Posted on 04/09/2020 4:00:05 AM PDT by Kaslin
Before we explore the plot twists that lie ahead on the path to the November election, let’s settle one thing: Bernie Sanders had zero chance of securing the nomination.
Voters were not going to loft him to some amazing comeback in the remaining primaries. That left only the prospect of the Democrat party power structure somehow rigging the process in his favor. That too carried zero plausibility, because say what you will about the DNC hierarchy, they had the clarity to know Donald Trump would have beaten Sanders in a landslide.
As Sanders exits, the instant glib hot take is that Trump will enjoy a similarly breezy election night against the last candidate standing, Joe Biden. That is premature for two reasons: first, because it is eternally unwise to draw conclusions about an election seven months away. And second, don’t bet the house that Joe Biden will be the nominee.
His nomination is of course the greatest likelihood by far. He has won his delegate lead fair and square, as real voters have found his competition sufficiently lacking to award him the air of near-inevitability. But his game-changing primary sweep last month seems like a year ago now, as the all-consuming coronavirus story puts Trump even more firmly in the daily headlines and Biden’s campaign indefinitely on the sidelines.
Any Democrat hopeful would be sucker-punched by these developments, but they are particularly damaging to Biden, whose sparse TV and online appearances in recent weeks seem weary and unfocused.
One wonders if the ivory towers of Democrat leadership, which once favored Biden over a flawed field, now shiver at the possibility of a Trump re-election, as previously ambivalent voters reward him, presuming our path out of the virus wilderness seems well-managed.
The COVID-19 atom bomb which obliterated the Sanders campaign and now hobbles the Biden campaign is the very thing that has given birth to speculation about a Governor who brings a tantalizing mixture of partisan energy and managerial competence as the weeks of virus coverage mount: New York’s Andrew Cuomo.
There is no evidence whatsoever of a specific plot to sabotage Biden to allow for a Cuomo convention surprise. No one even knows how that might happen. Shoot, no one knows if there will even be a convention where this drama might unfold on a floor full of delegates.
But the process will inevitably continue in some form. Biden is likely to rack up additional delegates in primaries to come, so the suspense will involve the level of obligation those delegates will display when the official nominating tally occurs, no earlier than mid-August.
That seems a distant horizon today. Trump’s fortunes seem unlikely to sink, especially if the coming weeks feature additional glimmers of hope. And as Biden faces more weeks with no opportunity to gain traction, Cuomo’s press updates will be seen almost as widely viewed as Trump’s.
One reason Biden outlasted younger, fresher candidates is the wide belief among Democrat voters that he was stronger than those rivals in a general election. That belief was probably sound. But so is the belief that Cuomo might bring an injection of excitement Democrat voters will need to have any chance of ending the Trump presidency.
The basis for that potential excitement is the Cuomo capacity for working with Trump to help his state while maintaining a skill set to come after him aggressively when all of this is in the rear-view mirror and the season for debates and campaign ads blossoms in the fall. That could be a powerful mix. Cuomo will pull no punches in taking on the Trump agenda, but his appeal will run deeper than contrarian fire. He will be able to recount examples of collaboration across party lines in a time of crisis.
There’s no way to know how much dump-Biden mischief is rattling around in the Democrat brain trust. But Sanders did not include a Biden endorsement in his exit remarks, and some Democrat reaction involved assertions of “supporting the nominee” rather than an instant pivot to the former Vice President.
There will be no major news in the Democrat race while the virus has us by the throat. Cuomo will not wrap up a daily briefing in Albany with an announcement that he is jumping into the race. A tectonic shake-up of this order could only happen once the nation has the luxury of returning to the usual rhythm of an election year. Who knows when that will be?
The risk for the DNC is whether an obstruction of Biden compounds the perception of having tilted the field against Sanders in two elections. One tonic cures all of that: a broad conclusion that the party is not engaged in playing shallow favorites, as in its boosting of Hillary Clinton in 2016, but instead reaching to any length necessary to offer up a nominee that won’t get clobbered.
As with so many other chapters in political life, it is wise to know what we don’t know. We don’t know whether Trump will emerge from the coronavirus fog as an inspiring, successful leader. If he ushers us back to a participatory economy only to see COVID-19 return with a vengeance, he could be gravely damaged.
As for Biden, we don’t know whether the long pause will give him an energy boost for the home stretch. After long months of campaigning, he did not embarrass himself on crowded Democrat debate stages, and a singular focus on Trump will give him a chance to hone a simpler message, with the presumed help of a Democrat messaging machine that will be ready to mobilize every voter seeking to make Trump a one-term president, and that’s not a small number.
But the number of voters willing to re-elect Trump may be swelled by the upbeat mood of the virus recovery. A nation enthused about returning to work, returning to church, returning to normalcy and returning to a vibrant economy could well turn to the candidate who has emphasized those themes for years.
Faced with that challenge, Democrats could surely be tempted to throw out the rule book in a year where the norms have been dashed against the rocks already-- primaries delayed, a convention that may or may not happen, a party roiled by turmoil before anyone had ever heard of the coronavirus.
The path to the final determination of who takes on Trump will grow clearer as time passes. But even time itself is bent by the suffocating oddity of virus shutdowns. Odds are we are looking at Trump vs. Biden by Labor Day. But if recent history carries any recurring lesson, it is this: you never know what might happen.
Broken Record time but I have been saying for months Biden will NOT be the Democrats candidate. His role was to simply block anyone from getting the nomination.
The Democrat Party has been planning a bait and switch since the beginning.
The only secret is who is their real candidate.
And no it is not Hillary.
That's b/c Bernie is laser-fixated on one thing-----fattening his bank account. He's not gonna weaken his fund-raising ability by endorsing Biden.
