Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign megathread v2 (pg 77 - declares victory in Iowa)

[NOVA Green]

"Bernie Sanders Campaign Shakes Up New Hampshire Operation"

In a series of moves, the campaign has replaced the New Hampshire state director, Joe Caiazzo, with Shannon Jackson, who is deeply enmeshed in Mr. Sanders’s inner circle and who led the senator’s re-election campaign in Vermont last year. Mr. Caiazzo, who was Mr. Sanders’s political director in Massachusetts and Rhode Island during the 2016 campaign, has been named state director in Massachusetts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/15/us/politics/bernie-sanders-new-hampshire.html

Was about to post this....

No question that NE DEM Primaries and Caucuses are a Sanders/Warren show....

It will be interesting to see shifting patterns in NE, especially once we start seeing more drop-offs....

Biden doesn't appear to be particularly popular in the Six States of NE, and after all there is something called: "The Shot Heard Around the World"....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_heard_round_the_world

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord

Warren/Sanders are fighting hard for Democratic voters in NE, and quite frankly Dems need voters in 2020 from places like Worcester, Massachusetts, and not posh folks from the upper-middle class communities...

Brilliant Move, shift Caiazzo,to hit hard in places in RI and Falls River MA.

I'm not a hater on Warren, but we have to move the Democratic Party on the Left on substance and not just image, and we need to contest all of the Democratic Working Class Factory Towns of New England, many of which swung heavily Trump, where quite frankly Warren appears as a bit too much of an academic....

[NOVA Green]

Dude... chill out seriously you are being a major a**hole and part of the reason why older and middle age Dems consider folks like you to be total d**ks and would rather vote for Trump than whatever DEM alt candidate you propose...

1.) Sanders had the highest fundraising $$$ of any DEM candidate this past quarter, including working-class donors such as me and my wife that have an auto deduction plan into our bank deal of $27/Month.

2.) Personal character assassination to support your preferred DEM candidate will not work for us.

I would rather vote for Republicans or 3rd Party Candidates than some the crap "Yellow Dog" Dems you throw the Red Meat to....

3.) It is particularly insulting to see you folks post such statements after a recent medical incident where Bernie could have easily lost his life.

4.) Go back home to the Republican Party where you belong, we don't need you in our neighborhood.

5.) I know some of you Millennial young folks on the DEM sides are shifting around in the '20 Primaries, "but quite frankly my dear I don't give a damn".... which is part of the reason for Bernie's Q3 numbers is that he has working-class folks like me and my wife on auto-deduct.

6.) Whatever---- half tempted to vote Libertarian or 3rd Party in '20 considering how many of you "Democrats" on Atlas do the hate gig on Bernie. If not me, than likely many of my daughters, son-in-laws, not to mention friends and comrades at the Factory....

For the question of what Bernie needs to do, here is my opinion as someone who had a very high opinion of him until 2015-16, but became disenchanted:

3. The only image I have of Bernie is of him hunched over a podium with looking angry and deshevled. It's very on-brand, but it can be off-putting for an undecided voter watching a debate. I don't think he needs to stop being a firebrand or comb his hair - far from it. I think we need to see what makes him laugh, though, and maybe see him not in a suit a couple of times. Maybe he can do some kind of Vermont campfire townhall where he wears flannel and tells a bunch of stories about his misadventures over the years and talks about his family.

Bernie is notoriously uncomfortable talking about his personal life. I wonder if he thinks it is a gimmick and that politics should just be about the issues. I think this is a great tip for his campaign but he won't do it.

Probably doesn’t want to talk about being a deadbeat father, who stole electricity and cable from his neighbors, lived on a commune and didn’t contribute, and being this radical social justice warrior who ran to white Vermont and didn’t vote until he was 40 (for himself).

[NOVA Green]

Sanders to scale back his campaign activity:

Good! He has plenty of surrogates. He doesn't need to be everywhere, his health should come first.

His cast of surrogates is one of the worst aspects of his campaign though.

Agreed RE: surrogates

Many of the Upper-Income Educated Whites jumped on the Warren Train or whatever trend they were on.... whatever.

