A Politico piece came out that interviewed his staff. It shows that Bernie has become increasingly bitter and delusional.
Most of his staff has realized he won't be the nominee for weeks if not months, but Bernie has tried to pretend that he knows some higher Proletarian reality where he's actually winning.
I'm waiting for Seth Abramson to explain today that Bernie is really winning this when you look at it the right way.
When you talk about Dead Enders, Bernie's not just a member, he's the club president.
Inside the bitter last days of Bernie's revolution
For better and for worse, Sanders made all the big decisions.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4AzpLVg8D
Right. The mistakes all came from the top.
"There’s no strategist pulling the strings, and no collection of burn-it-all-down aides egging him on. At the heart of the rage against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, the campaign aides closest to him say, is Bernie Sanders."
"It was the Vermont senator who personally rewrote his campaign manager’s shorter statement after the chaos at the Nevada state party convention and blamed the political establishment for inciting the violence."
"Read more:He was the one who made the choice to go after Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz after his wife read him a transcript of her blasting him on television."
"He chose the knife fight over calling Clinton unqualified, which aides blame for pulling the bottom out of any hopes they had of winning in New York and their last real chance of turning a losing primary run around."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4Azpg9YiL
Last night at Bernie's 1:30 AM speech when he mentioned 'Secretary Clinton' the place erupted in boos. He's been a big part of that. He's taught his Berners to have contempt for her.
"There are many divisions within the Sanders campaign—between the dead-enders and the work-it-out crowds, between the younger aides who think he got off message while the consultants got rich and obsessed with Beltway-style superdelegate math, and between the more experienced staffers who think the kids got way too high on their sense of the difference between a movement and an actual campaign."
"But more than any of them, Sanders is himself filled with resentment, on edge, feeling like he gets no respect -- all while holding on in his head to the enticing but remote chance that Clinton may be indicted before the convention"
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4AzqsYrMz
I knew it. He's been reading HA Goodman.
"Take the combative statement after the Nevada showdown."
“I don’t know who advised him that this was the right route to take, but we are now actively destroying what Bernie worked so hard to build over the last year just to pick up two fucking delegates in a state he lost,” rapid response director Mike Casca complained to Weaver in an internal campaign email obtained by POLITICO.
“Thank you for your views. I’ll relay them to the senator, as he is driving this train,” Weaver wrote back.
"In the run-up to the California primary, the big strategic question was how much to modulate the tone of the letter to superdelegates that he's been preparing to send out Wednesday, building on the case that Sen. Jeff Merkley, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former Sen. Paul Kirk and former Communication Workers of America president Larry Cohen have been making to fellow superdelegates over the phone for weeks about polls and other factors that would make Sanders the more competitive general election candidate."
"This isn’t about what’s good for the Democratic Party in his mind, but about what he thinks is good for advancing the agenda that he’s been pushing since before he got elected mayor of Burlington."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4AzrhgXSZ
Bernie and his team think the Dems should all kiss his ass.
"Sanders and aides laugh at the idea that he’s damaging the party and hurting Clinton. They think they don’t get enough gratitude for how much they held back, from not targeting more Democratic members of the House and Senate who opposed him to not making more of an issue out of Clinton’s email server investigation and Bill Clinton’s sex scandals, all of which they discussed as possible lines of attack in the fall. They blame Clinton going after him on gun control for goading him into letting loose on her Goldman Sachs speeches."
“If they hadn’t started at it by really going hard at him on guns, raising a series of issues against him, that really was what led to him being much, much more aggressive than he otherwise would have been,” said Devine, the consultant who helped engineer Sanders’ plans for a protest candidacy into a real campaign (and convinced him to run as a Democrat)."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4Azs2IHpz
I don't see how him going after Bill Clinton's sex scandals would help him. In 2000, in Hillary's first campaign for NY Senate, Rudy Giuliani's campaign determined that Bill Clinton's sex scandals actually makes women think Hillary deserved the job more, not less.
How would targeting more Democrats who opposed him help him win the nomination? Again these are the Super delegates Bernie has been talking about flipping for 2 months.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4Azuvo69d
He's also impressively vindictive.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4AzxGLqBG
It's amazing how much Hillary's primary opponent sounds like her general election opponent.
Most of his staff has realized he won't be the nominee for weeks if not months, but Bernie has tried to pretend that he knows some higher Proletarian reality where he's actually winning.
I'm waiting for Seth Abramson to explain today that Bernie is really winning this when you look at it the right way.
When you talk about Dead Enders, Bernie's not just a member, he's the club president.
