking about millions of Democrats who voted for Sanders in the 2016 primary and then Clinton in the general. You’re shitting on Democrats who voted for Sanders in the 2020 primary and will vote for Biden in the general. Fuck that noise. If you mean a small subset of Sanders supporters, like the minority who did/will vote for Trump/Stein in 2016/2020, say so.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: Let them rant, cry, scream, seethe, whatever. It hurts nothing at this point.
Giving that sort of behavior attention only encourages it. If we ignore it, that behavior will pass that much more quickly.
And if it won’t pass for some folks, then we have already learned how to ignore them and get to work, and we are all the better for that.
C Stars
@BR: Aaaayup. Just took two minutes to look at Twitter and sure enough, first thing I saw was an enraged Bernie bro spewing poison about how this is all Warren’s fault.
I get why people love Bernie. I just don’t get why so many of them have to be such assholes about it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@BR: I keep hearing this and I hope it’s true that climate is a big vote-getter. But Inslee’s campaign failed to launch, and the “Sunrise movement” has not impressed me
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Climate gets votes, I think. Particular solutions to the climate crisis don’t IMHO.
Frankensteinbeck
@BR:
That would be nice, but I think the Sanders voters who won’t come over easily cannot be convinced that way, because they won’t believe it’s true. They live in a fantasy world where the Democrats support lowering taxes on the rich and want to cut the safety net. No facts can change their mind.
The Sanders supporters who aren’t nuts like that will be persuadable with Biden’s already liberal positions, although I bet he’ll throw them an extra bone just because he’s a good winner who knows how to build coalitions.
Brachiator
It’s up to Sanders. I look forward to him taking shots at Trump now.
The Berniebros have plenty of time to adjust to the new reality or to consign themselves to the dustbin of history.
Apart from this, I don’t much care what the most stubborn might do.
BTW: I would bet that some of the Berniebros I have run across on social media, especially some that claim that they could never vote for Biden, are Ruskie trolls. I suspect that vehement messages from Berniebros claiming that they will not vote at all will be disinformation.
scav
@C Stars: Funny that, given his orangeness in chief goes in for the same. luckily we’re living in a conspiracy- free world so there won’t be any eyebrows sprained through raising.
Frankensteinbeck
@C Stars:
I do. Sanders is selling anger. There are plenty of justifiably angry people, but the left wing asshole vote flocks to that approach.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@C Stars:
“asshole” is the point, shouting and emoting and theatrics. Just look at the mythologizing of how he got unemployment increased in the recent bill by being righteously sarcastic on the Senate. And he was right, but that piece of the legislation was moved through by the very untheatrical and un-emo Michael Bennet and a few others while Bernie was doing zooms up in Vermont, and Bernie was shouting at a group led by Lindsey Graham who had pretty much pantsed themselves
BR
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t think it’s a vote getter as much as a pacifier. Just basically send Bernie out on the campaign trail / interview circuit for Biden hammering on climate change with a side note about pandemics. A month of that and his voters will have a clear contrast painted for them. He can steer clear of M4A which is chum for the political press and an easy source of articles about the fractured Dem base.
jl
Good news. I think Sanders and Biden must have reached a deal, in the good sense of the word.
I’m a little bit tired of the negativism on display around SOP political quarters.
For my part, I am hoping a deal means Warren will have a prominent policy and direction role to play.
Immanentize
@Baud: She will def endorse Biden. She seems to be in this for the long run. Unlike Tlaib. But I expect Omar will as well and Pressley will take her endorsement timing cues from Warren.
BR
@jl:
I’m hoping for Warren at Treasury…if there’s anyone who can repair the damage there it’s Warren. And Katie Porter at SEC.
Geminid
I try not to judge the majority of Sanders’ supporters by the mouthiest of them. The political outlook of most of them is different than mine, but not that different, and I think they will vote and vote right this fall. The loud ones may be irreconcilable. The worst are like vicious pirates who, having failed to storm the town, try to poison the wells on their way back to their ships.
Jinchi
@BR: I don’t think Biden has to explicitly play to Bernie or even his voters, but I do hope he’s learning lessons about how to motivate groups he did relatively poorly with, particularly younger and more idealistic voters.
I hear his previous boss was pretty good at that. Hopefully Biden is asking him for pointers.
sdhays
This gave me flashbacks to November 2016. I was soooo looking forward to not having to talk about Donald Trump again. And the nightmare was just beginning.
Not to suggest that I’m equating Bernie with Donald Dump. It’s just the wording that brought back those memories.
BC in Illinois
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“What do you want?”
“Incremental change over the next four years, through effective, honest policy implementation for the well-being of the entire nation, with oversight and anti-corruption controls and long-term planning and coalition building with the people of our country and our democratic allies around the world ! ”
“When do you want it?”
” Over the next four years ! ”
(Repeat every four years.)
hueyplong
Advising Teh Internets not to have hot takes about Sanders today seems a little like standing on the beach with O’Reilly and advising the tide to decline to come in.
In the spirit of the instructions, however, let me say that I like Sanders a lot more than I like Joe Lieberman, and I’m more than ok with Bernie’s fans claiming that lots of the eventual Democratic platform is Bernie-inspired.
Now let’s show the putrid orange pestilence the door.
BR
@Geminid:
Same. In a lot of ways I am to the left of a lot of Bernie folks, but also much more accepting of the fact that my views (see: Daly’s steady state economics) aren’t likely to become popular anytime soon.
Baud
@sdhays:
I hope to be able to talk about Trump’s trial and incarceration.
Josie
@Brachiator:
“I would bet that some of the Berniebros I have run across on social media, especially some that claim that they could never vote for Biden, are Ruskie trolls. I suspect that vehement messages from Berniebros claiming that they will not vote at all will be disinformation.”
I find this a really good analysis. It is one we should consider before throwing stones at Sanders supporters. I have never liked him, but plenty of intelligent, progressive people have.
trollhattan
@Redshift:
There’s a reason Trump has tweeted about Bernie being “treated unfairly.” He’s telegraphed his preferences openly.
trollhattan
@BR:
Treasury or Fed chair.
mrmoshpotato
Four fucking years too late, you pouty asshole.
HRA
You all have to let up on the climate change about Biden. He was the first senator to introduce a bill on Climate Change in 1986.
It is really very hard for me to expect Bernie and his followers to not do something vile during the convention. Maybe the saving grace will be a convention without people in it.
Yes we can!
Jackie
At the end of his suspension speech , Sanders specifically said he’s remaining on the ballot to keep collecting delegates – to leverage more power during the Convention.???
zhena gogolia
Oh, at least one good thing happened today.
Baud
@Jackie:
I doubt he’ll get more than the 15% threshold in many states.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: ?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: I judge Sanders himself by those supporters. He has never addressed, or attempted to mitigate, the toxicity of his supporters. And I don’t expect him to chase down every excitable 19 year old with a twitter account, I look at his inner circle: The bleating emo clown Michael Moore, the smarmy douche Sirota, and Briahna Joy Grey who earlier this week picked, and badly lost, a twitter fight with Ezra Klein. A twitter spat with Ezra Klein is like getting mad cause somebody next to you at the diner ordered meatloaf, fercrissake.
trollhattan
@Jackie:
Seriously?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: That would be…helpful.
catclub
@trollhattan: There was an opinion piece about “Biden should promise to reappoint Powell as fed chair.” Fuck that noise of ‘we need to keep a daddy republican in important jobs’
He should fire him and re-appoint Yellen.
BR
@HRA:
I didn’t know that. Maybe Biden should talk about it more? And that the world has changed faster than they thought it would, and that now it’s time to bring Bernie on board to help that fight blah blah blah… It’s an appeal to Bernie folks, not a substantive shift.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@BC in Illinois: do you have a newsletter? or sell bumper stickers?
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Never happen. You can take that to the bank (or at least to the drive-through window.)
lamh36
With Sanders out… Here comes the Obamas!
I suspect PBO and ForeverFLOTUS will wait for Biden to choose a VP before any overt campaigning.
But now that we have a presumptive nominee…
Baud
@BR:
No. Biden should not get Bernie get too close.
glory b
@BR: speaking for some jackals of color, black people have always had the notion, true or not, that black people raise their children better than white people. All of us has seen a white kid having a screaming, kicking, tantrum in public, while his mother implores him to behave himself.
Of course, this never works, the kid remains the recalcitrant Problem Child anyway. A black mother would snatch you up by your collar and drag you away.
I think that’s what we see, when we see some of the Bernie people getting in a snit, disparaging the nominee and saying they won’t vote. They have the privilege to do that, not voting probably won’t change the staus quo for them, while the rest of us are fighting for our lives. They never seem to get that.
Of course, not all Bernie voters…
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
I know. I also won’t win the lottery. I can still dream.
BR
@Baud:
Bernie’s young voter base is crushed — I’ve spoken with some of them personally. We want them off the sidelines, because they have incredible energy and I was one of those kinds of volunteers for Obama in ’07/’08 and put all my waking hours into the campaign.
mrmoshpotato
@Jackie:
What? The shit? Is this?
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Has Michael Moore ever held any official or even unofficial position in the Sanders’ campaign organization?
