Bernie Sanders says he ran as Democrat for the media attention

[riversedge]

By Rebecca Shabad CBS News March 15, 2016, 11:38 AM

Bernie Sanders says he ran as Democrat for the media attention

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernie-sanders-says-he-ran-as-democrat-for-the-media-attention/

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina March 14, 2016.
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton



Bernie Sanders on Monday night said he decided to run for president as a Democrat because of the media attention he would receive.

"Do you run as an independent? Do you run within the Democratic party? We concluded-- and I think it was absolutely the right decision, that, A) in terms of media coverage -- you have to run within the Democratic Party," the Vermont independent said at MSNBC's Democratic town hall in Columbus, Ohio.

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The senator also said that the only way he could have launched a third-party bid was if he were a billionaire.

..............................

[MADem]

1. What an ill-advised remark. nt

[rogerashton]

4. Why was it ill-advised?

Is it some sort of mistake to point our the bias of the media?

[MADem]

13. You've got to dance with the ones what brung ya.

And he just stepped all over their toes.

He snuggled up to the media with that soundbite, and basically told the Democrats to eff themselves.

Short-sighted, at best.

[riversedge]

25. Love it.

[erlewyne]

27. Well he got my attention

and voted for him 6 hours ago, and my wife, and my son,
and my son's wife, and my grandson when he gets home from school!

[FrostyAusty]

6. not even..

Remotely in the same ballpark as "We didn't lose a single person in Libya" Now that is an ill advised remark ... It's funny too that even though he said he did it for the media, the media has paid him ZERO attention. Nice try though! Nottttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

[MADem]

14. Gee, welcome to DU, and if you want to talk about that, and not the topic in the

thread starting post, you're welcome to fire up a thread and go for it, FrostyAusty.

[GreatGazoo]

2. He is the new FDR !

[Cassiopeia]

3. This is what the 3rd? 4th? thread by you on the subject?

Sanders has said from the very beginning he would not be a third party spoiler candidate. Would you prefer that he had gone that route?

[vdogg]

30. I mean, how many email threads have you guys posted?

And Benghazi threads, and Goldman Sachs threads? Yet this is too much for you to handle?

[Cassiopeia]

31. I haven't posted any

However I've seen multiple threads with this exact post from the same poster. You would think they could just kick their original thread.

It doesn't matter in the end, I just find it silly to post an OP that's the same over and over again in an 18 hour span of time.

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. Smart man. That's what we need in the WH

[Vinca]

7. He's also said he didn't run as a third party candidate because he didn't want to be responsible

for putting a Republican in office. If he had run as an Independent, many of us would have voted for him and Der Trumpenfuhrer would most likely win the presidency because of a split Democratic vote.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. ^^^^THIS^^^^

Exactly right.

[riversedge]

24. And NOW he says he wanted more media as a Democrat. Believe what he says.

[Vinca]

40. That makes sense, too. His beliefs are his life's work, why wouldn't he want publicity?

[Svafa]

19. Run as an Independent and split the vote, Clinton supporters will whine that he gave the GE to an R.

Run as a Democrat to avoid that scenario, and Clinton supporters will whine that he is "not a real Democrat" and using the party. You just can't win with them. Obviously Sanders made the right choice.

[jillan]

21. Isn't funny that a Hillary supporter would forget this minor detail?

Those goshdang FACTS!

[TheBlackAdder]

8. Funny! A quantified remark and only the "A)" response is given. It's kind of a Rovian OP to me!

[dogman]

10. Same as yesterday.

Can you address his point?
Which Independent candidate who is not a billionaire gets media coverage?
Did you prefer Nader's 3rd Party run?

[BlueCaliDem]

11. YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

Alerted on but survived 2-5. Just thought you'd like to know.

[MADem]

15. Why? WHY???

For the life of me that is just weird and dumb and wrong. There's nothing in this OP that is alert-worthy at all. I wish the admins would look into truly frivolous alerts.

People who don't want to discuss a topic should move on to the next, and hit HIDE THREAD if they are afraid they'll encounter the dreaded thread again.

[BlueCaliDem]

17. That's what we used to do - hide the thread and move on. But some clearly want

to erase any OP that tells the god-honest truth on Bernie, and that's not free speech nor what happens in a democracy IF you believe in free speech and a democracy, that is.

[libtodeath]

12. YAWN

[retrowire]

16. Party loyalty is not important. There I said it.

I follow whoever is right on the issues. I'm so sorry to tell you this.

The soul of the Democratic Party is with Bernie. And if you're so upset that you feel your party has been invaded by people who actually care about liberal values... I don't know what to tell you.

Parties shouldn't exist, period.

Because of a party system, we are NOT a UNITED States of a America. We are a DIVIDED States of America. Red states, blue states, etc...

It's so binary. Us vs them. It's bullshit and it's not unity. So again, if you're THIS upset about someone making use of the Democratic Party, because that's the only way you can possibly get any attention then don't get mad at Bernie, he's doing you no harm, he's bringing people into the party who've never considered it before. He's doing you a favor. And he's not charging you for it.

I registered as a Democrat because of Bernie. Obama didn't inspire me, Hillary didn't inspire me. It was Bernie. And if the party wants to spit in my face by telling me that Bernie AKA my belief system doesn't belong here then... I'll go wherever I can actually make a difference. If the Democratic Party isn't that place then... Tell me right now. I don't belong here.

