UPDATE: I'm sure now that all you useless liberal, elitist, superdelegate Democrat assholes are all looking forward to the inauguration of President Hillary Clinton., I am here to remind you that I wrote this just after Bernie Announced!! HAHA!
Now that Bernie Sanders has announced his candidacy for President, you can already hear Official Washington giggling in the background. Too Liberal! A socialist! No chance! Too funny looking! Yep, the Very Important And Serious People have already written Bernie off. Nothing for the Inevitable Hillary to worry about, that's for sure. After all, the last real progressive to run was Dennis Kucinich, and the Very Serious People had no trouble marginalizing him. Never mind that Kucinich was an authentic political hero, saving the people of Cleveland from Enron style gouging when he was mayor. He was funny looking too. Always shunted off waaaay off to the side during the debates. After being allowed to speak a couple times, the VIP's would smile and then let the Serious Candidates speak. You know, the ones standing in the middle, far away from Dennis. The candidates that Understood How Things Work. The ones that understood what was good for the elites was good for all.
So, the elites have already started this process on Bernie Sanders. But it's not going to work. First of all, Bernie is tough and fearless advocate for progressive policies. He has been fighting brave and lonely battles in the arena for many years. He will not be pushed around. He will not be shunted off to the side. The Democratic debates will not be a cattle call with 10+ candidates on the stage. Heck, it might be Bernie and Hillary one on one! He will not let Hillary intimidate him. Hillary will have to defend her cozy relationship to Wall Street and special interests and there will nowhere to hide. Hillary might try to paint him as an extremist, a socialist! But that will not work. Bernie has earned the respect and admiration of many progressives. Here's the rub, his economic policies are not extreme in the least. Nothing that Harry S. Truman could not have gotten behind. Almost all are popular when polled on their own merits, away from the label of socialism! Bernie will be heard and Hillary will have to respond. And no, money will not protect her. Bernie will be outspent, perhaps greatly. But he will raise enough from small donors to get his message out, especially when his message is so forceful. What's Hillary going to do, run attack ads? " Bernie is too Liberal?". I don't think so. Hillary will need Sanders supporters to come to the polls in November if she is too win. She must tred carefully here.
No, Bernie Sanders will probably not be the Democratic nominee. But he is just dangerous enough to derail an overconfident and elitist Hillary. Despite her lip service to progressive causes when she announced her candidacy, Hillary shows few signs of learning anything from the debacle of 2008. She still is excessively cautious. She still shows too much loyalty to too many hacks. Bill and her still seem careless about potential scandals. Finally she seems to be relying too much on her "inevitability". The strategy seems to be: coast to the nomination, and then rely on "emerging Democratic demographics" and the GOP destroying themselves by nominating an extremist.. Hey, it might work. But I wouldn't count on it. Despite all the Tea party moaning about Jeb Bush, I expect the establishment wing of the GOP to prevail as they always do. Then the Tea Party legions will bitch, moan, and then fall into line, like they did for Mitt Romney. And what if Jeb (or Rubio) is the nominee? A swing of 58 electoral votes from the loss of Florida becomes a real possibility. Also, does Hillary and her team have the skills that Team Obama did to win major battleground states? Very much in the air. Finally, what happens in Iowa or New Hampshire when this flabby Hillary runs into the focused and determined Bernie Sanders? Is 40% plus for Bernie in either state really out of the question? Is victory in these states really out of the questions Then what happens? This is why the proper comparison to Bernie Sanders is not Dennis Kucinich. It is Eugene McCarthy. Democrats....beware.
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