I understand your point, but ultimately I want to see Sanders go after Trump more than I want to see him spend time punishing the asswipes among his supporters. They really don’t matter.
trollhattan
@catclub:
That would rile the banksters, they hate Yellen. Thus, a great idea.
glory b
@Jackie: To end in a replay of booing at the convention and embarrassing the nominee.
patrick II
Can hate of Trump hold us more tightly than love of Obama? Yes, I think it can. Now, if we can just find a way to stop republican judges from curtailing democratic voters those of us left alive will vote Trump out.
Jackie
Baud
@BR: Doesn’t matter. Bernie can’t be trusted enough to be a close adviser to Biden.
Salty Sam
This. Thank you Jinchi…
germy
Final stage: Acceptance
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Gin & Tonic: I think realistically, if Tish James has something on him, the morbidly obese man who dips his cheeseburgers in a dish of mayonnaise and thinks exercise shortens your lie may not be a billionaire, but he has enough cash (and probably enough cultists) to drag out appeals et cetera until he dies in his own bed.
And Ivanka will pull off his rings and bedcurtains and get them to a tony resale shop on west 73rd before anybody tells Fredo or Gummo, while Melania verifies her accounts in Lichtenstein and charters a flight for two back to Slovenia. Or probably Paris.
Brachiator
@mrmoshpotato:
I hope he gives up this delusion soon. He ain’t got no leverage.
Chyron HR
@Jackie:
“BErNIe’S ouT, geT OvEr it. tHIS OBSesSIOn wIth HIm iS TOxiC.” – @Jinchi
C Stars
@glory b:
I’m definitely one of those white moms trying to politely ask their shitty-acting child to knock it off… But this really resonates with me… Some of the young Berners are just lost in their quest to capture a shimmering golden unicorn of instantaneous social democratic utopia, while the rest of us are eyeing the literal survival of Democracy in this country.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Brachiator:
he’s been one of his chief surrogates for the better part of five years, and you can say these people don’t matter, and you should be right, but the last race was lost on the margins
hitchhiker
A long time ago I was deeply frustrated with the Democratic party for what felt like utter capitulation to W … this was during the runup to the Iraq war and just after the invasion. Why were people acting like they had to bow before (what was to me) his obvious misreading of the situation? Why was everybody acting like the worst possible outcome wouldn’t be to start a war? Why was he being given the benefit of the doubt?
And then came Howard Dean, demanding to know those same things. Howard Dean, the first to raise money online, and lots of it. Howard Dean, inspiration to millions of people who were still fucking furious about the stolen 2000 election and not one bit willing to see W as a legitimate president. I want my country back, was the signature phrase.
On the night that John Kerry won a decisive victory in that primary, a local talk radio host on the left (Kerry fan) was crooning into her microphone, “Come home, little Deaniacs!” in the most obnoxiously smug fashion imaginable. Kerry was a shitty candidate for lots of reasons, but there was no question I’d support him against W.
But it wasn’t fun, and the fact that I remember that moment so clearly means, right now, that it matters how people talk publicly about Sanders. That host could easily have said, “I have so much respect right now for Howard Dean, and for everyone who supported him.” She didn’t. She made it clear she knew all along that we were just a bunch of fools, and that now — to her great delight — we had no choice but to admit it.
People take this stuff personally, like it or not. I’m glad Sanders isn’t going to subject us to another spring like the one we endured in 2016, and I’m going to leave it at that.
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yup. Ain’t no way in hell she’s going back to Slovenia.
BBA
@Jackie: I intend to vote Warren, should New York ever hold its primary, for the same reason.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
This is kind of like one of those late John Wayne or Henry Fonda movies where the old geezer straps on his six-guns to do battle with some slimeball like Bruce Dern or something. (Not to insult Bruce Dern by comparing him to Twitler.)
kindness
Just checked my FB feed. Seems like most of my Bernie friends are OK with supporting Uncle Joe but there are still several who seem to be repeating their 2016 ways.
If you hate other Democrats why did you join the party? I’m not posting on their pages. Let them get over it. Hopefully they end up wanting to defeat Trump more than the evil ‘DNC machine’. I’m being generous.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m just petty. I fully admit it.
BobS
@AxelFoley: You’re not particularly bright, are you?
Baud
I feel kind of bad for Larry David.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud:
I also try to remind myself, from time to time, that I thought he scarificed his career on post-Newtown gun safety measures, as limited as those were
@Baud: more Maya Rudolph is one of the reasons I’m on team Biden/Harris
zhena gogolia
@AxelFoley:
I think I’m kind of in your sort of mood.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Oh, he’s going to be happy. He had a great interview with MoDo in the NYT about it. He’s not interested in doing the impression any more.
Brachiator
@Baud:
Very interesting take. I think you may be right about this.
Redshift
@AxelFoley:
Yeah, Bernie candidates losing primaries definitely proves his supporters didn’t volunteer or vote for Democrats in the general election. I think I’ll save my arguments for people who aren’t impervious to logic.
Oh, and great job buying into your enemy’s framing that Bernie-supported candidates are progressives and all others are “centrists.”
Baud
@zhena gogolia: Oh good.
NotMax
@Baud
Poor fellow still can’t afford to buy a last name.
;)
azelie
Deleting comment – was answering Watergirl about James Carville but I see it’s been answered upthread.
trollhattan
@Jackie:
Sooo, out but still in. Just great.
Some kind of virtual convention seems moderately possible. That might stanch the platform battleplan.
trollhattan
@Baud:
This frees Larry to make one more Curb season. Win-win.
Baud
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Don’t worry. Larry David’s millionaire ass will be fine. Missing SNL appearances won’t make him miss a meal.
Amir Khalid
@Jackie:
How many delegates does Bernie hope to get? It’s hard to conceive of many ordinary Democrats wasting their primary vote on an admitted non-contender.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: I hear you. We were the exceptions in the sea of Warren supporters on this blog.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Are they shooting new episodes of SNL anymore?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
one thing Bernie could do: Rage against what happened in Wisconsin, talk about safe voting and the integrity of our elections. Call trump out on his lies about vote-by-mail, use it as a pivot point to point out the corrupt partisanship of the Roberts-Kavanaugh Court
PJ
@Betty Cracker: Barack signed a big contract for his memoirs after he left the White House. Michelle’s came out a couple of years ago, and he has had plenty of time to write. My guess is that if Hillary had been President, his memoir would have been published by now, but now he is waiting to see the Trump Presidency, and everything that enabled it, and all the damage it is causing, come to an end. Again, just my hunch, but I think he, like most thinking Americans, is justifiably angry about what happened and specifically about the actions of a number of politicians, who are mostly Republicans, but among whom Bernie might be included (although Bernie’s culpability is far lower than most of the other actors). Whether or not he thinks it would be politically damaging to Democrats and Democratic policies to fully express that is another matter. Obama was very good at controlling the expression of his emotions, but I would like very much to hear how he really felt about things.
Raoul
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If Bernie stayed in to try to help boost Dem turnout and win that WI supremes seat, definite kudos for strategery!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Sure, it’s not like being in the Senate or House is an important job.
MomSense
@C Stars:
Obama and Biden both supported CFPB and both wanted Warren to head it. Rather than let their political team handle it, she turned it into such a big fight that she lost the support of Democrats to have her head it. She has great ideas but horrible political skills.
AxelFoley
@Redshift: I didn’t buy into shit. Bernie supporters have been the ones saying that for the last four years.
You and some others here can kiss their asses. I sure as fuck won’t. I’m gonna keep dunking on them while supporting REAL Democrats.
MisterForkbeard
@kindness: I’m seeing a fair amount of (white male) Bros telling me that Biden is a racist sexist prick who sexually assaults women and they’re now bowing to party pressure to vote for Biden in the general. Coincidentally, these people also had very suspect arguments against Hillary in 2016 that persisted up until election day.
Sigh.
glory b
@C Stars: Thank you for your service.
mrmoshpotato
@schrodingers_cat: Not right now! ?
Redshift
@hitchhiker: I’ve tried telling Berners the story of how Howard Dean was the first presidential candidate I ever passionately supported. I was crushed when he lost, but we organized and a year later we made him head of the DNC. I’ve never gotten a response, but maybe it gets through to some of them. (Hey, I’m an optimist by nature.)
negative 1
@Betty Cracker: I would agree, and admire him for it. I think that’s why plenty of people including me are fine with him being the nominee even if it wasn’t the first choice. He’s been in politics for a while, and seems to really listen to others if they make a convincing argument. Hence, his positions evolve in a good way, and have previously.
BobS
@Baud: Fortunately Joe Biden is a bigger (and smarter) person than the people who think that a ‘scorched earth’ campaign against Sanders’ supporters would work out well for Democrats (and the United States, and the fucking world) in November.
AxelFoley
@BobS: Smarter than your dumb ass. Fuck right the fuck off.
schrodingers_cat
@Redshift: BS supporters think that DNC is a cross between the politburo and the Nazi high command.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@C Stars:
I think you overestimate their political commitment, and I wouldn’t limit it to the young. I think for a lot of them it’s an (arrested) adolescent quest to find themselves fascinating. See Sarandon, Susan
stinger
@WaterGirl: Welcome to my world.
