Dana Milbank: I LOVE Bernie. And Democrats would be INSANE to nominate him.

[pnwmom]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/democrats-would-be-insane-to-nominate-bernie-sanders/2016/01/26/0590e624-c472-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html

. . . . And I doubt Democrats will make an anti-immigrant bigot the president by nominating a socialist to run against him.

Sanders and his supporters boast of polls showing him, on average, matching up slightly better against Trump than Clinton does. But those matchups are misleading: Opponents have been attacking and defining Clinton for a quarter- century, but nobody has really gone to work yet on demonizing Sanders.

Watching Sanders at Monday night’s Democratic presidential forum in Des Moines, I imagined how Trump — or another Republican nominee — would disembowel the relatively unknown Vermonter.

SNIP

But that’s not how Republicans will define socialism — and they’ll have the dictionary on their side. They’ll portray Sanders as one who wants the government to own and control major industries and the means of production and distribution of goods. They’ll say he wants to take away private property. That wouldn’t be fair, but it would be easy. Socialists don’t win national elections in the United States .

Sanders on Monday night also admitted he would seek massive tax increases — “one of the biggest tax hikes in history,” as moderator Chris Cuomo put it — to expand Medicare to all. Sanders, this time making a comparison with Britain and France, allowed that “hypothetically, you’re going to pay $5,000 more in taxes,” and declared, “W e will raise taxes, yes we will.” He said this would be offset by lower health-insurance premiums and protested that “it’s demagogic to say, oh, you’re paying more in taxes.”

Well, yes — and Trump is a demagogue.

[Metric System]

1. He's right, BUT I loathe Dana Milbank.

[BlueMTexpat]

12. +1! eom

[Cha]

23. Exactly. And, I don't even like bernie. So there's that.

[question everything]

24. Don't shoot the messagner

He expressed his observation.

I don't mind if Hillary wins by voters "holding their nose." I've done it too many times. As long as she wins.

[Cha]

25. dana milbank has been a rw tool.. we can loathe him if we want.

[Bohunk68]

27. That has always been my opinion of him. Libertarian.

He sounds more and more like it every day and always seems wishy-washy. Not to ever be believed or quoted.

[Molusko]

30. Me as well

Ever since he used a very ugly term in reference to Hillary Clinton.

[Thinkingabout]

2. He has not sold his "socialist" to us and his Medicare for All has

Already failed when he sponsored a bill to do the same. If he hasn't convinced the majority of the Democrats then I doubt he will with the Republicans.

[SunSeeker]

15. He couldn't even convince Vermont. nt

[MADem]

3. Barney Frank has had Bernie's number for many years now.....

Back in 1991, when Bernie was still new to Congress, progressive icon Barney Frank said of him, “Bernie alienates his natural allies. His holier-than-thou attitude—saying in a very loud voice he is smarter than everyone else and purer than everyone else—really undercuts his effectiveness.”

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/26/i_have_had_it_with_naive_bernie_sanders_idealists/

[pnwmom]

5. Yup. I get that many young people love him because he reminds them

of their cranky but lovable old grandpa -- and many young people prefer grandparents to parents, who have to deal with the day-to-day issues.

But to a lot of people in my generation, he's just the cranky old guy down the street who's always telling everyone what to do and is sure he knows better than anyone else.

[displacedtexan]

11. My gut reaction to him is how much he reminds me of John McCain.

He comes across as mean. Who, besides anarchists, would blindly follow a mean man who's disliked by everyone who has worked with him?

[MADem]

17. I think he comes off as mean, too.

Shaddup!!! You don't have the microphone!!!!

[displacedtexan]

22. Wow! I'd hate for him to bite me!

Damn, that's one mean man. And people want him to represent our nation around the world? Yikes!

[Tarheel_Dem]

6. Ditto. BS would be our Ted Cruz. I understand that his "allies" on the Hill can't stand him either.

I don't think BS could inspire the kind of loyalty needed to move legislation. Afterall, his legislative successes, after decades on the Hill, is sparse to say the least.

[MADem]

8. There is a reason that he is treated like he's got rabies amongst the super-delegate set.

Those 535 supers on the Hill KNOW him.

And that is why they overwhelmingly did not ENDORSE him--save for an outlier or two.

He does evoke the Ted Cruz factor. He's not reading Dr. Seuss on the floor of the Senate, but he's polarizing and divisive, and he's insufferable, apparently, when dealing with his peers.

[Tarheel_Dem]

13. His opponent has racked up nearly 460 endorsements from elected Democrats. He has 2.

Like you said, they work with him, and know him much better than I do, so I'm following their lead here. If Barbara Lee, arguably the most liberal legislator in Congress has lined up behind his opponent, that tells me all I need to know.

[MADem]

14. Barbara had best watch out!!

She might get stuffed under that bus, liberal bona fides notwithstanding!!!

[Tarheel_Dem]

18. As John Lewis can attest, she'll be in excellent company. I felt so sorry for him when the rabid....

BS'ers went after him. It reminded me of when he was spat on walking through that gauntlet of TeaBaggers, during the ACA debate. I have to believe that these are trolls, and not actual BS "supporters", or we're in much bigger trouble than I thought.

[MADem]

19. I hope you're right too--otherwise, we're screwed.

The Trump-ification of the American political process, from the left or the right, is an ugly thing to see...

[murielm99]

28. But Barney is under the bus!

He sold out! Barney bad! Bernie good!

[MADem]

29. He sure is! There are so many people under that bus, the wheels don't touch the road anymore! nt

[Tarheel_Dem]

4. Dana's right. They have kept their powder dry on BS for good reason. Let's see how electable he is..

once they unleash their billions against him. And who will his allies be in Congress? As a non-Democrat, there's no built in loyalty to Sanders from Democrats, and the other party will laugh him out of the room. Just look at who has endorsed him so far. I don't have much hope that his agenda will have legs.

[pnwmom]

7. He has spent his career scolding Democrats for not being pure enough.

There's a good reason he has had so few endorsements, and it's not just because he wasn't a Dem till recently.

[Tarheel_Dem]

9. Two endorsements from elected Democrats. That speaks volumes to me. They know him best &....

I'm going to follow their lead for now. Barbara Lee, who is probably seen as the most liberal Congressperson on the Hill has endorsed his opponent. You would think the Progressive Caucus would be falling all over themselves to endorse the guy, but they're not. That tells me everything I need to know about him.

[Starry Messenger]

26. +1

[MADem]

10. And they'll let him twist in the wind, too, I suspect.

You can't spend a career berating and looking down your nose at your ostensible peers and expect them to have your back.

[SunSeeker]

16. K & R

[Tommy2Tone]

20. Milbank is spot on.

Bernie has zero chance of winning the presidency. All those guns pointed at Hillary would destroy his campaign if he is the nominee Frankly I could not care less about Sanders campaign be destroyed but he will drag the Dem party down with him and then go back to Vermont and go back to being an Independent again..

It's why I loathe him.

[yallerdawg]

21. Mike Huckabee said it tonight...

at Fox undercard debate.

The Fox moderators and Huckabee are incredulous that Sanders could be the Democratic nominee - it's like an impossibility that a socialist could be president.

No, they have not gotten started on what they consider the longest of shots - but it wouldn't be a problem!

That dang Hillary - now she's a problem!