Bernie would become a national hero today

[RandySF]

If, given the math, he were to step aside and help unite the party against history’s most dangerous president during a crisis.

[redstatebluegirl]

1. He still thinks he can win. He is extremely stubborn.

[empedocles]

7. BS still 'assumes' he can win

[ProfessorPlum]

11. how do you 'know' what Sanders assumes?

[LiberalFighter]

17. His campaign advisor admitted as much.

[Peregrine Took]

18. Over half the states haven't voted yet. Why on earth would he drop out? n/t

[ProfessorPlum]

19. You're asking the wrong person.

I don't think he should drop out until he wrings some good policy changes out of Biden and the DNC.

[brooklynite]

40. If there was a demand for your "good policy changes", people would have voted for them...

[oldsoftie]

23. Maybe because he has little chance of winning most of those states?

[TwilightZone]

28. Because of simple math?

He's forecast to win two or three of the remaining contests, total. In many of the others, he's down by more than 20 points, including all of the big-delegate states left like PA and FL. He's down nearly 20 points in the national polls.

538 says he'd need a 20-point surge across the board immediately just to remain competitive and it would still be almost impossible to make up the difference.

The race is over.

[True Blue American]

51. Down in Ohio,too.

[dware]

29. Maybe because he doesn't stand a chance in hell of winning the nomination?

[Jarqui]

37. Maybe this might have something to do with it

Recent polls
March 17 primaries All States Bernie lost to Hillary
AZ Biden +28
AZ Biden +17
IL Biden +21
IL Biden +38
FL Biden +38
FL Biden +41
FL Biden +44
FL Biden +55
OH Biden +22

March 24 primaries State Bernie lost to Hillary
GA Biden +18.5 (two polls)

At this point, Bernie's going to be down about 2.5 million votes and 300-400 delegates

After March 24 primaries (latest polls)
PA Biden +28 State Bernie lost to Hillary
DE Biden +38 State Bernie lost to Hillary
WI Biden +16 State Bernie won over Hillary
KS Biden +24 State Bernie won over Hillary
MD Biden heavily favored because of large black vote, Bernie lost MD in 2016
LA Biden heavily favored because of large black vote, Bernie lost LA in 2016

Beyond this, there are not large (over 100 delegates) states outstanding that Bernie won in 2016. His biggest win for the remaining states was 44-39 in Indiana (5 delegates net) or by delegates won Alaska 13-3 (+10 delegates). There's not enough realistic real estate left for Bernie to come back.

National Biden +19 (poll of polls)

I'll let Nate take it from here:

Link to tweet

This is past the point of stick a fork in him. It's time to remove the fork and move on.

Bernie wants to earn negotiation points with Biden. Here's the negotiation:
"It's Biden or Trump. Take your pick."

[empedocles]

13. Given the primaries, etc., does not appear to be 'thinking'

[Thekaspervote]

2. +1000

[Cha]

3. If

[Pachamama]

4. +100000

But he clearly isn’t a hero, is he?

He has no path to victory and yet he keeps the fantasy revolution alive....

[el_bryanto]

5. Biden supporters would find other reasons to hate him. nt

[dware]

20. AFAIK, nobody here has expressed hate toward Sen. Sanders,

there is disagreement on whether he is electable, but no hate.

[Aaron Pereira]

45. There is plenty of deep seated hostility to Sanders and a premature exit won't change it.

The purpose of a primary is an airing of issues, a chance for rank and file voters to have their say in all states and to test the endurance of fitness of our candidates. We have a long way to go.

[Tumbulu]

56. No, my visceral disgust is based upon

memories of his kind of guy from the ‘60-‘70’s whose attitude towards women was that we were useful for clerical help and free sex because our lives were so much easier than theirs. They were the purists fighting “the man” and we had life so so easy. We owed it to them.

Evidence is his personal life from those days.

I hate him all right. For stealing power from his landlord with dangerous extension chords, for leaving the mother of his kid stuck navigating the welfare system. For not working to support them.

But I was a Warren supporter until she dropped out. At least she had plans. And she worked for a living before going into politics unlike creep bernie. Oh yes, I loath him! And if you think that once those stories are blasted around in ads the toxic effects of his lifelong selfishness won’t turn the regular public off, you are naive.

[Freddie]

57. I knew guys like that in the 70s

Dated one for a while. The hippie ethos of “everybody free and equal” didn’t extend to us cooks and bed warmers. That was eons ago and I’ve been with my husband (who is NOT like that) for 40 years but thinking about it still pisses me off. Never thought about it til now, but that’s why I have a personal dislike of BS. And hearing that he was probably a disappearing deadbeat dad to his son just confirms it.

[blm]

6. Maybe he will do it at the end of the debate.

Biden should be open and receptive enough to adopting some measures right there. Biden and Sanders were always collegial so, it should be considered a possibility.

[George II]

8. It would be the patriotic thing to do.

[ProfessorPlum]

9. Sanders is already a national hero

no one has done more to mainstream the idea of single payer healthcare, and that will save millions of lives, eventually.

[jalan48]

10. +1

[RandySF]

12. If he spends the next few months attacking Biden

He may not even get re-elected in Vermont.

[ProfessorPlum]

14. I'll let him know about your deep concern

[dware]

21. Sen. Sanders is NOT a national hero,

he's widely recognized as a man with integrity, but he's no hero.

[ProfessorPlum]

22. that's like your opinion man

he is a hero to millions of Americans, and will be remembered for fighting for working people all the while the entire elite establishment fought against and ridiculed him.

[dware]

24. No, that's like the truth man.

Uh oh, there's that word, "establishment".
I guess that ends the conversation.