PJ
@Betty Cracker: As you note, Biden will pass whatever a Democratic Congress (fingers crossed) puts in front of him, but beyond that Biden will do much more to advance progressive policies than Bernie ever would, even if the policies he espouses are not as far reaching as Bernie’s, simply because he’s a much better politician and persuader.
patroclus
@Baud: Those tweets reflect what a good and decent man and what a good politician Biden actually is. I voted for Amy K (and am thrilled that her husband is recovering), but I’m warming to Biden virtually every day. Now, Bernie’s supporters will have months to do the same. All that matters is destroying every single Republican at the polls this Fall.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: Why does Yang want to beat Bernie. That’s kind of cruel.
Raoul
One can hope that the Biden campaign is in contact with Sen. Sanders to talk seriously about health care reform. We are going to need champions in the Senate to work through big changes our shitatstic ‘system’. I know that as of now, Biden is still saying all his ACA-ish stuff.
But as Covid continues to ravage both people and the precarious health infrastructure of our country, I can’t see how Joe can keep whistling that tune. Coordinating with Sanders (and Warren, others) and helping Bernie shine there might go a long way towards soothing chapped backsides.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: Agreed. That’s why she came 3rd in Massachusetts. I don’t think she even won 20 towns on Super Tuesday in MA.
James E Powell
@kindness:
I don’t believe that they did.
Baud
@BobS:
Nominees don’t have the freedom regular voters have. But to be clear, I will go scorched earth on the tiny minority of noisy Sanders dead enders who will continue to hate on Biden. I hope the vast majority of “good” Sanders supports will support me or, at least, stay out of my way.
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
IF we take the senate then she can make significant change from her senate seat. If not, then being in the cabinet or an appointed position may well be the best use of her skill and drive*.
We shall see.
*Am going out on a limb with Mass voters that Scotty Hotpants was a one-off own goal.
BobS
@AxelFoley: See comment 265.
And by the way, Trump’s twitter rages have more wisdom and depth than your comments on this thread.
germy
James E Powell
@Baud:
Wow. It’s almost like the guy knows what he’s doing.
negative 1
@MisterForkbeard: I feel like the important take away there is that they are bowing to the pressure to vote for Biden. As the old saw goes, you don’t have to be happy to vote that way you just have to vote that way.
Lavocat
This is the easy part. The hard part will be convincing Sleepy Joe that the only way to truly unify the Democratic party will be to appoint a woman WHO IS A PROGRESSIVE to the ticket.
That would be Elizabeth Warren.
Put her on the ticket and unify the party. Don’t do so and run the risk of us Progressives once again voting for the other side.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
scrapping about politics on Balloon Juice… a blessed return to normalcy
ETA:
still demanding those bent knees, eh? Fuck off.
cain
The folks on /r/politics on reddit are out for revenge because of all this. They are foolish people, trying to get revenge and punish the Democratic party. I told them that Bernie would have been ineffectual because the constitution does not allow for large changes to happen because of checks and balances and Bernie’s approach would have only caused conflicts.
germy
Baud
@Lavocat: It won’t be Warren. You should buy your MAGA hat now.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Haha. Feels like old times.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: While it’s true that Sanders and SOME of his supporters define themselves by opposition to the party, millions of registered, meeting-going, rep-calling Democrats like Sanders’ ideas, voted for Sanders in the primary and will support the nominee in the general. Every time you slag on “Sanders supporters” as if they’re a monolith, you’re shitting on good Democrats.
mrmoshpotato
@patroclus:
If this is how you feel, it doesn’t sound like you need any “warming to Biden.”
Baud
@cain: /r/politics is like Rose Twitter. Waste of time IMHO.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
You’re right about this. I so detest Moore that I had completely put this out of my mind.
The last election was lost for all kinds of reasons. And maybe it’s just me, but I am more focused on the upcoming race than I am the last one.
Also, maybe the most vehement Sanders supporters will still be nutty, but they always were. They just glommed onto Sanders this time, but they always were waiting for a mythical ultra-progressive.
But Trump is the real monster that must be defeated.
BobS
@Lavocat: Warren would be a foolish choice- Massachusetts has a Republican governor who would appoint her replacement.
germy
Joey Maloney
Many of the Bernie partisans in my Twitter feed have skipped straight to “Biden is a rapist”.
This is truly the stupidest timeline.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: I refer to those who are trending Congrats T and Green party on Twitter right. The BS or bust types.
negative 1
@Raoul: I say this as a guy who would’ve voted for Bernie if my state voted before the race was over — I think that is very, very bad idea. I think a national healthcare system is the best option for saving lives and not ruining people financially, but I can emphatically say that it is very, very far from the majority opinion. People easily could’ve voted for a progressive candidate this year, and the two that ran got killed. I plan on supporting the idea, but it’s likely a non-starter for a while at this point.
hueyplong
@Baud: “It won’t be Warren. You should buy your MAGA hat now.”
Or have the existing one laundered.
schrodingers_cat
@Joey Maloney: They have been trying that for a week at least. Last two days it was Jill Biden calling herself a doctor is egregious.
Fair Economist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
She’s a fake leftist, like Roseanne Barr. Not even willing to admit that Trump has done horrible things.
Brachiator
@Lavocat:
What other side?
germy
How’s THIS for a backhanded slap?
Redshift
@MomSense: Yeah, getting an entire new federal agency created definitely demonstrates terrible political skills. Got any reference for that claim about the leadership position? Because that’s not my recollection, and a quick news search isn’t turning up anything like that.
mrmoshpotato
@Lavocat: Fuck all the way off, you unicorn chasing, selfish shithead child.
Baud’s right. Go buy your MAGA hat.
Jackie
@Lavocat: I would like one person on the ballot to be under age 60. For obvious reasons.
PJ
@Lavocat: I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not, but anyone who votes for “the other side” (aka, the Republicans) is, by definition, not progressive, and is, not coincidentally, an even shittier person than a Republican, because he or she doesn’t actually believe in Republican policies, just the Republican values of pettiness, spite, and vindictiveness.
Brachiator
@germy:
This is very well said.
Starfish
@WaterGirl: There is a lot of “Bernie is Trump-lite” nonsense that I am seeing from people in Oregon.
Also, Bernie is not taking himself off the ballots.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense:
That was my impression when I was candidate shopping after Sen. Harris dropped out and ended up voting for Joey B.
Jinchi
@germy: Of course by his standards using the Strategic National Stockpile to help Americans during a pandemic is socialism, too.
Nobody has done a better job selling “socialism” than the modern Republican party.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Lavocat:
voting for a fascist.
I wonder if progressive fascism is like Jonah Goldberg’s liberal fascism.
Lavocat, care to enlighten us establishment whores on this?
negative 1
@Lavocat: I would bet a lot that he picks Kamala Harris. My first choice was Warren but single-payer is not something the people seem to be voting for. If he picks Warren, he picks up that ‘negative’ in the eyes of the media. Harris is a friend of his, and a well-liked democrat.
Brachiator
@Joey Maloney:
Probably not Bernie partisans. More of the disinformation campaign.
And if they are real, they are the Berniebro lunatic fringe. Obnoxious, but will not be significant.
AxelFoley
@BobS: And my comments have more wisdom and depth than yours, so what does that say about you, fuckwad?
BobS
@PJ: Maybe not a shittier person than your average Republican- let’s face it, they can be pretty shitty- but certainly a dumber person than your average Republican. Even the fucking snake-handlers understand the binary nature of our political system.
germy
@Lavocat: “Sleepy Joe” “Us progressives”
Well played. DougJ often does the same thing to conservative blogs.
Chyron HR
@Joey Maloney:
Biden’s pretty feisty for a guy who’s secretly been dead for a month.
Cheryl from Maryland
@BR: Excellent idea. I’ve spent several conversations with my 95-year-old MIL and my 19-year-old godson explaining how increased speed of travel, increased movement of peoples, deforestation, climate change, and resultant invasive species influence pandemics. I think they get it now.
negative 1
@germy: I know that the country would be far more improved by Mitch McConnell losing his senate seat. But on a far more emotional level, I can’t help but think I’d be far happier to watch Lindsay Graham lose his. He seems to go above and beyond on his quest to be the biggest piece of sh!t.
Gin & Tonic
@Lavocat:
The only “other side” on offer is Trump.
Archon
@germy:
That’s why they didn’t want to run against Biden. Trying to get the “socialist, out of the mainstream” tag to stick with someone who has been in the public eye for 50 years like Joe Biden just isn’t gonna work.
Joey Maloney
@schrodingers_cat: The Dr. Biden stuff was at least funny. I laughed my ass off when I read “wait until you google the truth about Dr. Dre”. This is just…gross. I’m old enough to have witnessed the purple heart band-aids, the Clinton Death List, the secret Muslim Kenyan. Of course I understand partisans and ratfuckers with no ethics running this up the flagpole, but to see people I formerly respected swallowing it sink, line, and hooker is disgusting and a little heartbreaking.
MisterForkbeard
@negative 1: Typo. They’re “NOT” bowing to pressure.