Inside the bitter last days of Bernie's revolution
For better and for worse, Sanders made all the big decisions.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4AzpLVg8D
Right. The mistakes all came from the top.
"There’s no strategist pulling the strings, and no collection of burn-it-all-down aides egging him on. At the heart of the rage against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, the campaign aides closest to him say, is Bernie Sanders."
"It was the Vermont senator who personally rewrote his campaign manager’s shorter statement after the chaos at the Nevada state party convention and blamed the political establishment for inciting the violence."
"Read more:He was the one who made the choice to go after Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz after his wife read him a transcript of her blasting him on television."
"He chose the knife fight over calling Clinton unqualified, which aides blame for pulling the bottom out of any hopes they had of winning in New York and their last real chance of turning a losing primary run around."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4Azpg9YiL
Last night at Bernie's 1:30 AM speech when he mentioned 'Secretary Clinton' the place erupted in boos. He's been a big part of that. He's taught his Berners to have contempt for her.
"There are many divisions within the Sanders campaign—between the dead-enders and the work-it-out crowds, between the younger aides who think he got off message while the consultants got rich and obsessed with Beltway-style superdelegate math, and between the more experienced staffers who think the kids got way too high on their sense of the difference between a movement and an actual campaign."
"But more than any of them, Sanders is himself filled with resentment, on edge, feeling like he gets no respect -- all while holding on in his head to the enticing but remote chance that Clinton may be indicted before the convention"
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4AzqsYrMz
I knew it. He's been reading HA Goodman.
"Take the combative statement after the Nevada showdown."
“I don’t know who advised him that this was the right route to take, but we are now actively destroying what Bernie worked so hard to build over the last year just to pick up two fucking delegates in a state he lost,” rapid response director Mike Casca complained to Weaver in an internal campaign email obtained by POLITICO.
“Thank you for your views. I’ll relay them to the senator, as he is driving this train,” Weaver wrote back.
"In the run-up to the California primary, the big strategic question was how much to modulate the tone of the letter to superdelegates that he's been preparing to send out Wednesday, building on the case that Sen. Jeff Merkley, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former Sen. Paul Kirk and former Communication Workers of America president Larry Cohen have been making to fellow superdelegates over the phone for weeks about polls and other factors that would make Sanders the more competitive general election candidate."
"This isn’t about what’s good for the Democratic Party in his mind, but about what he thinks is good for advancing the agenda that he’s been pushing since before he got elected mayor of Burlington."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4AzrhgXSZ
Bernie and his team think the Dems should all kiss his ass.
"Sanders and aides laugh at the idea that he’s damaging the party and hurting Clinton. They think they don’t get enough gratitude for how much they held back, from not targeting more Democratic members of the House and Senate who opposed him to not making more of an issue out of Clinton’s email server investigation and Bill Clinton’s sex scandals, all of which they discussed as possible lines of attack in the fall. They blame Clinton going after him on gun control for goading him into letting loose on her Goldman Sachs speeches."
“If they hadn’t started at it by really going hard at him on guns, raising a series of issues against him, that really was what led to him being much, much more aggressive than he otherwise would have been,” said Devine, the consultant who helped engineer Sanders’ plans for a protest candidacy into a real campaign (and convinced him to run as a Democrat)."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4Azs2IHpz
I don't see how him going after Bill Clinton's sex scandals would help him. In 2000, in Hillary's first campaign for NY Senate, Rudy Giuliani's campaign determined that Bill Clinton's sex scandals actually makes women think Hillary deserved the job more, not less.
How would targeting more Democrats who opposed him help him win the nomination? Again these are the Super delegates Bernie has been talking about flipping for 2 months.
And notice how they seem to see Hillary hitting him on an issue-gun control-legitimizes them hitting her on personal stuff, much less her husband's affairs for which she was the biggest victim.
"Since he finished approving the ads for California not long after the Kentucky strategy spat, Devine has been back home in Rhode Island, noticeably missing from cable news as a surrogate but still regularly in touch with Sanders. Devine, who’s been more anxious about what an endgame looks like, says he hasn’t heard anything from the senator that suggests he would alter his plans because of the Clinton campaign’s eagerness to have President Barack Obama endorse her and declare the primaries done."
“They would be very smart to understand that the best way to approach Bernie is not to try to push him around,” Devine said. “It’s much better if they try to cooperate with him and find common ground. They should be mindful of the fact that the people he’s brought into this process are new to it and they will be very suspicious of any effort to push him around.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4Azu6VyHz
Where has Bernie shown any willingness to find common ground? I've yet to see it. The nomination is over, whether Bernie wants to admit that or not.
