Is Bernie's Hour of Power at Hand?

Townhall.com ^ | January 31, 2020 | Pat Buchanan

[Kaslin]

Can a septuagenarian socialist who just survived a heart attack and would be 80 years old in his first year in office be elected president of the United States? It's hard to believe but not impossible.

As of today, Bernie Sanders looks like one of the better, if not best, bets for the nomination. Polls have him running first or second in the first three contests: Iowa on Monday, and then New Hampshire and Nevada.

If Bernie can best main rival Joe Biden in Iowa, he will likely thump Joe in New Hampshire. Biden's campaign, built around "electability," could suffer a credibility collapse before he reaches South Carolina, where Joe is banking on his African American base to rescue him if necessary and give him a send-off victory straight into Super Tuesday.

If Sanders can beat Biden two or three times in the first four primaries in February, the last remaining roadblock on Sanders' path to the nomination could be Mike Bloomberg's billions.

Hillary Clinton may sneer, "Nobody likes him," but Bernie has a large, dedicated, loyal following, especially among millennials, and tens of thousands more small-dollar donors than any other Democratic candidate.

He is flush with cash. He has a radical agenda that appeals to the ideological left and the idealistic young. The rising star of the party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is campaigning alongside him.

And, say what you will, Sanders is no trimmer or time-server. He has consistently voted his values and views. He voted no to Bush 41's Gulf War, no to Bush 43's Iraq War, no to NAFTA, no to GATT. In the '80s, when President Reagan battled the Marxist Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Sanders was on the other side.

But what makes Sanders an appealing candidate for the Democratic nomination may prove poisonous to him as a party nominee in the fall.

For what does Bernie promise?

Free tuition at public colleges and forgiveness of all student debt. "Medicare for All," a single-payer government-run health care system that would require a huge hike in middle-class taxes and abolish private health insurance for the 160 million Americans currently enrolled.

He would break up the big banks, go after Wall Street, add $60 trillion of federal spending in the next decade, and raise income, corporate, capital gains, estate and inheritance taxes.

He would expand the government's share of the U.S. economy to levels rivaling that of France, the highest in the free world.

Bernie was first to back the Green New Deal and pledges to reach carbon neutrality in 10 years in energy and transportation. As for our oil, gas and coal producers, says Sanders, they "have evaded taxes, desecrated tribal lands, exploited workers and poisoned communities."

How would Sanders deal with the millions of illegal migrants now within the country? He'd welcome them all in.

Bernie has proposed the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection and wants to provide a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million to 22 million illegal migrants already here. He would decriminalize border-jumping and give health and welfare benefits to the invaders.

He would decriminalize the breaching of America's borders.

"My first executive orders," tweeted Bernie last week, "will be to reverse every single thing President Trump has done to demonize and harm immigrants, including his racist and disgusting Muslim ban."

Leaders of the center-left think tank Third Way warn that a Sanders nomination risks a Democratic rout of the magnitude of the 49-state losses of George McGovern in 1972 and of Walter Mondale in 1984.

Vulnerable Democrats in moderate and swing districts would have to jump ship, abandoning the ticket to survive the slaughter.

Fearful of such an outcome to a Sanders-Trump race, super PACs run by moderate Democrats have begun to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars into attack ads to blunt his momentum in Iowa.

What Socialist Jeremy Corbyn did to Britain's Labour party -- leading it to the worst defeat since the 1930s -- Sanders could do to the Democratic Party, write Jon Cowan and Jim Kessler of Third Way.

In 2016, Sanders ran a surprisingly strong race for the nomination, and it was later learned that a supposedly neutral DNC had been in the tank for Hillary Clinton. The Democratic establishment, the party elite, had collaborated to put the fix in against Bernie.

Yet Sanders supported Clinton that fall. If, however, Bernie's last chance at the nomination is aborted by an establishment piling on, party super PACs running attack ads against him, and major media taking time out from trashing Trump to break Sanders, the Democratic Party will have the devil's time of it bringing Bernie's backers home in the fall.

Bernie's believers might just conclude that the real obstacle to their dream of remaking America is neither the radical right nor Donald Trump, but the elites within their own party.

[a fool in paradise]

Ask Howard Dean what the DNC can do to your campaign with just one scream, eeeeaaaayaauugghhh!