Though I think some of them will, and I’ve literally told some of them that I’m sad they’re so angry about this, but we should discuss it again in a week or a month when the news about Bernie’s campaign isn’t so fresh and tempers aren’t as high.
Omnes Omnibus
Take the win. He is out. Bernie supporters will show up for Biden; Bernie Bros won’t.
Nora
@negative 1: Oh come on, why not both?
MazeDancer .
@Jackie:
Bernie has to keep the grifting opportunities up and running.
Not taking his name off the ballots during a pandemic is shameful.
Means risking lives as people go out to vote against him. Means encouraging his dead-enders to meet their dead end.
Was all set to be as gracious as I could muster until I heard Bernie’s being a divider til the end.
Redshift
@schrodingers_cat:
Isn’t that an excellent reason for wanting to take it over and fill it with their people?
(I mean, if you’re actually thinking strategically. Sigh.)
Geoboy
@Gin & Tonic: My wife and I visited Slovenia in 2016. It was beautiful and delightful. Not Paris, but I’d sure spend part of the year there.
Brachiator
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yep.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Joey Maloney: I figure we’re a week away from either Fredo or an actual member of Congress — Gaetz or Zeldin that woman from upstate NY who was supposed to be one of the rising moderates–retweeting the “Biden is a rapist” stuff
CCL
@Barbara:
Sorry, no relief for poll workers. Bernie said he is staying on the ballot in order to continue to collect delegates, so primaries will still be held. (That is, in case he changes strategies and requests to be taken off the ballot.)
BobS
@AxelFoley: I can see that just assuming you weren’t very bright was actually overestimating the number of functional neurons you’re equipped with.
However, thank you for taking a break from sucking the end of the garden hose you attached to the exhaust pipe of your running car.
Emma from FL
Three hundred plus entries on this? Really? Attacking each other over Bernie-freaking-Sanders? And some of you attack the Democrats in Congress for wasting time and/or not taking the fight “to the real enemy”? Really?
A Ghost to Most
@Joey Maloney:
You have no idea. At this very moment, Vogons are dismantling my front yard in preparation for the installation of a
freewaypipeline.Hungry Joe
It’s in! Here is my Bernie Bros relatives’ reaction to Bernie dropping out:
SAY CONGRATULATIONS TO DONALD TRUMP, WINNER OF THE 2020 PRESIDENT ELECTION.
negative 1
@MisterForkbeard: If it’s any consolation, despite the hysterics the amount of people who don’t vote for the ‘same party’ candidate in the general is around 10%. That number holds true in almost every election. People say that because what else is there to do? I support the stuff Bernie supports and would have voted for him if my state voted when it was still an actual race. No one backs those ideas now, though, so truly I have nothing. I am obviously voting Biden, convincing others to vote Biden, but if you really needed that health insurance or are broke because your student loans are keeping you poor you’re really kind of screwed for about the next decade. I can understand being upset. The truth is most of them will probably vote Biden, even if they are mad their causes don’t get traction. Statistically speaking, they are far more likely to *say* they won’t vote Biden than actually do it.
mrmoshpotato
@CCL:
Oh, he won’t. Suspending your campaign but staying on the ballot?
What kind of ratfucking shit is this? Fuck Wilmer.
germy
@CCL: Aren’t there also downballot races?
negative 1
@Nora: I feel like I haven’t been good enough to deserve it. Don’t get me wrong, either one would get me happy in a really deep down way.
AnotherBruce
@David Anderson: co signed.
Nora
@negative 1: Man, if McConnell loses his seat, I would be SO happy! I would probably dance in the streets! Lindsay Graham deserves to lose as well, and I would be so glad to see him out of the Senate (how long before he’s a talking head on Fox?), but in terms of actual danger to the country, McConnell’s enemy number one.
Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)
@Immanentize: On the bright side, maybe having an actual primary on the ballot–even on on its last legs–increased the anemic turnout enough to help in the supreme court race. I almost wonder if he didn’t stay in just for that reason, especially considering he dropped out once the voting was done and well before any results would be announced.
mrmoshpotato
@Hungry Joe: (chef’s kiss) Morons. I look forward to the WI Democratic primary results.
negative 1
@CCL: In my state they would be anyway, for local and state elections. Is that not the case anywhere else?
mrmoshpotato
@Nora: Every Russthuglican deserves to lose. Stop playing favorites. ?
negative 1
@Nora: Yes, I agree. McConnell is the worst of the two, if only because he wields the most power. Which is why I think Graham is the bigger sh!theel — he doesn’t actually have to be that much of an a$$hole, he really just chooses to be. McConnell’s job is being the standard bearer for a bunch of other a$$holes, so he kind of has to be the biggest one as part of the job.
And yes, I realize this is like saying I’d rather have anthrax than small pox.
Chyron HR
@BobS:
Remember, Democrats, you can’t treat Bernie’s supporters the way they treat you or they won’t vote in November.
(Spoiler: They won’t vote in November regardless.)
Jinchi
This is an absurd take on history. Warren’s nomination was actively opposed by the Republicans, who were hoping to hobble the agency before it ever got started. When Obama pulled her nomination, assuming he could substitute someone more acceptable to them, Senate Republicans declared that they would oppose any nominee.
And they did. Obama had to recess appoint acting Director Cordray and set off a constitutional battle. It was only a year and a half later, after Republicans had lost seats in the Senate, that Cordray’s nomination was finally allowed to go through.
Meanwhile, the woman with “horrible political skills” defeated Scott Brown to become a Senator herself.
Nora
@mrmoshpotato: You are so right. My apologies. I’ll save my biggest dance in the street for McConnell, but I’ll be delighted to see any — or all? — of them go down the tubes.
mrmoshpotato
@Chyron HR: (slack-jawed meathead voice) The primary was rigged against Berrrrnie! I’m gonna write in Berrrrnie.
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator:
Yes, the best thing I’ve ever seen him say.
Baud
@Hungry Joe:
Biden could lose, just like any candidate could. The only question is who your relatives will voter for.
Redshift
@Raoul:
The pandemic can be used as a good argument that we need change; it’s not a particularly good argument for national single payer. The UK has that, and they’re not doing great on the pandemic (and how much better they’re doing is more about having competent leaders than about the NHS. The one big difference is the financial one. That should definitely be a focus, but single payer is not the only solution.
Whatever we do is going to be built on the ACA, that’s just reality. I’d be happy if Biden makes it clear that doesn’t mean small improvements, but the ACA is actually popular now and it’s on his resume, so he shouldn’t stop taking about it.
trollhattan
@Jinchi:
She seems to attract a similar brand of dislike as one Hillary Clinton.
mrmoshpotato
@Nora: :) If Turtle-faced Fascist Motherfucker loses his “job”, I will do cartwheels down the block. And I can’t do cartwheels!
Spanky
Bernie who?
Jackie
@negative 1: Not always. My state (WA) has two primaries: One for president held early Mar, and another – in Aug – for down-ballot.
germy
You’re all a bunch of slackers.
There’s over 600 comments at LGM.
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/04/sanders-suspends-campaign
cain
@Just One More Canuck:
Didn’t Obama say that too?
Bernie is just another cult of personality. It’s stupid. With Obama, I really personally admired and loved the man, he represented the best of us and our ideals. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t free to criticize the man for some of his decisions. In a cult of personality, a Bernie or Trump can never be wrong and that is not the wrong approach because you’re morality is all in terms of your cult’s actions.
Miss Bianca
Damn, I take a *three hours’ tour* away from this place to write an article on local pandemic politics, and the world turns upside down in the interim! So what else is new!
Rand Careaga
@Lavocat:
So you “vot[ed] for the other side” last time out, hey? That tells us quite a bit about you.
negative 1
@Jackie: I feel like that’s a smart idea for WA voters. I’m in a northeast state that hasn’t voted yet. My presidential primary vote is either a formality or a complete waste of time by the time it rolls around — it still hasn’t even now. We still have to hold the primary regardless of the presidential race, though, for city counsel/mayor, state senate/house, etc.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Redshift: yup, people want to know there’s a safety-net, for themselves and (a distant second) others. Given this massive disruption, they might well be willing to support a broader, stronger net than they (thought they) had two months ago. They don’t want to burn things down and start rebuilding, not two months ago, not now, and I’m willing to bet not six months from now.
Zzyzx
Yeah, Bernie is still on the ballots. So is Harris and Buttigieg and a lot of people. These ballots were finalized a while ago. It’s not big deal.
zhena gogolia
@Spanky:
Thread won.
cain
There is a long way till the election and there is going to be a lot of shit that is going to go down by that time, whatever bullshit happening now will be forgotten and we know there is going to be a lot of death.
I would be working with the other left parties (green party etc) and get them all to get behind Biden as an act to save the Republic.
r€nato
Yes, it was so all the people wringing their hands about how “another old white guy again” won the D primary can fuck right off.
CCL
@germy: not in my state. We could have/might have been able to cancel the primary if he’d taken his name off.
@negative 1: Here it’s called the presidential primary preference election – cause that race is the only one on the ballo
@Zzyzx: Here, candidates have until April 28 or so to remove their names. So no, not a lot of “other names” on the ballots here.
