Tag Archives: Bernie Sanders

national news

Can the new/returned frontrunner go the distance?

Before we start fitting Joseph R. Biden for a new inauguration suit we need to ponder a question posed by a friend of mine in an email overnight from w-a-a-a-ay down yonder … in South Australia.

My friend Peter follows U.S. politics closely and he asks this about Biden: And is he fit enough and sharp enough to take on Trump head-to-head, given the President will lie and cheat with impunity and without shame or pause for reflection?

Peter asks a good question, but I want to frame it a bit differently. The former vice president of the United States, who barreled through several primary victories Tuesday — including right here in Texas — first has to get past Bernie Sanders, who exhibited a continuing feistiness while declaring victory of his own.

Sanders got thumped in many of the states across the South. He did win in Vermont, in Colorado, Utah and he won the big prize in California. He isn’t going anywhere. He is in the fight to the finish; at least that’s what he is saying.

I was heartened to see Biden lift himself off the deck with a stellar run of victories. He is a long way from being nominated. It remains an open question at this moment whether he or Sanders will have enough delegates to win the nomination without a floor fight at the convention. Part of me sort of yearns for an actual fight, something to return these nominating conventions to what they were intended to be when the parties conceived of them.

However, I remain committed to hoping that Joe Biden emerges from this campaign in shape to take on Donald Trump.

Peter is absolutely correct. The current president of the United States will stop at nothing to smear, sully and slander his foe. He already has sought foreign government help in undermining Joe Biden’s candidacy, an act that resulted in his impeachment by the House of Representatives. The Senate acquittal only will embolden him to commit even more outrageous acts.

I also remain hopeful that Joe Biden would prepare himself for the onslaught that would come at him full force. He does exhibit some nagging tendencies to commit unforced verbal errors. Those must end. Now! He has to be on top of his game.

However, the once-prohibitive favorite to be the Democratic nominee has retaken his frontrunner status in the race to face Donald Trump. He is far from the clear favorite, but the fight is on.

national news

Money can’t buy love … or votes?

Tom Steyer thought money could buy him a path to the White House.

He was mistaken. The billionaire folded up his campaign tent after the South Carolina votes were cast and he ended up with 11 percent of the total, several miles behind the lead piled up by Joe Biden.

What now? What lies ahead for the other billionaire in the Democratic Party presidential primary campaign, Michael Bloomberg, the ninth-richest person on Earth, who’s already spent a half-billion of his own dollars on this race?

He hopes to do well on Tuesday, aka Super Tuesday. Will he win any of the states where he’s been airing all those TV ads, such as in Texas? I doubt it.

Bloomberg ought to rethink this exercise in futility as well.

The former New York mayor entered the race vowing to defeat Donald J. Trump. The way I see it, the longer he is in the contest siphoning off votes that could go to another centrist who actually can beat DJT — Joe Biden — the more he helps Trump than hinders his path to re-election.

Bloomberg has crashed and burned at two debates. He doesn’t play well live and in person. He looks disinterested, annoyed and cannot craft anything resembling the kind of sharp rhetoric one needs to develop a message.

Furthermore, I just am one Democratic-leaning voter who doesn’t believe he is faithful to the party to which he purports to belong. He ran for NYC mayor as a Republican; then he became an independent; now he’s a Democrat. He’s good on gun issues and on climate change. What else? Who knows?

As for Bernie Sanders, I do not want a “movement” leader or a “revolutionary” to carry the banner against Donald Trump. I much prefer a seasoned, veteran politician with a record of actual accomplishment to take the fight to the carnival barker in chief.

To my way of thinking, that would be Joe Biden.

We need to cull this field down immediately to the two men left standing: Biden and Bernie. Let pragmatism prevail over passion.

national news

Get ready, Mr. VPOTUS, for the barrage from the current POTUS

(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Now that Joseph R. Biden Jr. has cemented a smashing victory in the South Carolina Democratic Party presidential primary, it is time for the former vice president to gird himself for the expected barrage from the current president of the United States.

Yep, it’s going to happen.

Donald John Trump and his surrogates will resume their barrage that they turned on Bernie Sanders, still the front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

They managed to pillory and plunder Biden’s name and reputation during the U.S. Senate impeachment trial by trying to link him to his son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine.

Then Biden stumbled in early primary states. Now he’s back in the game. I believe Trump and his team are most concerned about facing Biden in the fall than any other Democrat.

Thus, I believe Joe Biden needs to prepare for the onslaught.

Get ready, Joe.

national news

This guy has it right: All but Biden and Bernie need to bail out

Timothy Egan is a fabulous reporter and writer. I am in the middle of a book he wrote about the Dust Bowl, “The Worst Hard Time.” It’s a great read that captures the essence of the Texas Panhandle, where I lived for 23 years.

He also is an astute political observer. He has written in The New York Times that the Democratic Party primary field needs to cull itself now, get down to the two leading candidates: Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.

