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

[Ljube]

The gloves are off.
Sanders goes negative and slams all candidates on policy and electability.
Great move!

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/11/bernie-quietly-goes-negative-on-warren-097594

Sanders’ campaign has begun stealthily attacking Warren as a candidate of the upper crust who could not expand the Democratic base in a general election, according to talking points his campaign is using to persuade voters obtained by POLITICO.

The script instructs Sanders volunteers to tell voters leaning toward the Massachusetts senator that the “people who support her are highly-educated, more affluent people who are going to show up and vote Democratic no matter what” and that “she's bringing no new bases into the Democratic Party.”

“I like Elizabeth Warren. [optional]” the script begins. “In fact, she’s my second choice. But here’s my concern about her.” It then pivots to the criticisms of Warren.


The document also instructs to tell voters who are favorable toward Pete Buttigieg that he lacks support among African Americans and young people, and to tell voters sympathetic to former Vice President Joe Biden that “he doesn’t really have any volunteers” and that “no one is really excited about him.” All of the attacks relate to the electability of Sanders' top rivals.


The Sanders script is a sign that the Sanders campaign is starting to go after all the candidates more aggressively, not just Warren. When volunteers encounter voters leaning in favor of Biden, they’re told to respond that there is no enthusiasm for the former vice president and that Trump would “clobber him on his Iraq war vote, for instance, and his support for free trade agreements. That's exactly what Trump did with Hillary and it's part of why Hillary lost,” according to the script.

[Canis]

On twitter everyone's whining about sanders going negative but I mean come on people its a primary all is fair in love  and war

[Pollster]

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.

[Florida Man for Crime]

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.

[Florida Man for Crime]

On twitter everyone's whining about sanders going negative but I mean come on people its a primary all is fair in love  and war

Twitter is irrelevant. Approximately 0.05% of voters care or know anything in the slightest about the day-to-day twitter discussions.

[I Can Now Die Happy]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1216435180220620807

Interesting question Mr. President, what does this all mean? I can't wait to find out!

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1216435180220620807

Interesting question Mr. President, what does this all mean? I can't wait to find out!

It means Bernie is gonna kick his fascist butt this November 😎

[Rookie Yinzer]

Sending volunteers out to the doors to talk sh**t about other Democrats is disgusting but it’s Sanders so his fans will hand wave it and call people who don’t like it sensitive but would have been ready to burn down Warren HQ if she even THOUGHT of doing that to him.

[GoTfan]

Sending volunteers out to the doors to talk sh**t about other Democrats is disgusting but it’s Sanders so his fans will hand wave it and call people who don’t like it sensitive but would have been ready to burn down Warren HQ if she even THOUGHT of doing that to him.

Meltdown alert.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Sending volunteers out to the doors to talk sh**t about other Democrats is disgusting but it’s Sanders so his fans will hand wave it and call people who don’t like it sensitive but would have been ready to burn down Warren HQ if she even THOUGHT of doing that to him.

Meltdown alert.

Calling out hypocrisy is not having a meltdown. LOL. But you didn’t (and can’t) deny what I said.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Bernie just got Manchester union endorsement
 Bernie can win SC, last Change SC poll had Biden 27-20

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/12/sanders-union-endorsement-new-hampshire-097911

[Donerail]

Sending volunteers out to the doors to talk sh**t about other Democrats is disgusting but it’s Sanders so his fans will hand wave it and call people who don’t like it sensitive but would have been ready to burn down Warren HQ if she even THOUGHT of doing that to him.

Seems like everyone's freaking out over a non-story

https://twitter.com/ericisaac/status/1216445568148480002

But don't let the facts interrupt an opportunity to rant about THE BROS!

[GoTfan]

Sending volunteers out to the doors to talk sh**t about other Democrats is disgusting but it’s Sanders so his fans will hand wave it and call people who don’t like it sensitive but would have been ready to burn down Warren HQ if she even THOUGHT of doing that to him.

Seems like everyone's freaking out over a non-story

https://twitter.com/ericisaac/status/1216445568148480002

But don't let the facts interrupt an opportunity to rant about THE BROS!

RFKfan would likely vote for Trump over Sanders anyway. As would a lot of Atlas Democrats it seems.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1216435180220620807

Interesting question Mr. President, what does this all mean? I can't wait to find out!

It means he's gonna kick his ass in november.

[redjohn]

Such manufactured, fake outrage. Sanders supporters need to stay focused on the objective ahead of us (winning the primary), rather than getting distracted by complete non-stories. These manufactured stories meant to aim discontent at Sanders are only going to intensify as he closes in on the establishment candidates. The DNC will not back down without a fight, guaranteed.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Bernie isn't actually surging, and he certainly isn't "closing in" on the establishment candidates.

[redjohn]

Bernie isn't actually surging, and he certainly isn't "closing in" on the establishment candidates.

Him leading in IA, NH, and appearing close in NV are easy examples of him closing in on the establishment candidates. What else would constitute closing in on them?

[Eraserhead]

Bernie isn't actually surging, and he certainly isn't "closing in" on the establishment candidates.

You're right, there's not much to "close in" on when he's already ahead of all them in the first two states and all but one them nationally.

[Gracile]

This whole "controversy" is pretty stupid and overblown. Obviously, two candidates whose support bases overlap were going to have to spar at some point for one to get ahead, and Sanders' team at least presented their argument against Warren in the most objective way they could.