Gin & Tonic
@germy: Quality > quantity.
BobS
@Chyron HR: You clearly have a deep understanding of how politics is played in a two-party system like our own.
By the way, I (as well as my wife and children) voted for Sanders in the 2016 Michigan primary, and then we turned around and voted for Clinton in November (after displaying a 3’x4′ Clinton sign in the front yard).
Similarly, my wife and I voted (by mail) for Warren last month, and now we’ll vote for Biden in November.
But you (and Axel the Genius) keep fucking that dog.
germy
@Gin & Tonic:
This is good:
LuciaMia
Is suspending the same as quitting?
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@negative 1: Elizabeth Warren is also 70, I like her a lot but as a Senator, not as VP to 78 yo president. Kamala Harris is 55.
Philbert
@Lavocat: If you even consider voting for the other side, you ain’t no kind of Progressive nohow.
germy
glory b
@germy: Still remembering AOC sitting next to Bernie Sanders at one of his campaign events and thanking him for her healthcare ( when she was a kid) through the enactment of CHIP back then. Of course, Hillary was the one responsible for it, but he smiled and didn’t correct her.
Betty Cracker
@r€nato:
Yeah, suck it
women and minoritieslosers!mrmoshpotato
@germy: Stop cheating on us, you floozy!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@glory b: I missed that, but damn that speaks volumes about the cult
negative 1
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Yes, I think this is a very, very good point. Whether or not age should be a consideration in picking a president I feel like the given state of the world the virus has made it one. I have no evidence to back that up, though.
Subsole
@C Stars:
Read something about how the common point between alt-right and dirtbag left is gamergate. And, yeah, the behavior, tactics, etc look remarkably the same.
Almost like a social media algorithm sorted the same pool of misogynist little infini-chan barnacles into two groups…
cain
@Baud: It’s been completely been taken over by bernistas. It was this weird bernie bubble. That said I do find some of the posts informative, especially the ones about the Feds stealing all the PPEs, and several hospital employees weighing in on it because they were doing the purchasing and watching it get stolen right from under them.
Horrible stuff.
trollhattan
@germy:
Oh lordy, he also links to this gem, where noted World’s Biggest Expert Glem declares Sanders “Was too deferential” to the Democratic establishment. Or maybe he said “elite” I had to stop watching. That fucker sure has drawn this pretends-to-care-about-Democrats thing out well beyond its sell-by date.
Subsole
@Lavocat:
Sleepy Joe, huh?
Lotta masks comin’ off these days.
negative 1
@CCL: See that’s interesting. Not here. If anything the most fascinating thing in our primary will be the list of democratic candidates on the ballot who I forgot had ever run. I plan on reading them in my head with the ‘oscar rememberances’ music playing.
Jinchi
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Agreed. I’m not sure who Biden is considering, but I’d bet Harris is on the A-list.
artem1s
FFS, it’s wasn’t Hillary that did the damage.
Subsole
@BR:
Alright. Serious question: How do we do that? ‘Cause frankly their bloc have been such abusive little shits that I see that being a pretty heavy lift. Made much heavier by the fact that they really, really don’t want to acknowledge their part in creating that rift. That may just be twitter-poisoning on my part, though.
Baud
@LuciaMia: For all practical purposes, yes.
negative 1
@cain: It’s a demographic thing; reddit users tend to be very young relative to news site comment boards.
I feel like targeting political ads has got to be the easiest job in the world these days. People are pretty well divided up in their media of choice almost exactly as they are expected to be.
different-church-lady
Somewhere there’s an alternate universe where Sanders doesn’t run and all that support goes to Warren.
cain
@negative 1:
I would say that is a good thing .. especially if you’re trying to pull a fox news on them.
germy
Baud
@artem1s:
It was kind of her fault that she won.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Miss Bianca: Good to see the professor got you and the rest of the castaways off the island.
negative 1
@Subsole: You leave them alone. Just support Biden, talk him up and go after Trump. Perpetually telling them why they were wrong does nothing, or actively makes people spiteful. Just support Biden, most will vote for Biden.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Zzyzx: Harris wasn’t on the ballot here in CA.
negative 1
@germy: “Well he kissed his ring, but it didn’t look like he got both lips on it at the same time, which can only mean he didn’t mean it”
FFS I hate to say I hate the media sometimes, but I hate the media sometimes
Subsole
@Betty Cracker: They didn’t have much trouble taking a monolithic shit on us these last five years.
Or standing there and watching maga-but-blue take a shit on the rest of our coalition these last five years.
Just sayin’.
Civility is great. If they figure out how to demonstrate some for once, I will be happy to reciprocate.
sheila in nc
@negative 1: Ding ding ding! State senate/house. Has everyone forgotten that this is a Census year and that redistricting will be close behind? Run by your state legislatures?
Gin & Tonic
Another non-Democrat who campaigned for the Dem nomination weighs in:
negative 1
@cain: Yeah, something gets a little lost in all of the silo-ing though. I don’t think it’s a good thing when everyone has separate ‘truths’. Everyone thinks theirs is the one true path, and evidence has become a pretty quaint notion.
BobS
@negative 1: This. The people who (for the sake of their own egos) feel the need to ravage Sanders’ supporters are no different than the (small minority of) Sanders’ supporters who had a tantrum after he lost in 2016. They’re all fucking things up, just in a different way.
Miss Bianca
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
My Senator, thank yew very much. I wasn’t impressed with him when he first got appointed – ironically, because I thought one of the other current Dem Senate candidates, Andrew Romanoff, who I currently *don’t* support, should have been appointed – but I’ve voted for him twice since and I think he’s a solid guy.
Nora Lenderbee
@germy:
Didn’t stop the altekocker last time, and look where we are.
laura
I’m just here for the Tbogg Unit.
PJ
T-Bogg unit, yes we can!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: True, but Baud!2020! will take it’s campaign not only to the convention but past the general election!!!
spc123
@Shrillhouse: I hope he has the sense to know the remainder of this campaign is about posterity and be more aggressive in supporting the Ds this time around. His lukewarm, bare-minimum approach in 2016 may have had deeper roots in a personal dislike for Clinton (which shouldn’t ave mattered given the stakes) mixed with some newly acquired delusions of grandeur but he does seem to get along ok with Biden and the platform will likely be a bit further to the left than 2016. I’m hoping he gets it this time. We’ll see.
BR
@Subsole:
Engage in person (or phone rather), not online. They’re not as bad when they’re not looking to score points in public. And recount your own stories. I talked about what it was like in ’07/’08 with Obama as the upstart. Politics is rough, and he barely squeaked through to get the nomination. But I try to up-level every conversation to move it from personal to systems, and to take the high road.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@laura: me too
and this, apparently, is real. It involves David Sirota, stalking and (those of a certain age, like mine, may get this) bunnies.
The obsession with Neera Tanden makes the obsession with the DNC look rational and sophisticated.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@laura:
@PJ: We haven’t had one of those in a while.
Geminid
@cain: I agree it’s worth trying to persuade any of these voters, as well as persuading non-voters to come out in November. I suspect there will slim pickings among the Greens, though. Jill Stein got 2% last election, as did Nader in 2000. These folks seem to be very committed and not to be persuaded, although Trump’s vile destructiveness may cause some to defect from the Greens on their own. Gary Johnson on the other hand pulled in 3.67%, and while some are Ayn Rand acolytes, I bet a lot of the others are up for grabs. I understand that demographically Johnson’s voters skewed young.
Citizen Alan
@kindness:
They didn’t join the party, not the one’s you’re speaking of. If Bernie had won the nomination, I still bet a sizeable number of his supporters would have voted for him in the general and then left all the other lines blank because all the Dems running for lower offices probably have neoliberal cooties.
Subsole
@negative 1:
Ok. I guess my problem -and it is my problem- is that I kinda look at these folks like “reasonable Republicans”. Everyone tells me they exist, but damn I haven’t seen much actual evidence.
If anyone HAS examples, like say a Rick Wilson sort of figure, please point me to ’em. I think the issue is gonna be convincing folks to have each other back, after all of this nonsense. It always helps when you can put paper in front of someone. If that be the case, our task now will be to essentially divorce the chapo crew from the movement. Examples of people coming together could be a big help on that end.
germy
@different-church-lady:
I’ve been saying that since this whole thing began.
debbie
To resurrect a stale old phrase, “Happy, happy, joy, joy!”
zhena gogolia
What happened to the Playing to Win thread? (I have to teach now but I was curious.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid:
I didn’t pay much attention to him, sweet summer child (of 48) that I was, but wasn’t most of Johnson’s platform legalizing weed? (and unless I’ve missed it, I hope Biden gets with the fucking program on that)
Citizen Alan
@Lavocat: How would Liz Warren as VP bring in the Bernie Bros? They hate her now almost as much as Biden.
mad citizen
@zhena gogolia: I just saw that thread as well. Hope we’re not now “playing not to lose”, which resulted in several Colts losses over the years.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He has said he would decriminalize it, and allow further study.
cain
@negative 1:
I don’t see it as silo’ing as much as there are new forums/apps coming out all the time. It’s like fashion. Us older people we like to sit in a few places and that’s about it. I mean I’ve been on BJ for about 15 years now? It is really the only political blog I visit now. I used to go to some others, but I don’t have the time to go to all of them and eventually teh conversations end up being the same.
cain
@watergirl – deleted that other post eh? :-) You can’t hide it!
