ABC News: Bernie goes back home to "contemplate"... nothing scheduled until DC Primary.

[DCBob]

Sanders, 74, has a lot of political chips to cash in, but for now, staffers say, he has mostly been obsessing about the Democratic Party platform and will continue to work closely with his picks for the party’s platform drafting committee to see to it that the final documents include as many of his ideas as possible.

Deborah Parker, a Native-American tribal leader and one of Sanders’ picks to the platform committee, said Thursday during the senator’s rally in Washington, D.C., that she hoped to “honor” Sanders and “represent his vision” on the committee.

While the final document is nonbinding, it does symbolically tie all Democratic candidates up and down tickets across the country to a set of values and policy proposals, and Sanders has made it clear that he wants throw some his political weight toward it.

The senator will also continue to use his small-dollar fundraising machine to back local candidates of his choice. The fundraising and joint petition emails sent to Sanders’ list have brought in over 267,000 contributions totaling nearly $2.3 million for 19 candidates, including candidates for U.S. Senate, Congress and local statehouses, according to Sanders’ digital director, Kenneth Pennington.

Publicly, next week remains up in the air for the senator. He is scheduled to speak to the Senate Democratic Caucus Tuesday back in Washington, D.C., the same day as the Democratic primary, the final one of the season.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-home-contemplate/story?id=39762964

==============

Sounds like he's giving up on the flipping delegates stuff.. thank goodness!

[MADem]

1. He was not inclined to end his campaign, until Obama, with one big announcement, ended it for him.nt

[DCBob]

2. I think Bernie may have had some last gasp hope..

.. he could convince the Big O that he was the stronger candidate to win in Nov. Certainly didnt work out that way.

[MADem]

23. Yes--I think that WH meeting was pretty much a one-way conversation after a certain point. nt

[metroins]

26. Bernies after speech wasn't good at all

I don't think he was expecting to make that speech afterwards. It was just his stump speech again and he seemed frazzled.

This isn't a diss of Bernie, just how I saw it.

[Agschmid]

3. Yup, that's was a big deal.

[okasha]

9. I have a feeling that that meeting

wasn't nearly as warm and fuzzy as it's been made out to be.

[MADem]

11. Yep--it almost sounded like someone else wrote at least part of that "stand up"

statement outside after all was said/done.

[LoverOfLiberty]

21. Give the man a break

Its going to be over next week. He has the potential to be a positive voice for Democrats.

Hillary supporters (of which I am one) can be better than this.

[MADem]

22. He left the WH after giving that reasonable little statement at the outdoor gaggle...

...and went straight to a rally where he continued to spin an impossible dream. He can't be a positive voice until he pivots. It's a very sloooooooow turn he's doing, and the only reason he's even creaked slightly to one side is because of that great big SHOVE Obama gave him, followed by Warren, and Biden.

I'm not being mean-spirited; but I am sick of the bullshit. Enough, already.

He should go take a week, decompress, and come up with a way to be positive. And he'd better lay off the whole "demands" attitude--losers don't make demands. Frankly, most of the Sanders supporters, were they given a choice between Sanders and Warren a year ago, would have picked Warren over him hands down. She's much more knowledgeable on economic details, and she's far more articulate and passionately uplifting as well. Now Warren is in the Clinton camp. Solidly. Sanders should see that and understand what it means--he can have a voice, or he can just as easily be marginalized. It's all down to ATTITUDE.

Clinton's attitude when she lost in 2008 was a winning one--she "got over it," she unified, she backed Obama, and she campaigned for him....and she even shoved her husband out on the campaign trail in support of her boss in 2012 (and boy did HE deliver).

Obama will return the favor (and he's already begun) --and I'm sure Biden will help, too (he has already weighed in). Sanders can help corral votes, or he can be a scold and "that guy" that Trump references continuously ("You Bernie supporters are welcome, waaaah, rigged, waaaah fair shake....vote Orange!&quot . Sanders needs to understand that Job One isn't carping at Clinton--or ANY Democrats-- anymore--it's beating Trump to a pulp. He needs to make that his principal goal, and if he goes off message, he won't be effective at all.

[AgadorSparticus]

30. I totally agree with everything you said. Nt

[RichGirl]

4. Odd he's looking to DC.

The government workers there actually live in Virginia...Alexandria, Georgetown, etc. The people who live in the city are 80% African American. They tend to go with Hillary.

[DCBob]

5. DC is going to be a huge massive blowout for Hillary.

DC has more 50% African Americans and the Clintons are well thought of by most everyone here. Bernie may not clear the 15% threshold.

[JimDandy]

6. He made a promise to campaign to the convention and allow every voter who supports him to

check the box next to his name in their state election. That includes DC. In spite of your expectation that he will get significantly less votes than your candidate.

When Clinton supporters advocate that Sanders should keep his promises they need to be reminded about this promise also and not just the one that benefits Clinton: to not run as a 3rd party candidate in the GE.

[Maru Kitteh]

13. I fully support his seeing it through to the last primary as he said he would.

He's smart enough to know what the vote will look like.

I really admire him for not skipping out on the last contest when it will clearly not favor him. I think it also gives his supporters some time to get used to where things are, and consider how he will be moving forward, how to best help him advance the causes he did so well to bring to the fore.