Warren and other's hijacks Bernie's message now that they see the writing on the wall is cool.

As Middle-Aged adults we don't have automatic Monthly donations to the Bernie campaign because we expect him to win, we simply want to keep the Democratic Party Honest on key issues to working-class voters.

The message is more than simply the man.....

[NOVA Green]

Although I haven't seen the footage of the Rally in NYC, but as an Irish-American whose Grandmother came into the Harbor with the Statue, who was "Shanty Irish", I doubt any slanders against Bernie for his letter to Thatcher will cause any significant harm among Irish-American Democrats throughout the USA.

If anything it will be a rallying cry for the Irish-American diaspora within the USA, where we strongly supported the Freedom and Independence of a United (36) Counties of Ireland against British Colonial Rule and an Occupation regime of the (6) Counties in the North.

Very few Irish-Americans would find fault with Bernie's letter to Mrs Thatcher in '81 at the time of the Hunger Strikes and massive raids within the Housing Estates in West Belfast, Free Derry, and beyond.

[NOVA Green]

Although I haven't seen the footage of the Rally in NYC, but as an Irish-American whose Grandmother came into the Harbor with the Statue, who was "Shanty Irish", I doubt any slanders against Bernie for his letter to Thatcher will cause any significant harm among Irish-American Democrats throughout the USA.

If anything it will be a rallying cry for the Irish-American diaspora within the USA, where we strongly supported the Freedom and Independence of a United (36) Counties of Ireland against British Colonial Rule and an Occupation regime of the (6) Counties in the North.

Very few Irish-Americans would find fault with Bernie's letter to Mrs Thatcher in '81 at the time of the Hunger Strikes and massive raids within the Housing Estates in West Belfast, Free Derry, and beyond.

Personally, I have no issues with anything in Bernie's letter to Thatcher. If anything, the only negative I would point out is that it is yet again another issue where Bernie takes a stand, makes some symbolic gesture, and ends up achieving nothing. Unlike criminal neoliberal corporatist warmongerer Bill Clinton, who later helped to organize the Good Friday agreement and now has a statue in his honor in Belfast.

Well Crumpets my friend you do make a good point regarding the popularity if Bill Clinton within Ireland Proper, as well as the Irish Diaspora within the United States, Europe, and Australia.

Naturally, this extended to the 2008 American Presidential Election, where this rock band called the Corrigan Brothers recorded a song called: "There is no one as Irish as Barack Obama"....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_No_One_as_Irish_as_Barack_O%27Bama

You are absolutely correct that Irish-Americans do not support any one Democratic Candidate, nor do Irish-Americans self-identify in support for any particular political party,

Bernie Sanders does as a relatively secular Jewish-American who has lived for Years within Metro New York, as well as time in Chicago has a close relationship with Puerto-Rican and Dominican populations, as evidenced by the '16 DEM Primary precinct level results in Chicago and NYC.

It might be a stretch that Democratic Irish-Americans in the large Metro Areas of NE, NYC, Central Atlantic, as well as in various precincts within Ohio are currently backing Bernie vs Biden or Warren.

I stand corrected sir, but still I strongly doubt this will hurt Bernie among Irish-American Catholic Voters within key Cities and Precincts within New Hampshire & Maine, not to even speak of MA, RI, CT and New York....

I strongly suspect that any Democratic Presidential Candidate that attacks Bernie because of his support for a position where the Vatican took sides, the Government of the South of Ireland took sides, and even opposition back-benchers in the UK Parliment took sides, will not experience any negatives because he was pleading for Peace and Justice in Northern Ireland, where many of us saw as a last ditch effort to maintain an essentially "Apartheid" style regime within the Occupied Six Counties of the North, after the Civil Rights Movement was met with murder and massacre.

We do not and will never forget the deaths of Millions of Irish on the battlefields of Europe in WW I, the perfidy of the English and mass murder at the time of the agricultural crisis in Ireland which caused many of our Ancestors to "involuntarily relocate" overseas, and now that the War is finally over and the Civil Rights of the Northern Irish Population is secured, now we see BREXIT as both the next threat and the next opportunity.

