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Bernie Sanders Is the Democratic Front-Runner

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  badfish-hd-h-u  •  5 years ago  •  43 comments

Bernie Sanders Is the Democratic Front-Runner

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



He’s a 77-year-old socialist who’s abrasive when he’s in a good mood, and who’s still blamed by many Democrats for Hillary Clinton losing to Donald Trump. But go ahead, try to argue that Bernie Sanders isn’t the front-runner in the 2020 Democratic race right now.

After making his second presidential run official on Tuesday, Sanders blew past every other announced candidate’s early fundraising numbers—$3.3 million in the first few eight hours, more than double the huge $1.5 million Kamala Harris raised in the whole first day—and he’s expecting to easily hit the 1 million website sign-ups he asked for as a first show of support for his campaign.

For all the more conventional Democrats who greeted the news of his candidacy with sighs of “Oh no!” or “Give me a break,” no one else running could do that.

Read: A lot of people want Bernie Sanders to run in 2020

Then there’s where he stands in early polls, behind only Joe Biden. Or the argument Sanders’s own pollster has been making: that he will have surprising strength in parts of the country where he connects with many of the same disaffected voters who backed Trump, or who were too turned off by what’s become of politics to vote at all in 2016.

“Short of Joe Biden entering the race, Sanders on paper starts off with more advantages than anybody else. He’s got the largest list; he’s got the most intense following that has stayed with him since 2016; he has a proven ability to fundraise from his small-dollar base,” said Brian Fallon, a Democratic strategist who was the spokesman for Clinton, leading the public charge against Sanders last time around. “He’s in the exact opposite position that he started off the 2016 campaign in.”

The Democrats running against him assume that this won’t last. But he’ll raise millions, get 20,000 people at his rallies, and make them all look junior varsity in comparison. Still, they’re confident that he won’t be able to maintain that over the next year.

Peter Beinart: Bernie Sanders offers a foreign policy for the common man


Sanders running when he’s part of a big field of enticing candidates is a whole lot different from Sanders running as the single fresh alternative to a candidate who never inspired much passion throughout her entire career. He could burn out, get eclipsed by some of the newer forces in the party, and have to answer for all the parts of his record and background that didn’t get full scrutiny when he was a novelty nowhere near winning in 2016.

If nothing else, there could certainly come a point late in the game, much like what happened with Howard Dean in 2004, when Democratic voters look at him and say they just can’t take seriously the idea of Sanders actually beating Trump, or actually being the commander in chief and sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as the 46th president of the United States.

At least that’s what his rivals are telling themselves. Because that’s how races have always gone up to this point. Except, that is, for 2016, when Sanders became a bizarre breakout sensation and the country put Trump behind that desk as the 45th president.


No matter what, his candidacy seems set to reshape the dynamics of the race.

Sanders has moved quickly in an attempt to show that he’s a more serious candidate than four years ago, when he announced his campaign during a break from the Senate floor, gave a few harried answers to the questions from the few reporters who had showed up, and then said he had to get back to vote.

This time, he started with a carefully constructed rollout, with a slick announcement video, a sit-down interview on   CBS This Morning , and a media tour. “Sisters and brothers,” he wrote to his huge email list Tuesday morning, “together, you and I and our 2016 campaign began the political revolution. Now, it is time to complete that revolution and implement the vision that we fought for.”

A full operation is being put together, with the assumption that he will have well over $200 million in online fundraising to draw from. That includes top leadership of the campaign meant to illustrate the diversity of his support, demographically and geographically. Faiz Shakir, a former aide to Harry Reid, is leaving his job as the political director of the American Civil Liberties Union to be the campaign manager. In addition to his deep political experience, he will be the first Muslim presidential-campaign manager in history. Analilia Mejia, an organizer of Colombian and Dominican descent who most recently directed the Fight for $15 and Earned Sick Days campaigns in New Jersey and previously worked for the New Jersey Working Families Party, will be the political director. The deputy political director will be Sarah Badawi, who was most recently the government-affairs director for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal group that led the effort to draft Elizabeth Warren into the 2012 Senate race, and later worked on her campaign.


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Ronin2
Professor Quiet
2  Ronin2    5 years ago

The hard left is pulling for all it is worth. Bernie just has to worry about someone announcing that is further out there than he is.

It will be another sorry showing by the two main parties for presidential nominees if this keeps up.

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
2.2  Greg Jones  replied to  Ronin2 @2    5 years ago

His socialist credentials are in good order, but do any of his devout followers realize his past devotion to communism?

I doubt that his deep rooted beliefs have really changed much. If by some miracle he got elected, he would be a world class Putin ass-kisser.

Go Bernie Go!

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
4  Tacos!    5 years ago

I suspect these early polls are more about name recognition than anything else.

 
 
 
Rmando
Sophomore Silent
5  Rmando    5 years ago

Some people at the DNC must be feeling the heat now. Their rigging game must be in disarray. The DNC operatives will have to work overtime giving out debate questions to all the other candidates just to try and shut Bernie out again. How dare actual Dem primary votes decide the nominee!

 
 
 
Don Overton
Sophomore Quiet
5.2  Don Overton  replied to  Rmando @5    5 years ago

I'm afraid you don't understand the primary part of an election

 
 
 
Don Overton
Sophomore Quiet
5.2.1  Don Overton  replied to  Don Overton @5.2    5 years ago

I love this:  Let's see you facts of that statement.  Just more of your bias

 
 
 
Rmando
Sophomore Silent
5.2.2  Rmando  replied to  Don Overton @5.2    5 years ago

Party members vote for the candidate of their choice- except for open primary states where anybody can vote- with the expectation the party leadership will not show favoritism to any particular candidate. Pretty simple concept the DNC couldn't live up to.

 
 
 
Rmando
Sophomore Silent
5.2.3  Rmando  replied to  Don Overton @5.2.1    5 years ago

Don't take my word for it. Just read what Donna Brazile had to say about it:

 
 
 
Dean Moriarty
Professor Quiet
6  Dean Moriarty    5 years ago

Obama ran on a campaign based on theft and redistribution and I would not be surprised to see Bernie win with the same strategy. Buying votes with others people money has become fashionable these days. 

 
 
 
Don Overton
Sophomore Quiet
6.2  Don Overton  replied to  Dean Moriarty @6    5 years ago

Sure just keep on dreaming

 
 
 
bugsy
Professor Participates
7  bugsy    5 years ago

A bit off topic here but does anyone know what happened to the "my comments" section that normally sat above articles. I don't know of any other way to track my comments and see if they have been replied to.

Now, back on topic.

I don't see Bernie doing any better than last time. The only thing he attracts are old and new hippies and the gimme crowd. Most of America will snub him again.

What will be interesting is if Bernie and Harris or Booker square off in the end, how long will it be before the far left loons will pull the race card on Bernie? It will happen.

 
 

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