It's not about when Bernie leaves the race, but how

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Jon Cowan and Jim Kessler / Special to The Washington Post

“Last night was not a good night for our campaign,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., admitted in a news conference Wednesday afternoon. After Tuesday’s rout in Michigan, Missouri and elsewhere, his odds of winning the Democratic nomination have tumbled from probable to remote to far-fetched. It’s a dizzying fall, and it must be deeply disappointing for him and his team. But now, Sanders has a decision to make. It’s not about when to drop out of the race, but how.

Will he fan the flames of his revolution, or will he do everything in his power to defeat President Trump? He cannot do both. And his decision may determine whether Democrats gain the White House or if we will face a second Trump term.

To start, Sanders should immediately dismiss the fiction that he is losing primaries because the process is rigged against him. He repeated this nonsense on Sunday, when he used a TV interview to rail against a putative establishment plot to force Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg out of the race to consolidate the moderates. Not only is that offensive to those candidates, it’s an unhinged conspiracy theory that no serious presidential contender should consider, much less amplify.

In truth, no one in the race had more influence on the 2020 primary process than Sanders, who won substantial concessions from the Democratic National Committee after complaints about the rules last time around. Sanders is losing because in nearly all of the 25 contests thus far, he has badly underperformed his 2016 totals.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/commenary-its-not-about-when-bernie-leaves-the-race-but-how/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=9179a246de-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-9179a246de-228635337

[woodsprite]

1. I was thinking if we have an issue with state cancelling primaries due to CV,

if Bernie stepped out, then wouldn't Joe be the Dem nominee automatically?

[olegramps]

2. Sanders is a cheap opportunist and not a loyal Democrat. He is a danger to our party.

If he was a loyal Democrat he would have stepped out of the last election and Clinton would have won. What I want to know from Bernie supports is exactly what is the difference between his stand on Tariffs and Treaties and Trump's.

[ProfessorPlum]

5. He did step out of the last election. And then campaigned his ass off for Clinton

but he got crucial concessions on policy first

[LizBeth]

6. He stepped out at the convention. Took it to the convention. He failed to campaign his ass off

for HRC and when he did go out he almost exclusively talked about himself and threw in at the end that HRC was better than the alternative.

[ProfessorPlum]

7. that's simply untrue

but it has "truthiness" since people like you keep repeating it. Sanders held more rallies for Clinton than Clinton held for herself during that time. He held _many_ more rallies for Clinton than Clinton did for Obama under similar circumstances. And he didn't negotiate for his own power - he negotiated for policy and rules changes to help make the process more small d democratic.

[LizBeth]

9. We watched two different things back then.

[ProfessorPlum]

11. the three claims I made are both true and verifiable.

I don't know what you were "watching" but apparently it gave you the wrong impression.

[LizBeth]

13. I watched, events unfold in real time. I watched Sanders, supporters make the convention angry and

chaotic at a time MANY of us wanted to celebrate the first woman candidate.

I watched a speech that was mostly about Sanders.

I watched the Democratic Party bend over backward, twisting and distorting trying to appease Sanders and his supporters.

I watched a couple of months where Sanders did nothing while writing his book that allowed him to become a millionaire.

And I watched him whine for concessions while HRC was asking him to speak out for her. To appease his supporters.

[ProfessorPlum]

14. "his supporters" are a big chunk of the Democratic Party

plus a lot of independents.

well, you certainly did see a lot of different things than what happened here on earth.

[LizBeth]

15. Mmmm, I do not think so. Another issue we disagree on.

[George II]

16. If his supporters were a "big chunk" of the Democratic Party he'd be ahead in delegates now....

Of the 25 states that have voted, he's gotten more than half the votes in just two - Vermont and the ND Caucus. He's gotten more than 40% in only one state, Idaho, which he lost. In all they others his vote tally is between 37% all the way down to 11%, and in the teens in three.

That's certainly not a "big chunk".

[George II]

17. That's not true. And a number of his "rallies" were in New England. For one thing, the Convention...

....adjourned on July 28. His first appearance for Clinton was on Labor Day, September 5 - almost six weeks later.

[Hortensis]

8. Then it'd be a battle between Biden and Tulsi Gabbard.

Can't guarantee Sanders stepping out wouldn't cause his anti-Democrats to rush to their last chance to exercise their spite. Don't know that it'd be possible by now, but 300 delegates out of nearly 4000 are all she'd need to put her name in nomination.

(Yeah, we have to fix this. Before Newt Gingrich decides to sell fake cancer cures from our debates.)

[woodsprite]

10. Aaaah shit, I forgot about her..... nt

[Hortensis]

12. Me too, and as you say. nt

[Louis1895]

3. My dream of how Bernie leaves the race

The Sunday debate takes place between Biden and Sanders.

Each takes the stage and makes his opening statement, recognizing the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and laying much blame on Trump for allowing the situation to get as bad as it currently is. One of them could even quote Trump's February 5th State of the Union speech where he says:

Protecting Americans’ health also means fighting infectious diseases. We are coordinating with the Chinese government and working closely together on the coronavirus outbreak in China. My administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.

Then, sometime early in the debate, Sanders can articulate the need to unite to eliminate the threat to our national security that Trump has caused with his incompetent leadership. He can admit that what he would like to see done in this country differs from Joe Biden's vision but that we are faced with an existential threat: the Presidency of Donald J. Trump and the stonewalling by Senate Republicans of programs to protect Americans. He would then announce that he is suspending his presidential campaign, walk over to Biden's podium and bump elbows with him (no hand shaking, please), and then, using Biden's microphone, announce that he is endorsing Biden for president!

Just a dream...

[Cha]

4. Yeah.. how.