We tore down the Wall that divided the North and South of Ireland....

British Troops withdrew as an Occupation Army and took down the Union Jack....

Protestant and Catholic Free Northern Irish Men & Women had to rebuild a fragile trust and build a new conception of self-identity where both communities had to acknowledge both their mutual fears, but also their mutual interests.

BREXIT now creates a potential scenario of a United Free and Independent Ireland where all (36) Counties within a state of mutual co-existence essentially have a coordinated economic program that allows economic investment from the ROI to flow North, while BREXIT will further remove the English from Northern Ireland.

Additionally, we now have Scotland which has been on the verge of declaring independence for a decade plus....

Who are the Protestants of Northern Ireland?

Heavily Scottish that were deeded land at the hand of the crown way back around the time of the "Battle of the Boyne"

Older Irish-Americans do not forget these things....

When you come from the "Old Country" into the "New World" you don't automatically forget your past, while you in the present, and then moving towards the future.

Long diatribe, but I suspect Bernie's support levels among Latino-Americans is not just concentrated within Metro LA, Chicago, and Metro NYC (As we observed in the 2016 late DEM Primaries) but has actually significantly expanded, while meanwhile some of the Educated and Middle-Upper Middle Class DEM ladies have shifted towards Warren....

[NOVA Green]

Was watching the Teemster town hall last night. Bernie was last up out of all the candidates. He got by far the best reaction out of all the candidates present. I think its partly because there were some pretty strong Sanders supporters already in the audience, but its still a good sign for him.

It was in Cedar Rapids Iowa, and the Veterans Memorial Coliseum and invited (Biden, Bullock, Buttigieg, Harris, Klobuchar, and Sanders) with James Hoffa currently the President of the largest Union in the USA.

https://teamster.org/videos/2019/12/teamsters-host-townhall-event-2020-democratic-presidential-candidates

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/government/teamsters-to-host-6-democratic-candidates-in-cedar-rapids-20191122

"Presidential candidates who agreed to sign the union’s three-point pledge on retirement security, freedom to unionize and fair trade and participate in an on-camera interview with the Teamsters were invited to attend the forum."

Haven't had a chance to watch yet, but I would imagine this would get significant local news coverage within Iowa, as well as coverage in the upcoming Teamsters publication that is sent to all Union Members through the mail (I know this bcs I was roomates with a guy who was Teamster Warehouse Worker, so I would read his Union Pub after picking up the mail for the house)....

Thing is that there are currently 1.4 Million Teamster Members throughout the US, not to mention how many spouses and adult kids from Teamster families, let alone retired Teamsters that still have a pretty decent retirement package from the Union Pension fund, despite the attempts of Mob to take control of the money after they sent Jimmy away to Prison, and then murdered him shortly after he got out of the joint....

Meanwhile TDU (Teamsters for a Democratic Union) is still around, and struggling to build a bottom-up movement within the Teamsters Union....

http://www.tdu.org/

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/20632/teamsters-for-a-democratic-union-reform-labor-workers

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/08/team-s08.html

The Trucking Industry is increasingly dominated by Non-Union contracts, where both Short-haul and Long-haul Truckers are becoming "Independent Contractors" where they got to buy their own wheels their own insurance, and have nothing of the traditional protections that used to be the case....

Meanwhile, within the warehousing sector, the Teamsters have not been able to advance dramatic ground in recent years, despite the massive growth of eCommerce in the form of companies such as Amazon and Target that have FCs (Fulfillment Centers) and DCs (Distribution Centers), in back breaking warehouse work where although wages might start at $15/Hr in non-union shops we have no ability to shut down the warehouses or the trucks to get decent wages and working conditions...

Hell, I know I worked in one of those joints, as did my Wife, Daughter, Son-in-Law, etc....

I tried to organize a Union in that warehouse, but reached out to the ILWU who answered back before I got a response from the Teamsters (Maybe I should have gone with the 2nd choice)...