I'll tell you what to be mad at, be mad that a 2 party system exists in the first place and has led people to think with exclusionary mindsets like this.

Divided we fall. It's that simple.

[quickesst]

18. So...

Given the way Bernie Sanders and his supporters feel about the Democratic Party, he has, in effect made....."A Deal With the Devil" and obviously got the better end of the deal. now I understand what "feel the Bern" really means.

[Gothmog]

20. This will make even harder for Sanders to flip super delegates

[MADem]

22. Harder? Closer to IMPOSSIBLE.

And it makes him a one-term wonder, if he threads the needle, jumps the moon, and finds a path to the nomination. Who wants to support someone who doesn't support you or your platform?

[Gothmog]

32. I was trying to be nice

Sanders will flip few if any super delegates after last night's town hall

[MADem]

34. Hee hee...I know!!

It certainly 'explains' some of his crew's strategic decisions.

[dogman]

23. Possibly the super-delegates who ignore the voters wont be super-delegates next election.

Maybe they and other conservadems wont be in power. We'll see if people are discouraged or empowered.

[Gothmog]

33. The super delegates who I know have been real democrats for a very long time

I doubt that they are worried about anything other than the long term viability of the Democratic Party and the success of down ballot candidates.

Sanders could kill down ballot candidates in many states and so far Sanders has not shown any interest in the party

[dogman]

46. You are only paying attention to your game then.

There are Counties that have gone for Bernie. Win or lose for him, their will be changes for County Chairs and possible challenges to those Reps and Senators that ignore their constituents. You may not have noticed but Bernie has been very aggressive about what his candidacy involves. People will power the Party or it will remain the stale Party it has become. It needs less older repubs and more young Dems.

[WDIM]

26. He will save the soul of the party in the process. nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

28. And, he's succeeded....finally.

[aikoaiko]

29. And, much to your chagrin, his strategy is working.

Most Democrats aren't as zealously loyal as you that they would take offense at what Bernie said. Many Democrats want people like Bernie to join in when it counts.

[Gothmog]

35. Really?

The Clinton lead over Sanders in 2016 is actually far greater than the Obama lead over Clinton in 2008 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/14/why-hillary-clintons-delegate-lead-over-bernie-sanders-is-bigger-than-it-looks/

But here's the thing: Whether or not Clinton wins Ohio doesn't really matter.

It's important to remember that the Democrats, unlike the Republicans, don't allocate delegates on a winner-take-all basis. When Donald Trump won South Carolina with a plurality of the vote, he got all of the state's 50 delegates, a total that right now constitutes more than half of his lead. There are no states like that on the Democratic side. There are some variations in how the states divvy up their delegates, but they're proportionally distributed from now until the primary is over.

Which is why the 2008 daily delegate totals looked like this.

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

As Clinton tried to play catch-up with Barack Obama, he would get some delegates every time she did. The only times she made big gains against him was in states she won by a wide margin. But the proportional delegate system kept Obama steadily out of reach.

It's worth comparing Obama's 2008 lead in the delegates to Clinton's. Clinton, by virtue of huge margins of victory in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, has a much bigger lead than Obama did at this point -- or than Obama did at any point. (The data below excludes superdelegates.)
https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

Even without super delegates, Clinton has a far greater lead over Sanders compared to the lead that President Obama had over Clinton in 2008

[aikoaiko]

38. Yes, remember when the inevitable one was polling 60% to Bernie's 4%

Bernie is garnering media coverage, challenging HRC, and still competitive



I recognize there is a good chance he will not win the nomination, but no one, except Bernie supporters, predicted it would be as close as it is.

[Gothmog]

45. The name of the game is delegates and Clinton could not overcome a 90 delegate advantage

It is difficult to see how Sanders can overcome a 200+ delegate lead by Clinton when Obama was able to hold onto and get the nomination with a much smaller lead

[riversedge]

43. Love those graphs. I had not seen them before. Thanks

[Gothmog]

44. I like graphs

[nichomachus]

36. The corporatist media, which is in the bag for Hillary, has worked overtime to not mention Bernie

Imagine if he were running as an independent. He would be getting less coverage than Jill Stein. The media wants Hillary no matter how many gaffes she makes and no matter how long she stonewalls on releasing the transcript of her super-secret Wall Street speeches. What did she say to those people that has her terrified of their becoming public? It must have been quite shocking. Probably would end her campaign in five minutes -- like Romney's 47 percent remarks. I'd love to know how she dissed us while stroking the Wall Streeters who were writing her six-figure checks.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

37. The OP is lame. Had he run as an Independent, DU would have imploded

[Corey_Baker08]

39. What A Hypocrite, 30 Years As Independent, Then Turns His Back On His Own Party By Running As A Dem?

[JackRiddler]

42. Your Posts Are A Lot Of Fun, You Should Keep Doing That!

It Totally Works.

[JackRiddler]

41. Show some reading comprehension, will you.

He's clearly saying he ran as a Democrat to WIN. You can't win outside the parties because you don't get media attention (unless you are a reality show star or a billionaire or both). So obviously he ran inside the Democrats, because he wants to win and he's not a fool.

Meanwhile, how about you let the primary voters decide and give up on this daily bullshit? How about you talk about ISSUES, like Sanders does? It might actually stop Clinton from bleeding support, which is all she's done for months.