[dware]

25. I've done more for this country in my 74 years,

than Sen. Sanders has done for this country his whole life.

[ProfessorPlum]

33. have a cookie

[dware]

34. Back atcha.

[True Blue American]

55. If Sanders is a hero

Why isn’t he winning?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. Really? The single-payer healthcare concept has been floating around

since the Truman administration. And Warren did at least as much to promote it as Bernie did.

[ProfessorPlum]

31. it is an old concept

and Sanders has been pushing it in two consecutive big national races. Warren's support is also welcome.

Biden should adopt it as well.

[TwilightZone]

30. John Conyers.

Conyers introduced Medicare for All in 2003 and introduced it every year for the next 15.

Sanders 2017 bill was a parallel of that bill. 14 years later.

[ProfessorPlum]

32. Conyers never ran for President on that platform

Presidential runs have the power to really change national dialog. And Conyers and _everyone_ fighting for single payer deserve credit. But again, no one has done more to bring the idea into the national dialog, especially in the last decade, than Sanders.

[ehrnst]

35. Actually, Warren has done more to change the conversation, in a much shorter time.

Warren's real power lies in her outsized influence, not just for a freshman senator, but for virtually any elected official in Washington. Her pen may not have touched many pieces of legislation that made their way to Obama's desk since her election in 2012, but her fingerprints are all over them.
........................................................
Warren's restraint may have lost her the battle, but has earned her a tremendous amount of respect from her colleagues. Warren allies say that, coupled with her fundraising for candidates across the Democratic party spectrum, is what has helped to keep her relevant within the conference—though thousands of avid supporters willing to put their votes and their dollars behind her ideology, and against those who oppose her, don't hurt either.

That's helped Warren to continue to hold outsized sway over the conversation among Democratic policymakers in Washington, particularly for a freshman. "Democrats in Congress were talking about cutting Social Security in 2012, and Warren got 42 of 44 Democrats to vote yes on expanding Social Security benefits instead," Adam Green, cofounder of the Progressive Campaign Change Committee said in a statement.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/05/is-elizabeth-warren-an-effective-senator/449349/


Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The CFPB accomplished more that all the talking Sanders has done in 30+ years as a career politician on Capitol Hill. She lapped him even before she got elected to the Senate.

[Happy Hoosier]

36. If he insists on fighting out this primary in the face of a pandemic....

He will seriously damage his reputation. People will feel compelled to go to the polls, almost certainly accelerating the spread of the virus in the primary states. And for WHAT? His fucking ego.

[Just_Vote_Dem]

38. .....

[oasis]

49. Johnie's Coffee Shop, Wilshire&Fairfax L.A. is a shrine to Bernie

other than that...

[True Blue American]

52. Obama did that and Biden.

And would have succeeded, except for 3 lousy Senators, Lieberman, Baucus and Grassley.

[LizBeth]

15. I would not be so scornful of Sanders, anyway. Not a hero. Just a person with integrity.

Many of us are already there. Not something to give a pat on the back about. It should be a given, expected.

[Squinch]

27. He COULD do that, and go back to the Senate as an elder statesman. Or he can be

demolished in all the upcoming primaries and annoy everyone who wants to get on with the business of defeating Filthy Donnie. If he does this, he will lose whatever relevance he has left.

The first choice would be the smart one.

Guess which one he will pick?

[polichick]

39. The big rush makes it seem as if Biden supporters don't trust him...

not to fuck up.

[Polybius]

41. No, he must wait until at least Monday

I absolutely need to see this debate. The country needs it. We have no sports.

[dansolo]

42. Why the need?

What are you expecting to occur in the debate that will so dramatically change the detection the primaries are going?

[Polybius]

43. Not expecting any change, just good entertainment

I have no sports to watch. This is gonna be damn good. I enjoy all debates.

[showblue22]

44. It's going to be a great debate.

This is going to be Bernie's last debate perhaps in his life. Bernie supporters want Bernie to go hard negative on Biden. Biden is who he is a statesman, a good decent man. People all over the world love Joe. If Bernie does it, he will be energizing Biden's base and if he does't, he will disappoint his. I'm excited to watch it for sure.

[BidenBacker]

46. I'd rather watch March Madness than yet another debate

And now my beloved baseball has been suspended.

This virus is REALLY starting to get on my nerves.

[Polybius]

47. Same here

Give me some sport to watch, anything. Just not UFC, not really into fighting.

[BidenBacker]

48. Me either

My elderly father in FL relied heavily on sports to ease his loneliness since his second wife just passed away last year. Now that's all gone.

He has airline reservations to visit my brother and I out here in AZ next month and now that is in serious jeopardy. I had some real nice seats close to the field for a D-backs game against the AL champs Astros I was really looking forward to taking him to...those may end up getting refunded now. Seems like a lot of fuss over just a "hoax".

None of this may have been necessary if we had a federal government that actually knew WTF it was doing or a POTUS who gave a shit about anybody but himself.

[USALiberal]

50. LOL, I doubt it here, they would still insult him. nt

[RazBerryBeret]

53. no way

i haven't voted yet, Ohio votes on tuesday.
Most of the country hasn't voted yet, why do you want to take away our voices?

[samnsara]

54. yes he would....hes being given some very dangerous advice and I suspect Jane is the loudest..

[SamKnause]

58. Bernie is already the most well liked Senator in this country.

Bernie will decide when the time is right.

He is an honorable man and I trust him.

[still_one]

59. Never going to happen

[gulliver]

60. He should bow out of the race in his opening remarks.

Then he and Biden should spend the rest of the debate talking about Trump.