No wonder that Bernie met with massive applause at that Teamsters Hall in Cedar Rapids (2nd largest City in IA).....

[NOVA Green]

So on Rev Al Sharpton's show earlier today, it was announced that Bernie is planning a Week tour of SC within the immediate future....

Context was with the end of the Harris campaign and Bernie having the 2nd highest level of support among AA Voters....

[NOVA Green]

Bernie is entirely within his rights to go negative, but these phone bank scripts are absurdly terrible strategy.

Calling a Biden supporter and telling them "nobody is excited" about their candidate is incredibly dismissive of the affection that person likely has for Biden.

Calling a Pete supporter and telling them that Black and young people don't support him can easily make one feel as though their support is considered less important, and of course opens the door for an incredibly awkward confrontation if the phone banker calls a Black or young person supporting Buttigieg.

Calling a Warren supporter and telling them "she is the candidate of the elite" is essentially calling that voter an elitist. You can imagine a parent who works paycheck to paycheck and struggling to pay their healthcare premium being incredibly taken aback by that, and of course insulted. The line about her supporters being people who will vote Democratic no matter what is particularly gross - again dismissive of the importance of someone's support.

I plan to vote for Sanders, and I would imagine much of his base will enjoy these talking points. But it will not grow his support, and these scripts demonstrate a stunning lack of self-awareness among his campaign and an underlying problem of his team not understanding a lot of the resistance to his candidacy.

This is probably true for high-information voters. High information voters would be fairly likely to feel insulted, as you say, if i.e. they are told that nobody is excited about Biden/Warren is the candidate of the Elite/etc.

However:

1) There are a lot less high-information voters than one is inclined to think. The vast majority of actual voters pay very little attention to politics. If you tell the average Biden supporter, for example, that nobody is excited about Biden, they won't really care much because they are not actually particularly committed to Biden and don't pay very much attention to politics. They are likely to react by saying something like "oh, I didn't know that, really, you think? Well, I guess maybe so." Someone posted these videos in another thread, it is worth watching a few to remind oneself how poorly informed a great many voters are - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKn7IIoaFFoDgf7xCNb-2cO_EtwLxYecr

2) High information voters have made up their mind by themselves, and are not going to be persuaded regardless. For example, if one of these Bernie scripts pisses of a Biden/Buttigieg/whoever supporter, that doesn't really matter because this high-information voter was nearly certain to vote in any case, and to vote for Biden/Buttigieg/whoever.



It is true that high information voters are likely to be over-represented in primaries because they have lower turnout than GEs, but there are still a hell of a lot of low-information voters out there. And frankly, medium-information voters are people who people like you or I who are posting on the internet about the election would consider to be low-information voters.

1.) The Democratic Party is still the Party of Working Class Voters (Regardless of the major swings among upper-middle class educated voters in '16 and '18).

2.) The Bernie campaign of '20  still includes a huge number of Working-Class Voters....

3.) Bernie is definitely performing better among Working-Class Latino voters in 2020 than in 2016, as well as Working-Class Asian-American and Black-American voters.

4.) Biden is definitely taking a chunk of older WWC voters compared to Bernie '16 (Hence the 2nd choice option of Biden supporters nationally).

5.) Warren & Bernie are both running the "Left lane" of the DEM primary, but Warren appears to be performing much better among educated Democratic Women (Many of whom voted HRC in the DEM '16 Primaries).

6.) "High Information Voters (HIV)" are definitely much smaller than one might imagine on BOTH the Democratic and Republican  sides of the House....

7.) This will have little to any impact on the Democratic Primary Season, and if anything might be a net boon to Bernie as part of the final push across the Goal Line in IA, NH, and NV.....

8.) Nothing to see here, move along folks.....

[NOVA Green]

https://twitter.com/betsy_klein/status/1217612611539361801

I wonder if it'll fit my expectations!

edit:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/15/politics/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-debate-audio/index.html

But sound of the moment was caught by CNN's microphones and found Wednesday.