Amy
You guys are so clever you can’t help yourselves. I hope you continue to be as smug when Trump beats Biden. Thanks for nothing.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: @mad citizen:
One Does Not Get In The Way of A Possible TBogg Unit.
What was I thinking?
cain
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It would not suprise me if David Sirota turned out to be a sith. What a dick. I detest that man.
Subsole
@germy: I’m surprised they managed to crowbar Lindsey’s fingers off trump’s prostate long enough for him to type that.
cain
@WaterGirl:
er, what? TBogg unit?
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: I asked for another thread which didn’t have any censorship rules, may be that did it, IDK.
Jeffro
@lamh36: I KNOW, RIGHT? totally psyched!!
germy
@Subsole: No need. He uses a voice-enabled app.
Miss Bianca
@Lavocat:
Oh, honey, making threats to “vote for the other side” if Warren isn’t put on the ticket is so HAWT right now! Why, as a Warren fan myself, I say, “wow, you’re buggier than batshit, you sexy thing, you!”
Q: Can a self-described capital-P “Progressive” still get to preen theirself as progressive if they vote for Trump? Wouldn’t that be a tacit admission that there’s nothing progressive at all about being Progressive?
different-church-lady
@Amy: Pro tip: the five stages of grief are not “bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter, and bitter.”
WaterGirl
@cain: A TBogg Unit is a 500-comment thread.
I don’t know if that’s in the Lexicon or not, but if it isn’t already in there, maybe it will be in the next version.
Jinchi
Little off topic, but
Surprise! Trump’s miracle elixir doesn’t seem to work.
Gin & Tonic
So I wanted to learn a little something about this Biden guy, if I’m going to be forced to vote for him, and I went to his website. There’s a page with links to a wide variety of what used to be called position papers. There’s “The Biden Plan for Americans With Disabilities” and “The Biden Plan for Ending Gun Violence” and stuff like that, along with “The Biden Plan for Violence Against Women.”
I guess those stories about Joe being a rapist have some basis, if he’s going public with it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia: It’ll probably pop up later.
To TBogg and beyond!
Subsole
@Amy:
You are not being the kind of person Mr. Rogers knows you can be.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Ding-dong, the witch is dead! Which old witch? The wicked witch
Ding-dong, the wicked witch is dead
Wake up, you sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed
Wake up, the wicked witch is dead!
schrodingers_cat
Trending on Twitter right now, Nina Turner for VP.
Betty
@Betty Cracker: He actually hinted support for Warren by saying it was time for a woman President while she was up in the polls. Also said old men should step aside. He recently gave her big props for her latest plan. But anyway.
germy
@Gin & Tonic: Here it is, all laid out:
https://joebiden.com/joes-vision/
Betty Cracker
@Subsole: What you’re just saying is bullshit, unless all 13 million or so 2016 Sanders supporters personally took a shit on you, in which case I can see why you’d want to write all 13 million of those voters off in what is likely to be a close election with a deranged fascist. In that case, great point, and do carry on!
negative 1
@Subsole: Are you looking for just examples of famous people or just examples? Because I supported Warren, then Sanders and now he’s out so I support Biden. See? It was as simple as that.
As far as the actual voting patterns, last year about 10% of Sanders supporters voted for Trump. Which is… entirely normal, and was the less than the amount (12%) of other R (non-Trump primary) voters who voted for Clinton. Also less than the amount of Clinton 2008 voters who voted McCain over Obama. So, despite everyone’s collective freak out over this, the effects on voting just aren’t there. I bring this up to point out that people like to yell if they are upset and there is nothing they can do about it — which is basically the definition of a losing primary voter, especially one who was voting for a candidate whose platform is unlikely to be championed in a major way now that they are gone. However, once they are done yelling, all the available evidence is that they will get over it and vote for Biden anyway. Some won’t, true, but no more than is ‘normal’ in any major election.
As far as relatives and friends of yours? Why bother engaging at all? I unfortunately have to fundraise for contributions among my organization and some people scream at me that we ‘only support democratic candidates’. What could I possibly say to change their mind? So I barely try, thank them, and move on. Same thing applies here IMHO.
Cacti
@Amy: There are over 14,000 Americans who have died preventable deaths from covid-19.
You and Bernie helped make it happen.
Lyrebird
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I wonder also if he saw some of those photos of people in WI risking their health & their families’ safety to vote and realized the stakes were too dammm high.
@WaterGirl: I aspire to do this too:
Baud
@Subsole: That’s clever and smug.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@different-church-lady: That’s not what I’ve heard on the street.
satby
@Lavocat: “sleepy Joe”? Progressives “voting for the other side”?
Trumplestilskin, is that you?
Baud
@satby: Best guess upthread was DougJ.
germy
@satby: I assumed it was a DougJ-style spoof.
But a conservative spoofing a liberal blog.
But maybe it was DougJ himself!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jinchi: I’m shocked I tell ya that Dr.* Trump would be wrong.
*MD found on a Big Mac wrapper.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker:
They Did! You don’t know how much time I had to spend in the shower!
pamelabrown53
@schrodingers_cat:
Twitter can be a beyond bizarre place. Doubt if Nina Turner could be elected dog-catcher in the most blue of counties.
Martin
@Jinchi: When you get your MD at Trump University.
PJ
@different-church-lady: Only some of that support would have gone to Warren. Judging from their online behavior, a significant number of Bernie supporters would never vote for a woman.
Miss Bianca
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Professor came through for us again – it’s amazing what you can accomplish with a few coconuts and Gilligan on a bicycle.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: Are they bitter, angry, whining, angry, bitter?
@Amy: St. Bernie will try to shout a unicorn into existence in 2024 for you.
L85NJGT
They were overwhelmed by events. Which was a high probability outcome given the nature of the candidate and candidacy.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
People reacting to the breaking news (link)
West of the Rockies
Biden/(I hope Harris) 2020!
germy
Associated Press:
The Thin Black Duke
I don’t know why a guy who can’t win a primary gets this much attention.
patroclus
There is no way I’m going to the new thread when we’re this close to an actual T-Bogg! I think it was a Friedman Unit or so ago then we last got one.
negative 1
@Cacti: Congratulations it took awhile but we have now finally argued ourselves in a great circle where the candidate who was arguing for single payer nationalized healthcare is now responsible for the current president’s inability to prepare for a foreseeable tragedy.
mrmoshpotato
@schrodingers_cat: BWHHaHAHAHA!!!! Did you see a pair of eyes roll past?
Sister Golden Bear
My contribution towards the impending Tbogg horizon…
I posted on the evil Book of Face my variation and elaboration of @David Anderson’s elegant thoughts, with a reminder that we need to go after the Rethuglicans with a white hot fury to also take back the Senate.
I live in the Bay Area hothouse, so I’ve seen more than my share of “Trump just got re-elected” posts, but so far I’m pleased by the positive response my post has gotten.
As others have said, the Bernie Bros won’t show up in November, but the Sanders supporters will. For that, I’m willing to bit my tongue for the moment and extend an olive branch.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@schrodingers_cat: VP? For which country?
trollhattan
@Citizen Alan:
Yup. She done stoled his ideas then his lunch money and can’t be trusted, the harpie. Plus, she reminds me of my ##-grade teacher and we can’t have that.
Nora Lenderbee
@different-church-lady:
Somewhere there’s an alternate universe where Sanders doesn’t run and
all that support goes toWarren is Treasury Secretary in President Hillary Clinton’s Cabinet.Cacti
@negative 1: Did Bernie’s personal pique and inability to meaningfully concede in 2016 assist Trump in obtaining office?
Yes or no?
Thanks for stopping by.
mrmoshpotato
@patroclus: Hahaha
Mary G
Part of me thinks this is a good thing. Part of me thinks that the Republicans and their puppet master Vlad now have seven months to make Uncle Joe into history’s greatest monster.
negative 1
@Cacti: No. See? Simple.
Chyron HR
@Amy:
Remember, kids, only Bernie gets to blame the voters when he loses.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I am sure Johnson’s platform attracted many of his voters, but I think many of them thought that Clinton was a lock and that they had a free protest vote. I expect some regretted it when Trump won, as did many people who stayed home for lack of urgency. 2016 was a strange election; Trump’s vote total was second lowest of 10 major candidates in the 5 elections since 2000, ahead of only John McCain in 2008. I hope that this year he sets a record for low vote that will last the rest of the century.
Cacti
@negative 1: Available data indicates that you are willfully obtuse, or just a liar.
You choose.
mrmoshpotato
@negative 1: Haha, youse funny.
mrmoshpotato
@Chyron HR: Well duh. That’s the way it goes for non-party members who use our platform to run for President.
Jinchi
And remember that part of the case against Bernie (and Warren) was that Biden’s voters would not vote for a leftwinger, even against Trump.
