Biden looks to placate Sanders by letting him keep delegates

[left-of-center2012]

Seeking to avoid the bitter feelings that marred the 2016 Democratic convention, Joe Biden’s campaign is angling to allow Bernie Sanders to keep some of the delegates he would otherwise forfeit by dropping out of the presidential race.

Under a strict application of party rules, Sanders should lose about a third of the delegates he’s won in primaries and caucuses as the process moves ahead and states select the actual people who will attend the Democratic National Convention. The rules say those delegates should be Biden supporters, as he is the only candidate still actively seeking the party’s nomination.

Quiet talks between the two campaigns center on allowing Sanders to keep some of his delegates, essentially a goodwill gesture from a presumptive nominee seeking to court Sanders’ progressive supporters and unite the party. It is not yet settled how many.

“We feel strongly that it is in the best interest of the party to ensure that the Sanders campaign receives statewide delegates to reflect the work that they have done to contribute to the movement that will beat Donald Trump this fall,” said a Biden official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss private negotiations publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. “We are in discussion with them now on how to best accomplish that.”

Sanders’ campaign declined to comment on the talks. “Nothing to add from us,” said Sanders spokesman Mike Casca.

https://apnews.com/fcba9e4dcd0732de71587c9b57ac1d53

[McKim]

1. Is This Placating or Smart Fair Politics?

The word “placating” seems a bit inflammatory. We need to calm things down. We should be able to finish the primaries and see how much support Sanders had or has. Sanders ideas should be respected and folded into the party platform. That’s how they do it in Europe, cooperation and compromise and moving forward together. What is is about America that we just love to fight?
Have the Trump years had an affect on us to ramp up that fighting spirit instead of a cooperative spirit?

[left-of-center2012]

4. The word "placating" seems a bit inflammatory.

Definition of placate: to soothe or mollify especially by concessions

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/placate

inflammatory ?

[The Magistrate]

9. Not Really, Ma'am

The fact is, Sanders has not really shown yet he can be trusted to refrain from executing his standing threat to disrupt the convention and harm the Party's general election effort. I leave to Mr. Biden how best to defang him, and will not dispute what course Mr. Biden and Co. adopt.


"Defeat of a hated enemy is something to be for."

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. Joe Biden is a very smart man who will make an excellent President.

He asserts control over the Party in a way that reminds me of Nancy Pelosi who almost always wears her velvet glove over her iron fist.

[Laelth]

8. That's an excellent description of Speaker Pelosi.

I have seen both from her.

-Laelth

[AJT]

3. The word "placating" demeans both Sanders and Biden.

[left-of-center2012]

5. demeaning ?

Definition of placate: to soothe or mollify especially by concessions

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/placate

[Laelth]

6. Strange rule.

I was unaware of its existence. Thank you for posting.

-Laelth

[Tom Rinaldo]

10. Even if almost every word you said were true

You never say "F You" to almost a third of the Party base, as measured by who bothered to vote in the primaries. Those are the Sanders people WHO DID SHOW UP TO VOTE FOR HIM. Giving them the finger is simply dumb and verges on political malpractice,with a potentially close hugely important election looming. It's one thing to write off a fringe that claims Joe Biden isn't "pure enough" to vote for, it is exceedingly different to alienate voters who are inclined to vote Democratic in November. And the vast majority of those who voted for Sanders fall into the latter category. I trust Joe Biden is astute at managing political coalitions.

[TexasTowelie]

12. There are more votes to be won in the center

than there are two standard deviations left of the mean.

[thesquanderer]

13. I suspect that Trump's margin of victory did not rely on capturing more of the center. (n/t)

[The Magistrate]

14. He Did Not Have A Margin Of Victory Nationally, Sir

The handful of squeaker wins that put the cheap thug in the White House owed in large part to leftists who voted third party or sat on their hands and didn't bother to vote.


"Defeat of a hated enemy is something to be for.".

[thesquanderer]

15. He had a margin of victory where it counted. That's why he's in the WH and not HRC. (n/t)

[The Magistrate]

17. Beside The Point You Seemed Attempting To Make, Sir

That 'where it counted' margin owed to nothing he had done, but to what people on the left failed to do, or declined to do.

And the point at issue here is, will Sanders' followers do the same again?


"Defeat of a hated enemy is something to be for."

[thesquanderer]

18. My point is that appealing primarily to the center is not the only way to win.

(It was in response to TexasTowelie's post.)

[The Magistrate]

20. When The Left Goes On Strike, Sir, The Center Will Be Targeted

Part of the problem is that explicit appeal to the left alienates the center, and it becomes a question of whether more votes can be got on the left than will be lost in the center. This year the energy is middle of the road types grown disgusted with the cheap thug. Too open a courting of the further left elements, too obvious a placating of Sanders, will cost many of these voters. They will not likely vote for the cheap thug, but they will sit on their hands. The left has gotten itself into this position by demonstrating both its unreliability as a bloc, and its relatively small number as a portion of the general electorate. It is a shame, and I wish it were otherwise, but it is how things stand.


"Defeat of a hated enemy is something to be for."

[musclecar6]

11. Bernie's peeps are an important sizable group

From the left side of our party. We absolutely need all of them to come out and vote for Joe. The LAST thing we should do is disrespect and piss them off, as they are democrats just like the rest of the party and they have some good ideas that can be folded into our more moderate positions as we go forward after Joe takes office.

[TexasTowelie]

16. If you go to one of the sites that branched off from DU a few years ago

you will see "progressives" that have no intention of voting for Biden no matter how far to the left he moves. They call Biden a corporatist and they are going to vote for the Green Party instead. They even are calling the candidates that they supported (Gabbard, Sanders, and Warren) sellouts to the progressive movement. They learned absolutely nothing from the 2016 general election.

[JI7]

19. maybe they are left but they certainly aren't liberal or for progress. They seem right leaning on

social issues to me. And they seem resentful of diversity .

That's how they come off to me. They want to stick it to people of color and women who support those different from them.

[question everything]

21. If true. This is disappointing

This, in addition the Biden campaign adopting some of the Sanders' ideas. And if, as reported,
negotiations between the two campaigns also involve discussions about Biden's future cabinet, including which progressives will go where, as well as who cannot play a role. Also banning anyone who has worked on or near Wall Street, the fossil-fuel industry, the health-insurance sector and the lobbying world, to name a few.

Traditionally, once winning the nomination candidates move to the cener. Here, it appears, the move it to the left.