[Cboldt]

2nd or 3rd “15 minutes of fame.”

He won’t be allowed to take the nomination.

[Sirius Lee]

I might switch from R to D for the primaries, just to vote for Bummie Sanders. Then switch back.

We might even see a 50 state blowout. KAG 2020!

[Olog-hai]

Wonder why Pat is evoking the late Robert Schuller here . . .

[Drango]

Bernie Bros will walk if he’s denied the nomination...

GO BERNIE!

[Olog-hai]

Think that’ll be enough to overcome the stupordelegates?

[RoosterRedux]

I heard a caller to Rush (I think it was Rush) say the other day that every Jew from Brooklyn has a crazy uncle like Bernie in the family...an old coot who rants and raves about the wonders of socialism/communism.

Looks like that crazy uncle might win the nomination. If Bernie wins, he will pick a Veep who passes commie muster.

[moovova]

Hillary will definitely need to step in at that point.

Talk about a basket of deplorables.

[BobL]

There’s a reason Skunk Cabbage, who otherwise never misses a chance to make a political comment, has not made one in this race (other than to attack Tulsi) - it’s because she wants a rematch. I suspect the same is true with Obama, he likely prefers Skunk Cabbage over the rest of the field.

But for Skunk Cabbage to actually become the nominee, then the field has to be flat, so there is no one with more than 50% of the delegates at the DNC Convention. So the DNC changed the rules and, based on articles earlier this week, they’ve installed Skunk Cabbage loyalists in key positions for the convention. But be ready for the heavy guns to move-in on Bernie, as Skunk Cabbage is at great risk if Bernie starts pulling away with Primary victories.

This will be FUN to watch!

[Sirius Lee]

Think that’ll be enough to overcome the stupordelegates?

Oh heck no, but the bigger the vote for bummie, the greater the stolen primary will appear and the greater the donkey civil war will be. Either the commie bum gets the nod, or it's stolen and his dopey snowflakes stay home for the general election.

MAGAnificence!

[Beowulf9]

I’m thinking that Veep will be AOC. If Bernie WERE elected and had another major heart attack we could have President AOC.

Now that WOULD BE crazy.

[mad_as_he$$]

AOC isn’t old enough for this round to be VP.

[Beowulf9]

oh. well thank the Lord above!

[nathanbedford]

If the Democrat establishment succeeds in blocking Bernie, many of his supporters will stay home or support a third party candidate. If Bernie is nominated, many lunch pail Democrats will consciously make the move over to Donald Trump's new Republican Party.

The rats have a dilemma.

If they stay with Joe, his sleaze will destroy him and many down ticket. Many more will fall with Joe's gaffes. Their only sensible option is to go with charisma weak Sen. Klobuchar, Gay mayor Pete or sometime Republican billionaire parachutist Bloomberg.

If I were a Democrat, my choice would be Bloomberg as the least vulnerable, least crazy, best financed, very likely to be a good loser. He would keep the party in tact and produce few gaffes. Apparently an individual of relative reason (as opposed to the certifiably crazy) Bloomberg might stop the party from disintegrating and save the House. He would, however, be anathema to Bernie's crazies.

[HotHunt]

[elpadre]

Why are Americans being censored from hearing about the Ukrainegate investigations (fraud, money-laundering and more)well known in Europe??

Can Biden stay in the race if these things are known in the US?

https://ukrainegate.info/

[Erik Latranyi]

If Bernie wins, the DNC is finished as a mainstream party for a generation.

If Bernie loses, the DNC will be torn apart and finished as a mainstream party for a generation.

[Blue Collar Christian]

If the Dems had any sense at all, they would allow Bernie to get the nomination and let him be the one who gets slaughtered. They don’t have a candidate who can compete with the momentum Trump has at this point.

The oxymoronic smart Democrats should be calling this round a wash and get to work finding a superstar or two who can successfully run when Trumps 2nd term is through.

[rbg81]

I will be very surprised if the DNC lets Bernie win the nomination. If they do, it will realize that if they screw him out of the nomination (again), his base will stay home this time. And they really, really need his base.

That being said, I would luv to see the fireworks if Hillary is anointed at the Convention (without participating in ANY primaries) after Bernie works his butt off & wins the required number of delegates (or gets within spitting distance).