It’s hard to take seriously all the outrage about a small subset of Bernie’s voters taking their ball and going home, when the basis of Biden’s electability argument was that conservative Democrats would absolutely do the same thing if the situation was reversed.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: They already started a year ago, remember Ukraine?
Chyron HR
@Jinchi:
No, the case against Bernie is HE KEEPS LOSING PRIMARIES.
Jackie
@Subsole:????????????
Jinchi
@Chyron HR: Bernie lost weeks ago. The question was whether his voters will back the nominee.
Overwhelmingly, they will.
Steeplejack (phone)
@germy:
First comment on Kruse’s post:
Followed immediately by:
Might be a few bumps in the road.
dogwood
@Raoul:
“One can hope that Biden is in contact with Sen. Sanders to talk seriously about health care reform.”
This is so condescending. Using the honorific for Bernie and not Joe is a nice touch. But maybe you’re right. Bernie is one of the foremost experts in the country on healthcare, and he definitely has a stellar history of shepherding various major reform bills through Congress. Joe has no idea how difficult and complicated it is to pass a major healthcare bill since he’s lacking significant experience. Hopefully Bernie will help get him up to speed.
patroclus
This is my prediction for the typical question the media is going to start asking Biden in the campaign: “If Kitty Dukakis was raped and murdered by two gay COVID-19-positive IslamoFascist socialist abortionists of African descent from Wuhan by way of Iran who illegally scaled the sacred wall between Mexico and Texas just to practice their “lifestyle,” would you still support shoving their rights down the collective throats of Americans?”
mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack (phone): Oh would I like to know the 2016 primary votes of everyone who sat out the 2016 general in WI, MI and PA.
negative 1
@Jinchi: I agree. Which is why I don’t take much of it seriously — no one has disproven that famous Duke study that put the number at 10% regardless of party affiliation, liberal/conservative/centrist, etc..
Recently I read an article where a poly-sci professor was debating whether primaries actually do way more harm then good — basically that everyone in the party ends up pissed off and ultimately the differences don’t amount to much by the time you factor in the ability to pass your platform anyway. I think it’s a really good point. I felt like for the beginning of this primary cycle it was going well. Less well, lately. But maybe better now.
mrmoshpotato
@patroclus: Wow. That’s quite the question. And I doubt you’re too far off.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack (phone): Need to get a paving crew out to fix those potholes.
negative 1
@Cacti: You’d like to point that evidence out now? Because mine is upthread. Including how more Clinton voters in 2008 didn’t vote Obama that year than Sanders voters in 2016 voting for Trump. What made the difference is a f&cked up electoral college system, horrific media coverage that was never once fair in an effort to ‘both sides’ it, and randomly awful luck in vote distribution. More of Obama’s voters in 2012 voted Trump in 2016 then Sanders’ primary defectors http://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/just-how-many-obama-2012-trump-2016-voters-were-there/
Basically, your axe to grind is just your axe to grind. So there’s my evidence.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@negative 1: So, back to the “smoke filled rooms” then?
artem1s
At the end of his suspension speech , Sanders specifically said he’s remaining on the ballot to keep collecting
delegatesdonation – to leverage morepowerdonations during the Convention.???Another non-suspension speech just like after the March 17 drubbing. He’s gonna do this every couple of weeks for the next 6 months. Asshole
Ivan X
Who is gonna make this a TBogg Unit? We can do this, people.
Gin & Tonic
So near, and yet so far….
PJ
@negative 1: At some point in the four-year cycle, members of a party have to pick the person they want to run for President. Primaries undoubtedly do cause a lot of hurt feelings and anger towards certain candidates and their supporters, but I’m not sure any other kind of contest that allows party members to participate would be better. The smoke-filled room of yesteryear would alleviate a lot of resentment, but then it’s not very democratic. Of course, the way the primaries are structured, most party members never get a chance to make a meaningful vote for their chosen candidate anyway. So if anyone has a better ideas on how to structure things . . .
FelonyGovt
@Ivan X: Here’s my contribution
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: We can do it, Yes We Can!
patroclus
The Event Horizon is in sight.
Chris Johnson
Cue TBogg unit ;D
Repatriated
Just a couple more hot takes!
Edit: and there it is!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Chris Johnson: Timed it just right!
negative 1
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Well, no one’s got a better idea so that’s the rub, yeah.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Potholes? I think I just saw the Illinois Nazis’ car fall from the sky!
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
One small step for BJuice
One giant leap for Blogdom
mrmoshpotato
@Chris Johnson: You beautiful bastards!
PJ
@mrmoshpotato: It’s nice to have something to celebrate in these dark times, no matter how small.
Gin & Tonic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And to think it’s a (former?) Bernie Bro who put it over the top.
Repatriated
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
It’s this kind of dedication that makes this an almost-top-10,000 blog! :)
PJ
@Gin & Tonic: This is the kind of unity that will help us win in November.
Subsole
@germy:
That would require crowbar-ing a different orifice off of a different protuberance.
mrmoshpotato
@PJ: I agree!
Haroldo
Teeeeeeee Bogggggg
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat: …or the puppy gets it!
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato:
Speaking of Infrastructure Week. Wowzers.
Cacti
@negative 1: Glad to. In Wisconsin, 9% of Sanders supporters voted Trump. In Michigan, 8% of Sanders supporters voted Trump. In Pennsylvania, 16% of Sanders supporters voted Trump.
In each location, Sanders supporters voting Trump was substantially larger than his margin of victory. Bobby “bigwheel” has his opinions, but them’s the facts.
In the end, what Bernie’s socialist revolution achieved was an electoral college victory for the first fascist POTUS in history.
Own it.
different-church-lady
@Steeplejack (phone): Well, let’s keep in mind that there wasn’t “a dime’s worth of difference” between Clinton and the game show host.
negative 1
@Cacti: 2,970,733 people voted for Trump in Pennsylvania. You’re focusing on one slice that can get you 115,199 of those. Your insane hatred for one guy has blinded you to the other 2,855,534 people, which, again, includes more than that in former Obama voters who went Trump (silence on why that matters less). Similar numbers bear out in every other state. That is why it is your axe to grind, not some personal affront to you.
Subsole
@Betty Cracker: Fair point. Do not want to write off everyone, but I am worried that the loudest mouths will poison folks and we will lose those votes anyhow. Especially because all I see are the loudest mouths. That said, you are right. Being vengeful on my end won’t help that all. That, I can fix.
@negative 1: Was thinking more famous people. Not to say personal stories aren’t good, but something quick to point them at. Basically I am looking for the anti-Chapo, if possible.
As far as family? Lord I wish they were half that far left. Rather the opposite problem. So yeah. Get what you’re saying about letting some arguments go. Was thinking more friends/acquaintances.
@Baud: I do what I can. Even when I probably shouldn’t.
Quaker in a Basement
@BR: Yes, please!
Geminid
@negative 1: I think primaries generally are good in that the better candidates tend to advance, and with a leg up on name recognition. In 2018 Abigail Spanberger pulled in 35,000 votes in the VA. 7th Congressional District primary and went on to knock out Dave Brat in the general. By contrast, next door in the 5th District, ~7,000 voters total showed up for caucuses that led to the selection of a mediocre candidate who lost to a mediocre Republican by 7 points. On the other hand, in this year’s North Carolina Senate race Cal Cunningham used up a lot of his war chest defeating a challenger from the left (who incidentally was pushed by republicans). He is a strong candidate, though, and I think he can still take Tom Tillis this fall.
SFBayAreaGal
Congratulations everyone we achieved Tbogg status
Quaker in a Basement
@BR: Yes, please!
@BC in Illinois: You’re so right. The hard work of governance rarely substitues for a good bumper sticker slogan.
Vice versa, also.
different-church-lady
Wandering over to the Twitter bar of LGM, I see that a whole lot of Bernie Bros seem to think Biden voted for Clarence Thomas.
Subsole
@?BillinGlendaleCA: God, we impeached him barely, what, three months ago?
I need off this ride. I’m starting to feel like Dr. Gonzo at Bazooko Joe’s.
Chris Johnson
@Gin & Tonic: Yup. I would object that even Applejinx is truly a ‘Bernie Bro’ ‘cos I figured it out. Today, I am not even a little bit unhappy that Bernie dropped out. Big change from 2016.
I went over to (still quarantined for breaking rules) r/chapotraphouse to see how they’re doing with this.
The official Russian take-away there is that Bernie is now the biggest monster of history, plus they are confused that he likes Biden after hating Clinton so much, and some folks are protesting that this could validate the sexism narrative since Hillary was actually better than Biden and yet got more hate. Two things about that: Biden adapts so you can’t point to his past as an indicator of how he’s going to be (which is a GOOD thing) and secondly, ya think? I didn’t want to believe it, but obviously Bernie has that sexist streak going.
I also saw some posts literally defiant and claiming the only thing to do was go forward for bros, shitposting and Russia. I’m not making that up. They’re not supposed to be talking about that part but I guess they’re a little upset? I called it (folks at Balloon Juice called it WAAAAY before I did, but claimed it was coming from Bernie himself. No, it was like everything else: Russian trolls infiltrating to set the narrative usefully to them.)