The rest of ’em need to go: Tom Steyer, Mike Bloomberg, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg … and maybe even Elizabeth Warren.

Egan thinks there’s a good chance Warren will lose to Sanders in her home state of Massachusetts, which votes on Super Tuesday. Hmm. If she can’t win there, well, where else is there?

Read Egan’s essay here.

If I were king of the world, I would strongly prefer Biden over Bernie.

My sense is that the country needs to return to an old fashioned politician — and I mean that in the good way — who knows how to govern. Someone who knows the importance of compromise. We don’t need another “revolutionary,” which is how Sanders portrays himself and his legions of supporters.

Yes, I know that both of these guys are old. They’re both pushing 80. I am not all that far behind them on the road to eternity, so I can kinda/sorta relate to them.

The country, though, needs Joe Biden to restore some values of decency, decorum, dignity to the White House. I have had enough of Donald Trump. As for the rest of the Democratic Party field, heed Timothy Egan’s advice … and stand down.

national news

‘Energy’ doesn’t always equal ‘votes’

The nation’s political punditry is telling us about all that “energy” that emanates from Sen. Bernie Sanders’ rallies.

The independent senator’s supporters are all in with Bernie. You can feel it, man! They’re going to carry the 78-year-old democratic socialist to victory against Donald John Trump in the fall, presuming of course that he gets the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

But … will he? Does that energy translate to votes?

I was part of an earlier “revolution” back in 1972. We thought we had “energy,” too, as we backed the candidacy of the late Sen. George McGovern.

I had returned home from the Army in 1970 after serving for a time in Vietnam. I was all in on McGovern’s stated intention to end the war. I enrolled in college. I became a political activist. I registered voters at the campus where I attended classes. We signed up a lot of new Democrats.

We went to rallies. We cheered loudly. We filled a downtown Portland, Ore., square when Sen. McGovern came to exhort the thousands of followers.

Hey, we had “energy.” We wanted to kick butt … by golly.

Then came the election. The networks called it almost immediately after the first polling stations closed on the East Coast.

It was over.

We were crushed under the weight of a 49-state landslide.

Don’t misunderstand me here. I want there to be enough energy to carry over that defeats Donald Trump this fall. I don’t know if Bernie Sanders is the guy to ignite the flame.

I just remain dubious of the pundit class’ penchant for hailing all the energy it feels from these Bernie Sanders rallies.

national news

Hey, Bernie, Fidel was a bad dude!

I got into a snit the other day with some supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who at this moment is the front runner for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

They chewed me out for dismissing his candidacy. Well, here comes Round Two.

Bernie Sanders is wrong to give the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro any props for the “good” he did while leading the island nation for a seeming eternity.

Sanders told Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes” Sunday night that Castro enacted a literacy program when he took over the Cuban government in 1959. “That’s a bad thing”? Sanders asked, rhetorically.

Well, no. It’s not. However, none of that negates the firing squads that Castro deployed to rid Cuba of political dissenters. Nor does it counter the myriad human rights abuses that Castro imposed during his tyrannical reign. Nor does it overrule the fact that in 1962 he welcomed Soviet missiles onto his island, allowing the Soviet Union military geniuses to program the missiles to strike targets in the United States.

Sen. Sanders is trying to make it clear that he despises autocrats, strongmen, dictators and tyrants. He is drawing a line between himself and Donald Trump, who professes to be “in love” with North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un.

OK, that’s fine. However, Sen. Sanders needs to navigate his way around any effort to speak well of another tyrant, Fidel Castro.

If Sen. Sanders has any hope of winning the 2020 presidential election in the event that Democrats nominate him this summer, he’ll have to assuage the anger he is igniting among a key voting bloc of Cuban expatriates in South Florida that has long memories of Fidel Castro’s monstrous rule.

media news

MSNBC host needs to issue a full-throated apology

Chris Matthews has stepped in it. Big time.

The MSNBC “Hardball” host is taking intense social media fire over a remark he made over the weekend in which he likened Sen. Bernie Sanders’ big win in the Nevada caucus to the Nazi invasion and conquest of France during World War II.

One serious problem has emerged immediately after Matthews shot off his loud and boisterous mouth. Sanders, who is Jewish, lost many of his family members during the Holocaust.

Social media have gone berserk. Viewers are calling for Matthews, a veteran newspaper columnist, a former congressional aide and a longtime cable TV broadcast personality, to resign. Short of resignation, social media critics are calling on MSBNC to fire Matthews for his display of extreme insensitivity.

Here’s what I think ought to happen.

Chris Matthews needs to go on the air and issue an apology. And I don’t mean one of those phony “If I offended anyone” non-apologies. He needs to say something like this: “I made a terrible mistake. I am sorry for what I said. I engaged my motor mouth without turning on my sensitivity filter. I blew it and I apologize to everyone who heard me make that hideous comparison on the air.”

If the apology doesn’t stem the criticism, then he should quit. My hope would be that a full-throated, sincere apology might do the job.