Exiting, Bernie insisted he will remain on the Democratic primary ballot. “The fight for justice is what our campaign has been about. The fight for justice is what our movement remains about. I will stay on the ballot in all remaining states and continue to gather delegates. We must continue working to assemble as many delegates as possible at the Democratic convention where we will be able to exert significant influence over the party platform and other functions.”
(yawn)....just another Bernie fund-raising letter ready to go......he knows the Bern Bro suckers are gonna open their wallets wide for that one.
Bernie's sucker list will keep him in style for years to come. His multiple fund-raising letters lamenting his losing (already at the printer), are ready to go.
He's already raised $75 million....that he gets to keep.
Who?
Plugs will find a horse’s head under his sheets.Soon.
I believe the election will be centered on who can lead our economy out of the Wuhan Virus shutdown back to prosperity
Biden (or other Dem) that will raise taxes, increase regulations/spending, restore China’s trade cheating and import millions of non-citizens.
—or—
Trump who’s tax and regulatory cuts delivered the lowest unemployment for all Americans we have seen in the history of this nation. Trump’s new trade deals, giving the US a more level playing field for manufacturing to return...which will be a big issue this fall.
After Byedone’s comeback in March and how fast we got into this Corona hysteria,I’m making no more predictions. Anything can happen.
I actually think Biden was put up there as a “suicide bomber” candidate — sort of like the 2020 version of Bob Dole. He’s the old useless guy who will lose to a strong incumbent without damaging the party’s prospects in House and Senate races ... while the party grooms younger contenders for 2024.
Matthew McConaughey?
The real question is, “Why do Northeast Democrats think they run the USA?
After seeing how easy it was for the DNC to rig the primary results in Biden’s favor, the obvious question is: Why would they go through all that trouble for a guy who they don’t even want as their candidate? Wouldn’t it be easier to just have the “real” nominee in the race from the start?
They would love to have Biden in the Presidency. He would be another figurehead, just like Obama.
The occult anti-American cabal that controls the Democrat Party could continue its evil endeavours and perhaps fulfill its nefarious objective: the destruction of the USA and establishment of a brutal ruling oligarchy in its place, along the lines of communist China or North Korea, armed with America's enormous wealth and power including its nuclear arsenal.
Donald Trump saw exactly what they were up to. His election brought their evil scheme to an abrupt halt. That's why they HATE him so venomously.
But they have not given up.
If they could place another figurehead in the White House, their vile plot might succeed. Their only question is how to get him elected.
With God's Grace, they can't.
Neither the Dems or America, is going to change horses in the middle of the stream.
For himself?
Or to be spent on future races; not necessarily his own?
There may be a lot of scheming going on but I think a lot is made up as they go along too.
Scott Adams said Trump is running unopposed this election. LOL He thinks Biden is totally incompetent.
Swamp Report: Peter Schweizer Reveals How Bernie Sanders Enriches His Family with Campaign Funds (emphasis added)
[In] 2000, Bernie was in Washington D.C, serving in Congress. Jane and her children a new LLC called Sanders and Driscoll. The new firm was a for-profit consulting company, and was run by Jane, daughter Carina, and son David.
<><> The family ran this new business out of the Sanders family home. Because of the way it was structured, it’s impossible to know just how much money Bernie’s wife and children made from his congressional campaign. But critics would claim that Sanders doled out more than $150,000 to his family through the new company.
<><>Jane would even set up a media buying company, meaning that she would get paid every time candidate Bernie Sanders bought television advertising for his Congressional campaigns.
<><>Then, during his 2016 presidential run, the Sanders campaign would funnel $82 million dollars through a mysterious media buying company run by Jane’s former colleagues. That company, known as Olde Towne Media, was located in private home in a cul de sac in Virginia.
<><>As mayor of Burlington, VT, Bernie Sanders appointed his wife to an initially unpaid position in his municipal administration. Against the city council’s objections, he later put her on the payroll at local taxpayers’ expense. Schweizer recalled Jane Sanders’ previous role as head of Burlington College, a private school with fewer than 200 students. One of the college’s board members admitted that hiring Jane Sanders was a function of her marriage to Bernie Sanders — then a member of House of Representatives from Vermont — believing it would help the school’s fundraising endeavors.
Despite its financial difficulties at the time, in 2009, Burlington College contracted with an unaccredited woodworking school run by Jane Sanders’ daughter, Carina Driscoll. Over $500,000 was funneled to from Burlington College to the woodworking school.
<><>“Carina Sanders' Driscoll school also received at least one federal grant from the US Department of Agriculture,” added Schweizer, noting that Bernie Sanders had oversight over the USDA’s funding at the time as a member of the Senate Budget Committee.
<><> “I don’t believe in Charity,” said Bernie Sanders while mayor of Burlington. Schweizer concluded, “While Sanders may not be a fan of charity, he seems to have no problem awarding jobs and contracts to those closest to him.” “The biggest charity in Bernie’s life is Bernie,” said Schweizer in January.
Read the full video report’s transcript here (link at web site).
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/02/13/swamp-report-peter-schweizer-reveals-how-bernie-sanders-enriches-his-family-with-campaign-funds/
They believe that Biden can connect w/ blue Collar White voters that Trump got to switch from the Dems like Reagan did - NOT
Cuomo has a problem, Yes he has been on TV looking like he is all over the NY outbreak, but when you pull back the covers you see how he mismanaged it exactly like the acuse Trump of, and his gloom and doom estimates of ventilators (w/ no mention of technicians to run them) have turned out to be totally insane.
So they run Biden, lose, Bernie leaves for good, remain a party, regroup for 2024
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