[Beet]

This whole "controversy" is pretty stupid and overblown. Obviously, two candidates whose support bases overlap were going to have to spar at some point for one to get ahead, and Sanders' team at least presented their argument against Warren in the most objective way they could.

You don't attack another candidates' supporters. The attacks on Biden and Buttigieg in the script were at least about policy. The sad thing is that Bernie was in the same position in 2016 where their supporters were disproportionately white and they got the same criticism so they must know it's a BS argument. Besides, there are plenty of working class supporters of every candidate and to erase them with stereotypes is foul.

Bernie supporters are now tweeting and implying that saying "Warren is my second choice" is the offensive part of the script (what?) completely misrepresenting his attack. Actually, that part of the script and the "optional" "I like Warren" part is very condescending in this context.

[Donerail]

Bernie supporters are now tweeting and implying that saying "Warren is my second choice" is the offensive part of the script (what?) completely misrepresenting his attack. Actually, that part of the script and the "optional" "I like Warren" part is very condescending in this context.

That part offended me because I do not like Elizabeth Warren. The campaign shouldn't be asking its supporters to put forward a message that ignores us.

[Shadows]

Elizabeth Warren is an absolute scumbag & it is unforgivable that she will do this before the Iowa Debate when Sanders is leading in Iowa/NH & is close by in Nevada. There is a genuine chance for a progressive to beat Biden & she is trying to take the wind out of the sails of Bernie.

I don't know how on earth is this even negative, whether or not it is campaign sourced or posted by some stray individual. She has used this to attack Bernie publicly & in a very bad way with comments about 2016 factionalism being blamed for the loss to Trump & about candidates taking Dem voters for granted would not be able to beat Trump.

Castro today took shots @ a Warren event when he said Bernie has 25% ceiling & many will be unhappy & Warren can unite the Democrats. Absolutely disgusting behaviour.

She is sabotaging Bernie's chances of beating Biden. I am not sure if Biden has offered her the VP Slot. She will take Bernie down with her if herself can't win.

[Shadows]

This whole "controversy" is pretty stupid and overblown. Obviously, two candidates whose support bases overlap were going to have to spar at some point for one to get ahead, and Sanders' team at least presented their argument against Warren in the most objective way they could.

You don't attack another candidates' supporters. The attacks on Biden and Buttigieg in the script were at least about policy. The sad thing is that Bernie was in the same position in 2016 where their supporters were disproportionately white and they got the same criticism so they must know it's a BS argument. Besides, there are plenty of working class supporters of every candidate and to erase them with stereotypes is foul.

Bernie supporters are now tweeting and implying that saying "Warren is my second choice" is the offensive part of the script (what?) completely misrepresenting his attack. Actually, that part of the script and the "optional" "I like Warren" part is very condescending in this context.

Again complete fabrication & playing the Victim Complex because Warren is now 4th in Iowa & NH. The script (whether campaign or volunteer based) points out that Sanders is the stronger candidate to beat Trump because he brings more disaffected working class supporters while Warren has more of College Educated affuelent people is absolutely undeniably true & is a basic GE electability point. That has nothing to do with some working class people supporting Warren.

This is a classic case where if you point out a campaign's problems with working class, you are instead going against the working class people the campaign has. Very cheap tactic Warren is using.

[Gracile]

This whole "controversy" is pretty stupid and overblown. Obviously, two candidates whose support bases overlap were going to have to spar at some point for one to get ahead, and Sanders' team at least presented their argument against Warren in the most objective way they could.

You don't attack another candidates' supporters. The attacks on Biden and Buttigieg in the script were at least about policy. The sad thing is that Bernie was in the same position in 2016 where their supporters were disproportionately white and they got the same criticism so they must know it's a BS argument. Besides, there are plenty of working class supporters of every candidate and to erase them with stereotypes is foul.

They weren't attacking her supporters. His campaign was questioning her ability to build a broad enough coalition to win both the primary and general election - and it was true since Warren's support base is much more limited than Sanders' (there has been a ton of polling done that proves this). And just as all candidates have plenty of working-class supporters, Sanders has plenty of college-educated and upper-middle-class supporters himself so I doubt those comments were meant to alienate an entire cohort of voters.

[Beet]

This whole "controversy" is pretty stupid and overblown. Obviously, two candidates whose support bases overlap were going to have to spar at some point for one to get ahead, and Sanders' team at least presented their argument against Warren in the most objective way they could.

You don't attack another candidates' supporters. The attacks on Biden and Buttigieg in the script were at least about policy. The sad thing is that Bernie was in the same position in 2016 where their supporters were disproportionately white and they got the same criticism so they must know it's a BS argument. Besides, there are plenty of working class supporters of every candidate and to erase them with stereotypes is foul.

They weren't attacking her supporters. His campaign was questioning her ability to build a broad enough coalition to win both the primary and general election - and it was true since Warren's support base is much more limited than Sanders'. There has been a ton of polling done that proves it. And just as all candidates have plenty of working-class supporters, Sanders has plenty of college-educated and upper-middle-class supporters himself so I doubt those comments were meant to alienate an entire cohort of voters.

Coalitions in the primary say nothing about coalitions in the GE. And polling at this point says very little when Sanders has higher name recognition from his 2016 run.