"I think you called me a liar on national TV," Warren can be heard saying.
"What?" Sanders responded.
"I think you called me a liar on national TV," she repeated.
"You know, let's not do it right now. If you want to have that discussion, we'll have that discussion," Sanders said, to which Warren replied, "Anytime."
"You called me a liar," Sanders continued. "You told me -- all right, let's not do it now."
After their exchange, fellow Democratic candidate Tom Steyer, who had been standing behind the two senators, can be heard saying, "I don't want to get in the middle. I just want to say hi Bernie."

If this audio is correct, it certainly doesn't help endear Warren to many DEM primary voters she will need in the event she takes a lead on the "Left Lane" over Sanders in the early primaries for a future toe-to-toe against Biden, let alone what Bernie pledged delegates will do at a Party Convention....

The fact that this was telegraphed in advance for max medium coverage prior to a critical debate, at a time when the candidates poll numbers and fundraising numbers have been decreasing, without any explanation of context, and now the "hot mic" exchange, really makes it look like someone is grovelling for votes, rather than trying to win "hearts and minds" based upon the power of moral suasion....

[NOVA Green]

Proud Trump supporter here (in case any of you might not be aware). I'm thinking of voting for Bernie in the New York primary to #StickItToTheEstablishment. Should I?

Absolutely. I'll give you a high-five as an added bonus if you do.

Thank you. Wanna hang out if I ever visit Seattle this year?

East Coasters never come out West unless they got family or good friends out here, or at looking at "exotic locations"....

Would invite you down to my neck of the woods, but extremely doubt a "City Slicker" would take me up on it....  (Although got family in PDX, Seattle, LA, and London)

Would def buy you a few beers and some food at a restaurant, but you would need to cover your own accommodations (Apartment living isn't conducive to house guests and cooking outside of family)....

Could certainly provide recommendations as to where to visit, but in my neck of the woods (not Metro PDX nor Metro Eugene-Springfield HRC still got beat by huge margins by Sanders in '16)....

Can show you some of the Shutdown Timber and Pulp Mills, Tech Industry jobs lost, the clear-cutting and destruction of our forests.

Oregon has historically had one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation every time America goes through a Recession....

Needless to say the hipsters, and those that recovered from the Great Recession in Metro PDX that are invading Oregon don't have any empathy for the suffering of Oregonians downstate....

It's more like the "No Hope... No Future" generation from I-5 in Salem all the way down until you start to hit the retiree communities in the Rogue River Valley where once again locals can't afford to live because "Oregon is so cool"....

Screw that....gentrification is real, and although Metro PDX shifts Left and Downstate OR shifts Right, I can be a tour guide to give a different perspective from the glittery urban images from a high rise hotel room in Seattle or Portland, and show you the dirty under-belly of the beast..

This is exactly the part of Oregon where there were significant swings towards Trump in '16 compared to '12 Romney (Even adjusting in some communities for 3rd Party voters)....

Thing is downstate Bernie and Trump voters still hunt together, work in the same factories, hospitals, and government agencies, have family members from different perspectives....

Anyways... can likely give you a better deal than Xing if you really are interested in a compare/contrast of the Pacific Northwest politically and culturally speaking....

[NOVA Green]

https://twitter.com/ChrisDJackson/status/1220868287841652736

Look - a conman.

This is going to hurt him in the suburbs in the GE.

Not convinced....

It could come down the definition of "suburbs"....

I would suggest that a simple answer about not "knowing the costs" is not yet anything that will hurt him the GE at this fixed point in time and space.

Sure, your "suburbs" may well be considered my "exurbs"....

If some folks in large McMansions in Exurban VA, SoCal, Wealthy white folks on the fringes of Atlanta GA, and even my sacred parts of Metro PDX that swung hard against the 'Pubs in '16 (Happy Valley thinking of you), the vast majority of "suburban voters" are in favor of affordable and universal health insurance....

It is kinda a tiny weeny bit of a stretch to say that one Sanders interview is going to doom him in the GE....     

[NOVA Green]

Watching Bernie Sanders live in Sioux Falls, Iowa right now.

[NOVA Green]

Bernie is knocking it out of the park when it comes to Health Care items in a Metro Media Market of over 1 Million in NW Iowa that crosses the border to Nebraska, parts of Minnesota, etc....

