Bernie Sanders has emerged as a real threat – not necessarily to seize the Democratic nomination from establishment frontrunner Hillary Clinton, but certainly to take both the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire. One wonders how his campaign would be doing if he hadn’t taken Hillary’s e-mails off the table with his five-second debate soundbite.
The conventional wisdom is that Bernie is toast even if he takes both Iowa and New Hampshire, because those states are lily-white and their electorates don’t resemble the demographics of the nation at large. To some extent, I think that’s true. But if he wins both states, he’s going to come out with incredible momentum, and he’s going to improve with every voting bloc.
Already, there’s evidence that the Hillary camp is concerned. They’ve dispatched as an attack dog Chelsea Clinton, a millennial who has found success despite Bernie’s pronouncements that the American Dream is dead for young people. The other day Chelsea claimed that Sanders was going to “dismantle” Obamacare. They’ve also attacked him relentlessly on the gun issue.
Unfortunately for Hillary, Iowa and New Hampshire just so happen to contain the types of people predisposed to voting for Bernie. They’re both anti-establishment, heavily white states. New Hampshire is just next door to Bernie’s Vermont. And Iowa has never liked Hillary.
If Clinton goes 0-2, I wonder if there will be an effort to discount the votes from those states and to reform the primary process in favor of states that “look more like America.” I’m sure that’s exactly what Hillary would do if it weren’t for the fact that both Iowa and New Hampshire are important states in the general election as well.
Hillary’s in between a rock and a hard place. She can’t afford to alienate the Bernie supporters, and she can’t afford to let this thing drag on for months. She better hope her party stops feeling the Bern – immediately after February 9th.
Another commentary by an establishment political columnist espousing more of the “conventional wisdom” and predicting the ultimate demise of Bernie Sanders. How’s that worked out so far for you, John?
The mistake being made by Hillary Clinton, the DNC, the corporate media, pundits like Mr. Wynn and so many others is they can’t confront their own denial of the reality that is under their noses.
Bernie Sanders is not winning because Hillary Clinton is doing something wrong. Sanders is winning because his message is resonating with people across the board in America. Income disparity is REAL. The takeover of our democracy by corporate interests is REAL. The break-down of our criminal justice system is REAL. The inadequacy of our healthcare system is REAL. Massive student debt is REAL. All these issues and more that Bernie is raising is REAL. The discontent of the people is REAL. The Revolution that Sanders is starting is REAL.
But, those who pretend not to understand it, like Mr. Wynn, are lost in their own little bubble-fantasy that this is a business-as-usual election that will follow the course of “conventional wisdom.” It is not. Bernie Sanders will be elected as President in November of 2016.
Well said. I think it fair to say that the two “denial candidates” in this race may end up on the ballot come November. We can only hope ours wins.
Why is the assumption that African-American voters are all in for Hillary? If the race were just about issues that are important to the community such as wealth and income inequality, access to a free education, universal healthcare I would imagine that Sanders would garner quite a bit of support. The narrative for Hillary always seems to center around her inevitability and purported electability and not her platform.
Well, here is a newsflash any of the three Democrats running for President stand a good chance of beating the GOP nominee on the basis of demography and voting patterns across the country.
I don’t think it’s an assumption, Randy. It’s what the polls are showing. I wish all voters were as ‘plugged in’ and informed as you and I are, but they’re not. The uphill battle for Bernie is that he is an unknown entity. People remember “the Clintons”…they feel like an old shoe and they had good African-American support in the past. If you don’t listen to Bernie Sanders, all you SEE, regardless of your race, is an old, grumpy, white man. It is, indeed, unfortunate because his message would appeal to them. I’m betting that a lot of promises of support for Hillary were made early on by the movers and shakers in the Black community as well as elsewhere. I will be interested to see if his HBCU tour sparks interest since young people generally love Bernie and they don’t really have any past history with the Clintons…good strategy.
Did you have to refer to Chelsea Clinton as an “attack dog” — did it not even cross your mind that it was more than insulting? The analysis and questions are interesting, but the tone too often is gratuitously nasty. And the Sander’s health care proposals would dismantle the ACA legislation. One can agree or not with this proposals on this subject, but Chelsea Clinton was correct.
Well I see the Clinton mouthpiece for this area is back at it. This is one yellow dog Democrat that has no interest in seeing a another Clinton or offspring anywhere near the White House. Most Democrats that I know…and vote…are not looking forward to a Clinton at the top of the ticket . I would strongly recommend that “Hill” soft pedal the Sanders attacks if she hopes to see all of us at the polls come November should she be the nominee. We remember her votes in the Senate and 2008 especially her and Bills BS in South Carolina. And it would not be in her interest not to scratch that scab. She may win a lot of the African-American voters(although I dare say not Obama numbers)but as Mr Wynn so aptly puts it there are a lot of us “lily white voters” and Latino voters that aren’t so sold.
Regardless of which Democrat gets the nod, I hope they will continue taking the high road and not assassinate each others character. Integrity is what separates the two parties and the Dems own this issue.