Sure they do. And watch out when they realise it’s an advantage that she’s on top of the other party. #I’mWithHer, they say.
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If Sanders keeps poisoning the well, he won’t have the opportunity to negotiate anything. Clinton might think she could tack slightly to the right and pick up enough #NeverTrump folks to win even without Bernie’s wing.
Is HIllary at this point even campaigning against Sanders? AFAICT, all of her ads are anti-Trump at this point. She might have already decided to ignore Sanders completely.
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The point is that no nominated national GOP leader on the right will be making the Reagonomics arguments. So regardless of what anyone may think, the national movement and votes are clearly to HRC’s and the Dem’s left and not the right.
That’s a big, historic change. How everyone responds is an open question.
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Panic and confusion, I expect.
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What about when he names Huckabee as his running mate?
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Suppose he does? Huckabee can’t help unify his own party let alone unify independents and GOP voters. Huckabee is voter-repellent for independents. And will Drumpf start following Huckabee’s lead on trade policy? No, Drumpf won the day by abandoning Reaganomics. The dems are right of center now and should correct course.
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I’m thinking maybe big business will abandon the GOP to Trump and the crazies, since the Democrats are the party of the future, demographically… Which would leave a hole for a sizeable green/left coalition to form in. That might turn out to be a larger cohort than the Drumpfsters, but that probably wouldn’t count for much, since the Dems would be one major party in the ‘middle’, for lack of a better word for it.
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[quote=“Aloisius, post:1649, topic:59394”]
If Sanders keeps poisoning the well, he won’t have the opportunity to negotiate anything.[/quote]
Negotiation happens at the convention. There’s nothing Clinton can do to get @Kimmo’s vote, but there are plenty of progressive democrats who are open to reasons to vote for her, and that’s where things like platform concessions can help.
I think most of them would rather just leave the top of the ballot blank than vote for Clinton.
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Well, @Kimmo is an Aussie, so (s)he doesn’t get a vote. Also, negotiation happens at any time. Do you honestly believe that Hillary Clinton didn’t negotiate with Obama for Secretary of State before she dropped out? Getting one person to adopt what you can is way easier than getting a bunch of random delegates to. If Sanders was smart, he would negotiate what he could with Clinton now rather than gamble on the mood of delegates in July.
That’s what I generally do. I wish someone counted the number of votes for None of the Above. It would make my (and others) abstaining from certain races more visible.
[quote=“Aloisius, post:1656, topic:59394”]
Well, @Kimmo is an Aussie, so (s)he doesn’t get a vote.[/quote]
Yeah, I got that.
Sanders doesn’t want to be Secretary of State. He didn’t run as part of a personal jobs program, he ran to move the party back where it belongs. Things like provisions in the party platform are best negotiated at the convention. He will also have more power to do it after picking up more delegates in the upcoming primaries. It will give meaning to the votes in those primaries, whereas dropping out would disenfranchise his supporters there.
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My girlfriend is currently listening to Kylie’s ‘can’t get you out of my head’, which goes very well with the Hillary money .gif.
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Indeed, all she has to do to get my vote in November is adopt at least 2/3 of Bernie’s or Jill Stein’s platform, and also convince me she will actually fight for it and won’t be the mouthpiece for Goldman Sachs and Wal-Mart.
Not holding my breath here.
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There was a point during an interview with The Young Turks where the host asked Sanders what he wanted from Hillary. Later one of the other hosts who was backstage with Bernie’s wife recounted her saying to him in response to the question, “He’s not going to want anything for himself, he’s going to want policies.” Sure enough, that’s what he asked for.
Storytime:
Sanders came to speak at my university. I couldn’t attend because of exams and I didn’t think I could get in without standing in line for hours.
Sure enough the auditorium was packed, and a lot of people ended up outside. After his speech inside was done, he came out into the rain and proceeded to give the same 2 hour speech to everyone else.
I’ve never been crazy about people fawning over politicians. I don’t agree with everything Bernie plans on. But I do feel sorry for people who feel the need to vote for someone who isn’t that driven by principle.
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“Popular wisdom” is that Clinton is more electable and so people will feel desperate to run her because Trump is not an option. I think an arrest by the FBI is the only chance of Sanders winning now. But, honestly, if the FBI is going to risk involvement in a presidential race (very low odds) they are going to do it after Clinton gets the nomination. It’s not like Sanders would reward them for the win afterwards, Trump would.
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It’s as if you can’t imagine politicians fighting for anyone but themselves.
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The popular wisdom was upended this week.
You know national polls show Sanders doing better against Drumpf than HRC. Sanders has lower unfavorables than either of them. It’s his campaign to lose now.
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National polls have shown Sanders doing better against Drumpf the whole time - and against every other contender. He’s certainly has “lower unfavourability” - that is, people actually view him favourably unlike everyone else who is/was trying to be president.
What he doesn’t have is delegates. Having to win 67% of the remaining delegates seems very unlikely, and given Sanders’ record on voting machines I don’t think there is any real chance of that even if the polls are drastically underestimating his support.
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In the “Why not” category for Sanders, Scahill notes that he shouldn’t get a pass for his part in some pretty disastrous decisions. I do think Scahill overstates the effect Sanders had on any outcome, but he’s not wrong on the facts, and it’s important to keep in mind.
I’m weirdly okay with the assassination techniques being used by the WH, just not their extent or the extent of their oversight. If you’re at war, you kill people, and targeting military leaders is absolutely A Thing. I have a problem with Drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, but the ones in ISIS held territory are not principally a problem except for collateral damage. There are a ton of asterisks, daggers, and double daggers here that I’m not going into, but I’m actually not as opposed to the use of drones or drone strikes as a lot of others on the left. It’s the lack of any accountability that I have a serious problem with, as well as their use in countries we’re not formally engaged in some sort of hostilities with. I read Bernie’s answer as being more along the lines of, “I would run this my own way, but I can’t call Obama out on a tactic that’s probably a part of how warfare is now conducted.” Is this a generous reading? YES. I’m aware of it, and I’m taking the risk that I’m wrong. I’m not seeing all roses and posies here, and I’m aware Bernie isn’t perfect. So this is a good time to talk about how he might continue certain problematic parts of current US policy.
(@codinghorror, Why Y U no allow iframe embeds? Okay… I can kind of see why. Any way to post a video not on YouTube?)
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Do we agree that the prospects of democratic socialist campaigning are brighter this week than last week without the possibility of a GOP nominee flogging Reaganomics themes?
I think it matters a great deal that conservatives were unable to field a unifying national leader for their Calvin Coolidge agenda. It’s not the same situation any more. Now it’s a GOP/Dem reboot.
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I’m not actually sure if we agree or not. We had the democrats following the republicans towards a cliff. The republicans have walked off the cliff. Are the democrats going to take a step back or keep walking?
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