Bernie Sanders is #WithHer

You know I've been as critical of Bernie as anyone, but I will give him this one. He endorsed her today and he did not just go through the motions. It was fullthroated.

Jamil Smith

"That speech was exactly what @BernieSanders needed to do today. And precisely what the @HillaryClinton campaign needed to hear."

https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/752893597003972608

As Amanda Marcotte said, Bernie might have gone on for awhile but that's what we needed.

The longer the better:

"I don’t really mind if he goes on and on. The longer he praises her, the harder it is for the dead-enders to pretend this didn’t happen."

https://twitter.com/AmandaMarcotte/status/752890263048183808

It will be interesting to see how HA Goodman explains this one. He admitted last night that this might happen but it was really unequivocal

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/07/ha-goodman-endorses-donald-trump.html

Unlike Goodman, Bernie made it clear that in no way and on no planet is Trump the lesser of two evils in a choice with anyone other than maybe the original Hitler.

"This is a full-throated and unequivocal Clinton endorsement from Bernie Sanders. No hedging or tiptoeing around it."

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/752888586220007424

That's for sure:

Bernie: "I've come here to make it as clear as possible as to why I am endorsing Hillary Clinton and why she must become our next president

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/752887729705410561

What I also appreciate was Bernie made it very clear that Trump is in no way the lesser of two evils and he has nothing for anyone who cares about progressive policies.

"Bernie doing a good job of emphasizing that on many core issues — taxes, climate, bank regulation — Trump is a banal conservative."

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/752892305703628800

On what core issues is he not? The only possible issue is trade but Americans are not buying what he's selling trade-which says something good about Americans at least.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/07/11/why_trump_is_losing_the_trade_debate_131142.html

Hillary also said some very interesting thing about national standards in policing.

"Clinton now addressing police violence against African Americans, calling for nat’l law enforcement guidelines and implicit bias training."

https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/752895648190562304

For more, see Greg Sargent who had argued for a few weeks that this is going well with Bernie.

I think it's fair to give Bernie some credit: he honestly couldn't have endorsed her earlier. It's not just about himself, his supporters weren't ready.

Today, I think he probably won over a lot for Hil.

Bernie was the last loose end. Now the Dems are going to be the most unified they've ever been.

Which is striking. It's amazing to contrast them with the Repubs to be sure. But then you look at how messed up Labour is in the UK and how divided many Center Left parties in Europe are and its the Democrats who are the outlier.

They are so unified where so many other parties including those on the Center Left are fragmenting and disintegrating.

Why is this? One major reason is race and the two year term of Obama.

So props to Bernie. But I think we have to credit Hillary for winning him over as well. She again shows her interpersonal and coalition building skills Ezra Klein has been talking about.

http://www.vox.com/a/hillary-clinton-interview/the-gap-listener-leadership-quality

Meanwhile Trump is laughably trying to sow divisions in the party where there are none. His campaign put out all the things Bernie said about Hillary during the campaign.

Yes, but he stopped saying this and now says she must be the next President. Meanwhile John Kasich and Jeb Bush are still saying the same things about you, Mr. Trump.

And Ted Cruz is still not endorsing Mr. Trump but is still going to speak at the convention.