[NOVA Green]

Bernie talking about climate change and impacts to Houston Tejas and Puerto Rico....

Steyer is a bunk hit when it comes this....

Principles based on the "Green New Deal"....

[NOVA Green]

Bernie will now legalize MJ at a Federal level through executive order....

[NOVA Green]

I've held it in for so long….But it's time to come out with my story of a traumatic experience with Bernie Sanders. Warning: the following is disturbing and could be highly upsetting.

I saw Bernie Sanders at a grocery store in Burlington last year. I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to be a douche and bother him and ask him for photos or anything.

He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now, you establishment hack?”

I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh corporatists, huh?” and closing his hand shut in front of my face. I walked away and continued with my shopping, and I heard him chuckle as I walked off. When I came to pay for my stuff up front I saw him trying to walk out the doors with like fifteen Ben and Jerry's ice cream cups in his hands without paying.

The girl at the counter was very nice about it and professional, and was like “Sir, you need to pay for those first.” At first he kept pretending to be busy reading his medicare for all plan, but eventually turned back around and brought them to the counter.

When she took one of the cups and started scanning it multiple times, he stopped her and told her to scan them each individually “to prevent any electoral infetterence, as that plays into the game of the millionaires and billionaires”, and then turned around and winked at me. I don’t even think that’s a word. After she scanned each cup and put them in a bag and started to say the price, he kept interrupting her by saying "not me, us" really loudly.

Is this a bad attempt at a troll

No it's real, I was there and saw it all go down

Somebody needs to get Larry David on the case....

[NOVA Green]

Since I don't believe it has been posted here, and didn't see it in a survey of new posts on the 2020 Board....

Bernie Sanders is launching a $2.2 Million ad buy in Texas and California....

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/texas/article/Bernie-Sanders-surging-in-Texas-three-weeks-15013485.php

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/480239-sanders-launches-25-million-television-ad-buy-in-california-texas

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/01/28/bernie-sanders-campaign-homes-texas-primary-nears/

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2020/01/29/biden-narrowly-leads-sanders-in-texas-though-poll-finds-bernie-is-best-dem-matchup-vs-trump/

https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/campaign-wire-election-2020/card/1580235278

So..... Bet big or stay at home, and Bernie is doing just that, while Atlas posters are wrangling about other items not directly relevant to the actual "horse race"....

[NOVA Green]

This is a pointless argument.  The point is, people who are experts in which policies are fiscally workable and how such policies would impact America are in near-unanimous agreement that Bernie Sanders' policies are bad.

That is not true, but it is probably pointless to argue it further with you, since you are not actually interested in the substance of it, but only in whether it is bad politically for Bernie Sanders.

The notion that economists are in near-unanimous agreement about anything policy related is absurd. Suffice it to say that you must never have heard about Harry Truman and the one-handed economist.

BTW, economic policy is basically the very least scientific sub-field of economics (technically it is not even really a sub-field per se).

The reasons why aren't particularly complicated to understand.

You couldn't be more wrong about that, buddy. Economics is nothing if not complicated, and if you don't know that you have only a very thin surface knowledge of it.

Put him on mute or maybe there should be a separate thread to discuss the economic policy platforms and outcomes of ALL Democratic Party Candidates....

What are your thoughts on the Air Wars from Bernie in TX and CA, rather than engaging in arguments about topics that deserve their own thread or an individual who appears to be making it all about his opposition to Bernie rather than more substantive contributions or updates?

I know you may well have a few opinions on the matter   

[NOVA Green]

What are your thoughts on the Air Wars from Bernie in TX and CA?

I am generally skeptical of the efficacy of TV ads. This is apparently just a small amount, slightly more than $2 million spread between TX and CA doesn't go that far.

To the extent possible, I would say he should try to spend money on hiring more organizers in early states and throughout the country, although I am sure he is already doing that. I suspect a lot of it is simply that he has more money that he can spend on non

The air waves are saturated in the early states already, so it also makes sense to spend additional marginal $s in other states. Insofar as TV ads are effective at all, they have significantly diminishing returns, so even if he could buy additional ads in states like Iowa, it probably wouldn't really be worth it.

