It's pretty clear that Bernie Sanders, who I believe began his presidential campaign to move the discussion to the left, is actually believing the pretense everyone who does that begins with. He believes he has a chance of becoming president of the United States. I was talking to what I think is one of the more realistic of the Bernie Sanders supporters I know about that yesterday and he, as well, believes it's possible that Sanders could win the election, is dream depends on the country rejecting Cruz or Trump or, God help the world, Kasich or Romney comes out of Cleveland with the Republicanfascist nomination.
Consider this list. Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon (Ford), Carter, Reagan Bush I, Bill Clinton, Bush II, Barack Obama. Those are the people who have won American presidential elections in the post-WWII era. Anyone who believes that the country who elected that list of presidents is, suddenly, going to vote for Bernie Sanders instead of Hillary Clinton is the kind of person who would, in a fit of insanity, blow their entire wealth on lottery tickets.
With his incredible claim that Hillary Clinton isn't qualified to be president the other day, Bernie Sanders has crossed the line into delusional thinking. Given that list she would probably count as the second most qualified person to be president in the post-war period, I would only put Lyndon Johnson above her in qualification. I will say that I doubt Bernie Sanders would even mouth that word about someone with her record if she were a man. His conduct and the conduct of his campaign in the past months has raised my doubts about him far more than they have about her. I never had any illusions but that Hillary Clinton was a bit to the left of Barack Obama in politics, though I suspect she would, actually, given a Democratic House and Senate, govern considerably to the left of him. I have no illusions, whatsoever, that anyone who rises that high in any government so as to be in line for the leadership will not also come with considerable baggage. It is true even of the best of them. For whatever reason, democracy doesn't end up meaning that we elect saints for that position, we allow a few of those go gain office in the legislature, and most of them are compromised saints. I'd look for the least compromised of those in the House, not the Senate. Only we don't seem to elect House members as president, either.
Sanders is fast turning into a Republican enabler and a spoiler, I will state that he has only the slightest of slight chances of getting the nomination and even less of a chance to prevent another in the series of horrific and rapidly intensifying Republican fascist presidents we have had since the implosion of the left. I won't forgive that, especially after 2000 and the imposition of Bush II. If Ralph Nader hadn't played spoiler in that year, on behalf of moving the discussion to the left, there would have been no resolution to invade Iraq, no lie campaign to pressure politicians in states and seats not as secure as the one that Bernie Sanders has held to acquiesce to that massive campaign of lies. I don't think there would have been a 9-11 and an invasion of Afghanistan. O'Connor and Rehnquist would have been replaced by justices far more liberal than they were, there would have been no Citizens United decision, there would have been no gun decisions of the kind which are in line with Bernie Sanders' own line of moral compromise in the interest of keeping his Senate seat.
Sanders' inability to flesh out how he would break up banks is disturbing, considering how long that position has been part of his political brand. That he hasn't worked that out in his long years in office forces the question of his own readiness for the office. It makes you wonder what other items in his set list of issues has not been worked out as a clear strategy. He would have to hit the ground running if he were to win, I don't think it could wait for his staff to work up to speed on those issues if Bernie Sanders hasn't done it in the decades he has been in office. It won't be done by magical thinking of the kind so many of his most fanatical followers seem to believe, clapping your hands won't make it happen.
It turns out now he only has time to read headlines:
ReplyDelete"So when, you have headlines in the Washington Post, 'Clinton questions whether Sanders is qualified to be president,' my response is well, you know, if you want to question my qualifications, let me suggest this," Sanders said. "That maybe the American people might wonder about your qualifications, Madam Secretary, when you voted for the war in Iraq, the most disastrous foreign policy blunder in the modern history of America."
"This is not the type of politics that I want to get in, I know it's what the media loves," Sanders said in reference to Clinton and Sanders trading barbs. "It is not the type of politics that I want to get in, but let me also be very clear. If Secretary Clinton thinks that I just come from the small state of Vermont, we are not used to this, we will get used to it fast."
"What I just said is that she has attacked me for being unqualified. And if I am going to attack for being 'unqualified' I will respond in kind," he said, adding he hopes to move away from personal attacks.
Trying to eat his cake and have it, too, at this point. I suppose that's inevitable. We even have a term for it: "Swift-boating." Only works if you don't respond, so everybody has to respond.
What you respond to, though, is rather telling. No Drama Obama is looking better and better all the time, isn't he?