People are still bitching about neoliberals. I saw someone in this tboggthread, posting the Russian narrative for places like here (i.e. we must be centrist and neoliberal at all costs blah blah, which is what trolls are assigned to do at Balloon Juice because we’re made up of olds and it heightens the contradictions and improves chaos).
I told ’em coronavirus is an extinction event for neoliberalism. Which it is. So would climate change be, but that’s slower, and coronavirus is immediate and unavoidable right now. Other things that are extinct are insurance based health care in a time of pandemic, and centrism in a time of economic collapse.
Bernie is out. Let’s have the adults in the room come up with some real answers, and then let’s have the cojones of the youngs and put in massive structural change, ‘cos we have absolutely no choice in the matter.
Bernie and his influencers will NOT be defining that structural change.
I’m happy about that part. Our people are better than that.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@different-church-lady: This is untrue, Killery would have attacked Iran just to show she’s got the balls to do it.
Subsole
@Chris Johnson: Dude. How.
Jinchi
I don’t think it’s the primaries. It’s just that we’ve got millions of people voting and we don’t sort as neatly into two purely partisan camps as everyone thinks. The Bernie-to-Trump voters were never going to vote for Clinton, just like the Romney-to-Clinton voters were never going to go for Trump, and the PUMAs were never going for Obama. This happens in literally every election.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@different-church-lady: They feel it in their gut, it’s Truthiness.
Quaker in a Basement
@PJ: No need to wait. Just ask Keegan-Michael Key.
Kent
The *should* be angry at him for betraying them by running a craptacular race: He had an unworkable 30% electoral strategy, a ridiculous and incoherent philosophy of political change, and a counterproductive tactic of attacking the very party and people that he needed to win.
Chris Johnson
@Subsole: How are chapos openly posting about soldiering on for Mother Russia? Because that is the truth, and it wasn’t coming directly from Bernie or his socialist platform but it sure as shit made his movement completely co-opted by Russia and used against this country. That was already true in 2016 but it happened too fast for me to really understand it: it takes time for a person to believe that their beloved institution has been subverted and used as a mere pawn in an undeclared guerrilla war. You don’t want to believe that shit, you want to turn around and flame accusers.
It was true, and probably true the whole time: just as true as the fact that Russia has people HERE (literally, here on Balloon Juice) stirring up shit. They were some of the first and loudest insisting that Bernie (more accurately, his movement) was a Russian front. They had the advantage of knowing their claims were true, because they were working for the same side and had personal knowledge of it. All they had to do was expand a bit and start claiming it was literally Bernie answering to Putin, when in fact it was the movement (the ‘Bros’) taking orders from Russia.
Cacti
@negative 1: You’re right. I’m focusing on Bernie voters who gave Trump his margin of victory, because that’s literally what this conversation was about.
You asked, I answered. Bernie voters in WI, MI, and PA gave Trump more than the margin he needed to win each, and get an EC victory. Period. Full stop.
I’ll leave it to you to divine the true intentions of their hearts.
Yutsano
FINALLY!!!
opiejeanne
@FelonyGovt: Agreed, but right now I’m watching a few Bernie friends on Facebook attacking Biden for being just like Trump, and posting ridiculous things about him, and these people supported Hillary last go-round.
Kent
Obviously there are a LOT of ways to get to 50% +1. Energizing your base, depressing the opponent’s base, appealing to “swing” voters, etc. Well run campaigns can and should do all of these things simultaneously. But there is a certain place in hell for avowed progressives who deliberately undermine the Democratic candidate in a binary general election that determines the fate of the country. I can excuse my elderly evangelical aunt for voting GOP because that is who she is. I can’t excuse the Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon’s of the world who should know better in a close binary election. And who deliberately fuck up the planet for decades in a leftist temper tantrum.
negative 1
@Cacti: Not Trump voters who gave him his margin of victory?
That’s my point about the blind hatred. In order to win this time, there need to be people who voted for the winner last time who don’t do it again. So, maybe, focus energy on those rather than seeing everything as validation on how it was only the people you hate who do bad things while somehow ignoring that exact same behavior in others.
negative 1
It’s one vote regardless of who it comes from — at the end of the day neither of those votes was any different, nor counted any different. I truly don’t understand this. It’s like hating a person more because their vote seems to be more reachable.
Elizabelle
Linda Tripp is out too. Aged 70. After some serious illness; not necessarily COVID-19 related.
Subsole
@Chris Johnson: I meant how did you actually nail the tbogg post? That was some friggin’ space magic.
I do appreciate you engaging on the other topic, though. The replies here have given me some stuff to think on.
Jinchi
Exactly. Of course that argues for not kicking Bernie’s voters until after the next election.
Miss Bianca
@Chris Johnson: Dude, I thought you’d given up on whatever you were smoking back in ’16.
Jinchi
Right. You’re cherry picking. You’re counting Sanders voters who added to Trump’s total, while ignoring the much larger contingent of Sanders voters who added to Clinton’s.
You’re also ignoring the much larger contingent of Obama-to-Trump voters, latino Trump voters, black Trump voters etc., etc., etc. You can pick whatever target you like, because the margins in those states were extremely close.
But blaming those demographics for his election would be nuts.
PJ
@Elizabelle: Christ, she looked like she was 65 in 1998.
Another Scott
As many will remember, I was an early and fairly loud critic of Uncle Joe. But he got it done and proved me wrong. Congratulations to him.
Congratulations to Bernie, too.
209 days until the election. Let’s get it done, up and down the ballot!!
Cheers,
Scott.
different-church-lady
Look, if you’re a Sanders-to-Trump voter you’re just politically incoherent. We’re having a fight over why crazy people are crazy.
C Stars
well put
Geminid
Does nailing this T-Bugg mean we’ve broken the Overton Window?
ThresherK
@Geminid: I clicked on this thread one last time to mention “double TBogg” (600 comments), and it seems you beat me to it? Good show.
Cacti
Uh huh.
West of the Rockies
Are the FPers on strike? I demand a new topic!//
Elizabelle
@PJ: Have just learned from the NY Times obit that Linda Tripp was portrayed on Saturday Night Live by … John Goodman.
That is so cruel and so perfect. #No tears for Tripp
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: oh man, it would probably take too long to hunt down the clips, but after he’d been doing it for a while, she told an interviewer she thought it was funny and she took it in good humor. The next time Goodman played her, he crueled it up.
And it was fucking hilarious. I’ll hope she had a painless death. She deserved John Goodman. And then some.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Have a feeling we will see some of those John Goodman clips trending in the next few days.
The NY Times obit was factual and not in the slightest sympathetic to Tripp.
Matt McIrvin
OMG they called him a shitlib! What will Jacobin say?
J R in WV
@different-church-lady:
Just goes to show many Bernie Bros are working from St Petersburg RU. These are just foreign names to those GRU guys.
On an off topic subject, I have rescued another box turtle from one of our puppies. Late last night, when BooBoo came up onto the back deck, I heard a loud CLUNK as she hit the top of the steps. When I looked there was a tightly closed up box turtle, upside down on the deck.
I put him in an empty laundry basket, where he remains, with a carrot and a dish of water. If I can get the puppies back inside before dark I’ll take Turtle up to the head of the hollow, past where the puppies roam. Or else tomorrow while the pups are still inside.
This afternoon we had a really harsh thunderstorm pattern pass over, hail the size of golf balls, thunder and lightning was solid for hours. Shit is getting real now! And Turtle has his head out of his shell, sniffing that carrot!
Another Scott
@Jinchi: +1
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ilefttxwhenannlost
@trollhattan:
 
Fed or treasury…yes warren would be great…but if she’s leaving the senate i’d prefer AG with corruption anti trust focus
J R in WV
@Jinchi:
You guys are ignoring the topic of this thread, which is Bernie Sanders suspending his campaign. The thread isn’t about Latinos who voted for Trump, nor African-Americans who voted for Trump, it’s about Sanders and the Bernie Bros and Russian operatives who worked to make Bernie Bros work for Trump.
How can you guys go on about other things in a thread about Sanders??!!! While other factors influenced the 2016 race, here the topic is Sanders and the 2020 race, as well as Sanders’ last race in 2016.
I dunno if Sanders knew Russians were working to distort his campaign in 2016, but they were, just ask the FBI. And I would bet they were “working” for Sanders this election cycle as well, because Sanders had no chance of winning any election in this country, because he’s a prick and shows it in every speech he has ever made.
cokane
I think the party has a much stronger chance of unifying. I think the evidence is clear that Clinton was a historically disliked candidate, and so the splintering and lack of turnout in 2016 was more of an aberration. Biden, by contrast, seems to be running about the most “generic Democrat” campaign possible.
There’s also something to be said for the relative lack of serious problems in the run up to 2016. I think many Americans had fallen under the illusion that the presidency was just a figurehead, that there was no serious work to be done. That’s not going to be the case now.
This is a monumentally important election. Not just because of Trump. Real world circumstances are going to plunge the United States and maybe much of the world into a deep recession, and probably depression. It’s critical that we have steady leadership as well as some serious ambition to remake the country in a more just way.