What’s more, Matthews — who is known for his machine-gun delivery — needs to re-calibrate the manner in which he delivers his commentary.

national news

Democratic establishment channeling GOP counterparts from 2016

How fascinating it is to watch the Democratic Party establishment wringing its hands over the possible — and I won’t yet say “probable” — nomination of a presidential candidate who’s far from the mainstream.

Does it remind you of anything, say, from just four years ago?

The 2016 Republican Party primary battle featured a large field of contenders having to fend off a challenge from a political outsider. Yep, Donald John Trump gave the GOP establishment fits. He stuck his finger in the establishment’s collective eye.

In 2020, the outlier is a guy named Bernie Sanders, who’s doing the same thing to the Democratic establishment.

Try this similarity on for size: Sanders serves in the U.S. Senate as an independent from Vermont; Trump only ran as a Republican because it presented the easier path to nomination and then to election, as he had no active involvement with the party prior to running for the presidency. Trump had no public service experience. He spent his entire adult life seeking to enrich himself.

Sanders’ critics say he isn’t a real Democrat, just as Trump’s critics said in 2016 — and many of us are saying now — that he isn’t a real Republican. I believe criticism of both men on that point has its merit.

Republicans were damn fools to nominate Trump in the first place. To my mind he has proved himself to be a disaster as president. One of his GOP primary foes, Jeb Bush of Florida, predicted accurately that he would govern as a “chaos and confusion” president. Trump has delivered on that prediction.

What’s in store for the Democrats if they manage to nominate Sanders? I’ve already declared that I believe he is likely to lose big to Trump. Then again, as I’ve noted before on this blog, my prediction skills are quite suspect.

I mean, I never thought Trump would be elected. Hah! Silly me. Silly all those other folks who thought they had the 2016 election pegged.

national news

Is Bernie becoming the new Hillary?

Maybe it’s just me, but I have to ask: Is Bernie Sanders becoming the new Hillary Clinton?

By that I wonder if Bernie is going to become a first-name celebrity the way Hillary became one about the time her husband was elected president of the United States in 1992.

I see headlines, I hear commentators, I read actual next and commentary text referring to the Vermont U.S. senator by his first name, leaving off the last name as if we’re supposed to know instinctively about whom they are referring.

There ain’t many celebrities who attain what I call “first name status.” They’re usually athletes. I think of Arnie, Reggie, Wilt, Magic.

Then came Hillary. Commentators refer to the former first lady, former U.S. senator and former secretary of state in a sort of colloquial fashion. I find it a bit disrespectful, if you want to know the truth. Then again, I have fallen occasionally into that trap on this blog. So I guess I cannot gripe too loudly.

Now it’s Bernie. We say the name and we’re supposed to presume it’s the independent senator from Vermont who’s masquerading as a Democrat while running for the party’s presidential nomination.

Hey, before he became president, we used to refer to Donald Trump as The Donald. Do you recall that? I guess now that he’s seized control of the nuclear launch codes, we’re supposed to treat with a modicum of respect … if only he would behave in a manner that enables him to earn it. I don’t call him The Donald on this blog. I still cannot attach the word “President” in front of his last name; the thought of it makes me cringe. But I digress.

Bernie is now the established front runner for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2020. I don’t want him to run against Trump this fall. I believe Trump will bury the democratic socialist after sliming and smearing him beyond all recognition.

However, for as long as he remains in the public eye, I guess he’s going to be just plain ol’ Bernie.

State news

Beware of Super Tuesday mischief

Listen up, my fellow Texas residents. I want to alert y’all to what might be lurking as we prepare to vote on Super Tuesday.

Democrats are going to vote on March 3 for president, choosing from a still-lengthy list of contenders vying for the nation’s top office. One of them, a “democratic socialist” named Bernie Sanders, has stolen the momentum from the rest of the field. Sen. Sanders is going to march into Texas as the man to beat. I saw a poll just the other day that shows Sanders with a 3-point lead over Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Republicans, meanwhile, have no seriously contested primary awaiting them. Donald John Trump, the nation’s current president, is going to cruise to the GOP presidential nomination.

Meanwhile, millions of Texans have voter registration cards that don’t have a mark on them, other than their signatures. We haven’t voted yet in either primary.

I am suggesting there might be some mischief-making on the horizon. By that I mean that some Republican voters can cross over and vote in the Democratic primary for the candidate they want their guy, Trump, to face in the fall election campaign.

I mentioned Bernie Sanders a moment ago. Do you get my drift?

Sanders is a far-left winger. He talks a good game about being “electable.” I have serious doubt about that. He is a prime target of the GOP slime machine that is going to smear him as a godless socialist/communist. Indeed, many of his proposals have set himself up for the Republican attack machine.

Given that Texas’ open primary system enables voters to cross over into the “other party’s” primary, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see a gigantic Democratic turnout with numbers inflated by a significant number of GOP voters seeking to cause a bit of trouble among Democrats.

Consider yourselves forewarned.