Sanders Is Behind With Black Voters. He Didn't Fix That in Flint.

[highplainsdem]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/08/us/politics/bernie-sanders-michigan.html

-snipping paragraphs about Sanders' rally in Flint focusing on surrogates and activists speaking on behalf of Sanders, rather than Sanders himself making his case to black voters-

Sanders campaign aides had billed the event as an opportunity for him to make a case directly to black voters for why they should support him over Mr. Biden. But the audience ended up being overwhelmingly white, and Mr. Sanders made so few overtures directly to black voters that the event seemed unlikely to pull large numbers of African-Americans away from Mr. Biden.

Mr. Sanders’s relative silence was deliberate, those involved in the event said. The guest speakers — several of whom were flown into Flint by the campaign — decided before the event that it would be better to let them discuss the issues affecting their communities than the man running for president to represent them.

Mr. Sanders opted not to deliver the speech that he had spent much of the day crafting, according to aides, who declined to describe the message he had hoped to communicate.

Instead, he was left asking questions of the panelists, in effect turning over his campaign message to others like Mr. West, the fiery celebrity academic, Harvard professor and fixture on the left.

-snip-

This does NOT look good for Sanders. And it seems more than a little insulting to black voters that Sanders would hold an event like this, but back out of giving a speech that had been announced, and that his aides said he'd spent much of the day crafting.

It adds to the impression that Sanders is pretty much writing off this crucial Democratic voting bloc.

[NurseJackie]

1. "Sanders is pretty much writing off this crucial Democratic voting bloc" -- He doesn't care.

Sanders is pretty much writing off this crucial Democratic voting bloc.

He doesn't care. He's not even trying. It's very clear what his priorities are.

[dalton99a]

3. The priorities are transactional

just like that guy

[Renew Deal]

2. Sanders knows its over

[abqtommy]

4. Sanders has had since 2016 to "fix things". The fact that he didn't/hasn't speaks volumes...

disclaimer: I didn't support Sanders in 2016 and still haven't seen any reason to support him here in 2020...

[Squinch]

5. But he marched on Washington in 1963!

[Laelth]

6. Most likely, his speech was designed for high AA turnout at the event.

When that turnout didn't materialize, his speech was all-of-a-sudden inappropriate and moot.

I suspect he was disappointed.



-Laelth

[Gothmog]

7. Bernie Sanders does not care about Black people.

Link to tweet