Article in the scramento bee, chastising Sanders for not bringing his movement around to back Hillary:
Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Party’s only hope“Bernie!” she screamed until she was almost hoarse. “Bernie!” ...
Sadly, Bernie Sanders doesn’t seem to understand that anymore. He’s letting his ego get the best of him. He’s drinking his own Kool-Aid. He’s feeling his own Bern.
And his followers, well, he’s more of a brand than a fallible man to them at this point. He’s “Bernie, the righteous underdog,” not “Sanders, the career politician,” who has been in Congress since I was in junior high school.
They happily buy and sport T-shirts and hats bearing his caricature. They wag their index fingers and quote him. They see Bernie as a superhero for progressivism. But they forget that in comic books, superheroes understand that with great power, comes great responsibility.
Not so with Sanders. Not anymore.
On Monday, it was truly disappointing to watch as he shamelessly sold his followers a bill of goods.
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/erika-d-smith/article77071207.html
What a mean spirited article that was. Sanders is hardly a "career politician," good grief. I already researched all this a long time ago -- it's Sanders that's the #1 lead supporter for protecting social security, in Congress. He leads the caucus on that. He's been on the right side of every progressive issue there is.
I saw a foxnews poll the other day, and even FOX viewers say that Bernie would do the most for the working and middle class.
The only thing to criticize Bernie about is that he's too nice -- "I won't ever run a negative ad" only works in Vermont. He needed to be just a BIT tougher and inflammatory and aggressive against Clinton, months ago,
and he would have actually won this nomination. He wouldn't have had to lie, either -- he just needed to talk about those emails, talk about the clinton foundation, talk about the fact that she'll just be bogged down in scandals for the next eight years. And talk about what a big huge Republican she really is -- that would have all been the truth, and it would have won him the nomination.
Conversely -- while he would not aggressively campaign against Clinton, neither does he seem willing to move his people over to her.
What he really needs to do at this point is leverage his political capital, and demand concessions from Clinton in exchange for his supporters' vote.
That's an interesting story.. some of his small amount donors don't know that there's a $2,000 limit to campaign contributions and apparently "thousands" are giving too much and are past the legal limit. FEC is looking into it.
Bernie supporters don't seem to want to let go. They've started a #NeverHillary:
Bernie asks his supporters, "what is the truth?" And they say, "you." And then Bernie says to the crowd that he is "not their savior:"
Brutally Honest Bernie Sanders Tells His Supporters That He Is Not Their SaviorIn the middle of his rally in North Dakota, Sanders asked what was the truth? A supporter shouted out, “You.” Sanders said, “No. That is exactly not the truth. The truth is you, not me. If there is any person here, any person here that thinks I’m coming to you as some kind of savior, that I’m going to do it all — all myself, you’re wrong. No president, not Bernie Sanders or anybody else, can do it alone. We don’t need a savior. We need a political movement.”
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/05/14/brutally-honest-bernie-sanders-tells-supporters-savior.html
Some conservatives are warning that even though he won't win the battle for the nomination, Bernie has already won the war -- and even worse, Trump is like Bernie Sanders is, and is making America too liberal:
Bernie Sanders may win after all, unless conservatives resistSen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will go down to defeat this year, he may win the longer war:
Some Democrat with big aspirations is going to start talking up “free” college education, “free” child care, “free” health care, and gargantuan expansions of entitlements. ...
It’s worse than that. That candidate has already arrived under the GOP banner — Donald Trump. Trump, we have argued, is more akin to Sanders than any other presidential candidate in either party. Trump also wants to give away stuff without paying for it — unreformed Social Security and universal health care, to name two ...
While Geraghty doesn’t get to foreign policy, Trump and Sanders are attached at the hip in that department as well. They view American leadership in the world as counterproductive, too expensive and unnecessary. ..
They are both unrepentant protectionists, indifferent to economic realities.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/05/13/bernie-sanders-may-win-after-all-unless-conservatives-resist/
Those are some smart common sense average joe voters. One says that Clinton isn't for ever doing anything, like raising minimum wage, unless it already gets done without her and then suddenly she's all for it.