The other thing that might be a bit more effective is running ads on cable on specifically micro-targeted shows, and possibly targeting some particular media markets where there are Congressional Districts in which it is expected to be close to some delegate cut-offs.

If I were Sanders, I would in particular try to put resources into the Congressional Districts in the south where he wasn't viable in 2016 (but plausibly could be with a bit of improvement). One of the biggest factors that killed him in 2016 was not just how he got blown out overall in the south, but that there were quite a lot of significant CDs where he didn't hit the 15% viability threshold and got 0 delegates. Those districts with 0 Sanders delegates are what built a lot of Clinton's delegate lead. Of the Super Tuesday states, I would say he should look in particular at the CDs in Alabama for that, because making the viability threshold or not can make such a huge difference.

These are all extremely good points, but Bernie already has an extremely impressive field organization in Cali, and if you reviewed any of the links that I posted (Which I assume you have) appears to have a pretty decent Senior Field Team plus organizational base teams in both States.

The massive deployment of Bernie assets to Texas is a key signal that the campaign believes that their finances can sustain the spend to get an early edge before Super Tuesday, when early voting is coming up within the next few weeks in both Texas and California.

Agreed that the "Air War" is not the primary factor, but in large states the "Air War" combined with the "Ground War" is much more successful than the strategies of the Bloomberg and Steyer for example that believe that only the Air War Matters, and that Robocalls can buy votes and money (not that they need it, but hell saves some dimes out of their own pockets)....

Bernie is the only DEM candidate thus far that is not a Billionaire paying out of his own pocket who has put some poker chips into the table of the HUGE delegate rich states of Cali and Tejas....

[NOVA Green]

There are substantive reasons to prefer other Democrats over Sanders... and then there’s foaming at the mouth like we see in that article. It’s nothing but recycled talking points that have been addressed again and again and again. “Sanders IsNt A dEmOcRaT”, “Sanders would lose in a landslide because muh SOSHALIZM”, “career politician”, “angry old white man”, etc. I really think that a non-negligible number of Democrats have a stronger hate boner for Sanders than for Trump.

To be clear, the only part of the editorial that I endorse is the part that I quoted.

Much of it is left-wing criticism of Sanders from a perspective much more left than mine.  But I find it noteworthy because it's rare for Sanders to be criticized from the left.  I would expect that quote to be from a newsweekly editorial from a long-time respected columnist or Obama administration alum, aka the establishment, not an LGBT activist mag.

To be fair it is an unfortunate piece and I think in many ways unfair to Bernie.

Note: That this appears to be an opinion piece from one contributor (albeit with a lengthy history with the Newspaper and local scene/movement) and I don't believe is endorsed by the Editorial Board. If so, that would quality as an OP-ED rather than being endorsed by an Editorial Board.

I have had friends that worked for the Washington Blade back in the mid 1990s, that subscribe to a different point of view.

It does seem pretty clear that the HRC was heavily favored by the LGBTQ+ Community in the 2016 Primary, and although obviously we have limited precinct data (Which even there would be suspect for obvious reasons), the support of Bill Clinton during his Presidency, as well as HRC then and later for the movement was a much greater factor than suspicion or dislike of Sanders on such matters.

Let's face it, this is the opinion of one man, who it appears was a strong supporter of HRC, who appears to have an axe to grind from the '16 Primary.

The arguments about US-Senate races that the author makes, could likely be applied to many other DEM PRES candidates and does not appear to reflect a subjective opinion of the strengths and weaknesses among all DEM candidates in that regard, but rather ***Trump is bad... we need to defeat him.... Bernie will cost us the Senate ***

Just my humble opinion on this matter....

[NOVA Green]

Surprised that despite the non-Bernie supporting DEMs as well as REP trolls on this whole "Bernie backed Wallace" fake news story, haven't actually posted Bernie's response to al.com

The campaign also points to a CNN profile from May of 2019 where it cites an article he wrote around that same time based upon interviews with Wallace supporters where he compared Wallace to Hitler with a deep sense of fear about the future in America against a potential Fascist or Nazi movement able to take absolute power....