[MADem]

14. Well, his acknowledging reality doesn't curtail the opportunity of voters to make their choice known

at all.

Does not acknowledging reality make the vote any LESS symbolic? What world are people living in that they actually would BELIEVE it matters at this point in time?

"It's not over till I SAY it's over" is a bit churlish, IMO. Especially given the trifecta yesterday of Obama-Warren-Biden all saying "I'm with HER."

[JimDandy]

28. Utter nonsense. It does curtail the vote totals.

When MSNBC says, a week before CA and NJ vote, that they're going to preemptively announce that Clinton is the nominee after NJ voting closes, that curtails the vote totals.

When the AP, a day before CA and NJ vote, releases the Clinton-engineered, preemptive announcement that she is the nominee, that curtails the vote totals.

When a candidate concedes before all contests are concluded, that curtails the vote totals.

When a candidate concedes before every state has held it's State Dem convention, that curtails the delegate vote totals.

Vote totals establish the depth and breadth of a candidates' support and of his platform. Let's not pretend that those numbers aren't important, even now. They are. Vote totals also influence other pertinent factors in a race and beyond its conclusion. So, no, the opportunity to vote for him is not just symbolic at this point.

I know--it's easier for your candidate to marginalize Sanders, if his vote totals can be manipulated to be as low as she can possibly engineer it, but she, and you, will just have to deal with it.

[MADem]

31. This has been 'over' since NY.

Sanders has been indulged since then. Now it's time to pivot... past time actually.

Obama made that clear -- as did Warren and Biden.

[JimDandy]

36. You are waving that Obama Warren Biden flag pretty hard

today, like it means something. I just softly laugh and leave you...to your indulgences.

[MADem]

41. It's not a flag--it is a posse. They're going for the WH.

It'll be a great day when HRC is sworn in.

45!!!!!

[geek tragedy]

7. He's giving everyone a chance to vote.

He knows what time it is.

[spooky3]

24. Georgetown is in DC. And the city proper is more than

20% white. That percentage has been increasing since 2000.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Washington,_D.C.

Lots of Millennials live in DC (2 or more sharing apartments) and work in the govt. Lots of people who work in the district live in DC and Maryland too.

But I agree that the demographics favor HRC.

[DCBob]

37. Georgetown is in Northwest DC which is mostly white and very wealthy.

But I think they would be mostly Hillary supporters. Many are connected to the "establishment" in one way or another and the Clintons are very well thought of here. There is a fairly large young, white, not-so-wealthy population also in parts of DC which might lean Bernie but they will be vastly outnumbered by the huge number of African American voters here who will dominate the election.

Hillary wins something like 80-20.

[spooky3]

38. I agree--I work in DC. I was just

Responding to the earlier poster's statements, which were a little inaccurate.

[DCBob]

39. Cool.. I work in Rockville but my wife works near Navy Yards.

I have lived in the DC area for over 20 years.

[spooky3]

40. I'm getting close to that. Great place to live.

[BobbyDrake]

8. Good luck getting Bernie's aid if you didn't endorse him. His is a very quid pro quo type of "help."

19 candidates, out of over 1,000 offices (if you're going to dig down to statehouse level to boost Bernie's figure)? Whoa, Bernie, slow down with that massive "influence" of yours.

[senz]

12. Bullshit as usual.

It's all you people have. Quid pro quo is Hill as SOS doing favors for anyone who donates to the "Foundation." She's famous for it. Who knows, she might be under investigation for it.

As for Bernie, by last February there were 191 Bernie Democrats running for public office.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511339228

[MADem]

16. How many of those were knocked out in the primaries? nt

[democrattotheend]

19. I don't think Feingold endorsed him

But yet he fundraised for Feingold.

Had Tim Canova endorsed him when he endorsed Canova? I remember reading that Canova was unaware that Bernie was going to endorse and fundraise for him before it happened.

[laserhaas]

10. You wish

Sheessshhh

[Skwmom]

15. I have to disagree with Bernie here. The platform won't be worth the paper it is written on because

we can't trust the chosen nominee to fight for it.

I think it is a waste of time.

[democrattotheend]

20. I think I agree

I would rather see him use his political capital to either achieve reforms to the nominating process or agreement from his Senate colleagues to make a real push for meaningful campaign finance reform, his free college program, or something else that is important to him.

[CorkySt.Clair]

25. "I think it's a waste of time."

[JimDandy]

34. Agree it's an utter waste of time. He and the Progressives have much more meaningful work to do.

[riversedge]

17. No rallies scheduled. whow.

[kacekwl]

18. Rest up Bernie,

you deserve it after a campaign that would have killed a lesser man. You ROCK , love you man.

[Live and Learn]

27. +10,000 nt

[brooklynite]

29. Maybe the Sanders fans could schedule their OWN rally...

I'm sure Cornel West and Nina Turner would be happy to show up again.

[MADem]

32. Are they still getting paid?

Weaver and a few others threw him under the bus in that brutal Politico article.

[JimDandy]

35. They are getting ready for the People's Summit.

You just pay allegiance... umm, attention, to Clinton...