Overall, Bernie's almost manic bullheadedness makes me feel that Democrats really dodged a bullet by not nominating him.
"Aides say Sanders thinks that progressives who picked Clinton are cynical, power-chasing chickens — like Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of his most consistent allies in the Senate before endorsing Clinton and campaigning hard for her ahead of the Ohio primary. Sanders is so bitter about it that he’d be ready to nix Brown as an acceptable VP choice, if Clinton ever asked his advice on who’d be a good progressive champion."
"Since he finished approving the ads for California not long after the Kentucky strategy spat, Devine has been back home in Rhode Island, noticeably missing from cable news as a surrogate but still regularly in touch with Sanders. Devine, who’s been more anxious about what an endgame looks like, says he hasn’t heard anything from the senator that suggests he would alter his plans because of the Clinton campaign’s eagerness to have President Barack Obama endorse her and declare the primaries done."
“They would be very smart to understand that the best way to approach Bernie is not to try to push him around,” Devine said. “It’s much better if they try to cooperate with him and find common ground. They should be mindful of the fact that the people he’s brought into this process are new to it and they will be very suspicious of any effort to push him around.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4Azu6VyHz
Where has Bernie shown any willingness to find common ground? I've yet to see it. The nomination is over, whether Bernie wants to admit that or not.
Overall, Bernie's almost manic bullheadedness makes me feel that Democrats really dodged a bullet by not nominating him.
"Aides say Sanders thinks that progressives who picked Clinton are cynical, power-chasing chickens — like Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of his most consistent allies in the Senate before endorsing Clinton and campaigning hard for her ahead of the Ohio primary. Sanders is so bitter about it that he’d be ready to nix Brown as an acceptable VP choice, if Clinton ever asked his advice on who’d be a good progressive champion."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4Azuvo69d
He's also impressively vindictive.
Democrats, we did our job well. We demanded this guy be vetted and his refusal to accept this sealed his fate.
Bernie talks about judgement, but this doesn't sound like a guy with good judgment.
Every time Sanders got into a knife fight, aides say, they ended up losing. But they could never stop Sanders when he got his back up.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bernie-sanders-campaign-last-days-224041#ixzz4AzxGLqBG
It's amazing how much Hillary's primary opponent sounds like her general election opponent.
Maybe he's addicted to hearing cheering crowds, mostly filled with young people. He certainly gets those in spades. That's Chris Matthews theory: he knows when this is really all over, he won't be getting any more of that in his life, so he's trying to extend it as long as possible.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing that he didn't throw in the towel last night though. A few good things though: 1) He emphasized that Donald Trump needs to be stopped. 2) He didn't actually attack Clinton. 3) While he mentioned Hillary called, he didn't say anything negative (though the crowd booed, as you say... he did raise his hand in a perfunctory fashion to signal them to stop, but it wasn't very convincing) 4) Nobody booed when he mentioned he received a call from Obama.
I can understand why the Clinton campaign must be exasperated with him at this point. BTW, nobody in Clinton's crowd booed when she talked about Bernie and his supporters. In fact they cheered. It is wearing thin. However, I love the enthusiasm of Bernie's crowds. I would love to see as much of that preserved as possible to deliver a humiliating defeat the Trump and the GOP.
... had you been in Hillary's crowd Mike, would you have booed when she brought up Bernie? =)
DeleteAlso, did you have any thoughts of attending that rally?
I had thought of going to her rally it was in Brooklyn, but I didn't find out till the last minute and wasn't sure if it cost anything.
DeleteI agree that there were the good signs you mention. I actually thought it was some reason for optimism as I also say at the end of this new post.
DeleteTime for Bernie to land the plane http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/06/time-for-bernie-to-land-plane.html
I didn't actually expect he'd concede last night. I also heard on MSNBC that when some Bernie supporters at his rally heard that Obama congratulated Hillary, they changed their tune and started to say maybe it is time to finish up
ReplyDeleteAs for Bernie voters, I do think she'll get most of them. But she will also get a number of independents and GOP women.
ReplyDeleteThe time it took for Sanders to be widely seen for what he is in the light of the long campaign is one reason I hesitate to support any efforts to limit the primary season. The Democratic Party really did dodge a bullet with his as a possible nominee.
ReplyDeleteYes, Boo Boo, I agree with Jamelle Bouie who argues the Democratic primary system has worked pretty much as it is intended to work.
ReplyDeleteI don't think any reforms should be made that are somehow intended to make the next Bernie Sanders more likely to win.
We should make reforms that make it more likely for the next Hillary Clinton to win.
Again, though, she has won by 3.7 million votes. That's the bottom line.