It's amazing the ability of some to manipulate the truth not only on Atlas, but using the tools of of the internet to create fake narratives without looking at a full story before they post.

https://www.al.com/news/2020/01/bernie-sanders-praised-alabama-segregationist-governor-george-wallace-in-1972-article.html

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/07/politics/kfile-bernie-sanders-vermont-1970s/index.html

[NOVA Green]

Weird that the desperate Wallace attack was launched today, hmm...

https://mobile.twitter.com/rtyson82/status/1223016279042351104

Oh

That's actually an interesting tweet, which actually the full article fleshes out further...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-iowa-black-voters-idUSKBN1ZT2J2?taid=5e335d4cebed6f0001a57564&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

Interestingly enough, although overall the Black vote in Iowa might appear relatively small, the population is heavily concentrated in about six counties (all of which are larger population centers).

https://statisticalatlas.com/state/Iowa/Race-and-Ethnicity#data-map/county

1.) Black Hawk County (9% AA)
2.) Scott County (8% AA)
3.) Polk County (6% AA)
4.) Johnson County (6% AA)
5.) Jefferson County (6% AA)
6.) Des Moines County (6% AA)

So for example in Black Hawk County, Waterloo is 16% Black....Scott County, Davenport 11% Black,  Des Moines--- the article references precinct tracts that are 40%+ Black, etc....

Regardless of the merits of the local interviews with some residents of Northside, we should be able to possibly at least pull up some precinct data post caucus, especially now that 1st round votes are being counted (presumably by precinct--- fingers crossed) for the first time....

[NOVA Green]

The south didn't care that Sanders won New Hampshire in 2016 and it won't care if he wins Iowa. The idea that Sanders is going to win the black vote based on winning other states is ludicrous.

It's a little nutty to think that Sanders' own words being highlighted by a right-wing outlet was prompted by 12 people saying that they would vote for him. Sanders supporters are as conspiratorial as Trump supporters. 24 isn't even a good enough sample size for anyone plot against another candidate over.

As predictable as ever my Impeachment Inquiry friend....   

Don't believe I ever posted anything to the effect that Sanders words quoted w/o any type of context by a Right Wing outlet was prompted by a Reuters story about a neighborhood in North Des Moines....  if I did, please correct me as this would naturally be something that I would want to correct because it was certainly not my intent, unless one is reading between lines and jumping to one's own conclusion mat in the form of an Office Space parody....

Your original statement is correct that the Black vote in IA and NH is relatively small as both a % of the Ntl Black Vote, as well as regional Black Votes in the "Midwest" , "New England / North Atlantic", let alone compared to States such as SC and many other parts of the Southlands....

Still, we do know based upon the time that later '16 DEM primaries occurred, that Sanders performance had not only improved significantly over his early numbers among AA voters, but additionally the later it got in the Primary season the higher they went within MidWest, Northeast and Western States....

[NOVA Green]

Politico article about the Sanders campaign and their recent spending surge over the past three Months....

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/01/bernie-sanders-fec-spending-110157

[NOVA Green]

I don't see how Bloomberg supporting Sanders can work. He certainly can't donate to his campaign, because Sanders hates billionaires and even sent back a check that the wife of a billionaire wrote him. And you know he's not going to let him campaign for him.

He'd be able to fund his own independent PAC.  Could do anything from voter registration to ads.

Dude--- Bloomberg has already pledged that even if he loses the DEM Party nomination to fund an army of some 1,000 people and XXX dollars to support indirectly the DEM candidate that catches the nod...

Can't believe you haven't been following this stuff....

Man, time to not put all of your eggs in one basket....

Seems like you are obsessed with the whole "Class War" element and somehow have an obsession regarding any Center-Left DEM candidate who might win the nomination....

If you want to vote Trump in '20 to "protect America against Socialism" that is your choice, but meanwhile down in Subvert City...