Bernie Sanders admits it

Sure, he's bitter Bernie, but he doesn't argue the point that's raided because he can't.

Bernie cancelled?

On the Left, you are allowed to say exactly zero things good about president Trump. ZERO.

Bernie Sanders' rage quit

The thing that most interests me here is not the interview rage quit, but rather that he claims there are 100 progressive Democrats in the House. They only have 212 seats (including 3 Delegates). That's almost half of the Democratic representatives as socialists. It sould scare me if the party wasn't so out of touch with voters now. My hope is actually for the party to remain this divided, or even better, split into two parties.

All that said, Bernie's rage quit is still a popcorn TV moment.

Dramatic Trump indictments coming! Yawn.

When will the left get sick of failed Trump indictments? Never. When will the MAGA right stop panicking about them? I think that train has already left the station.  But what this does is tie up some of president Trump's attention and some of his money.

The message that has to start sinking in, whether it's Trump on the right or Bernie Sanders on the left, is that outsiders are not welcome.  We on the right get it, on the left, Sanders was not a good enough example to get it through their heads that the government exists to serve the government, not the people, and it's been that way for a long time.

Bernie Sanders gets toasted by...Bill Maher?

Bernie Sanders, stumped:

Bernie Sanders out. Okay, it's a non-event.

Did anyone really think the nominee was going to be Sanders at this point? Only die hard Bernie Bros.

Warren out, finally.

I guess it's time for that Tulsi Gabbard surge...

This may have come too late for Sanders but he could still benefit from her withdrawal.  It sure looks like the Democrat party has lined up things for Joe Biden to ensure a nomination for him.

So it's Biden now. Now what?

This guy? Really?

Joe Biden apparently is the guy.  I had expected after Super Tuesday that the race would tighten and Biden would be close to Sanders.  After California finishes counting that should be the case - except it is Biden who will have a small lead on Sanders rather than the other way around.

But Joe Biden people?  Democrats, this guy is your champion???  Alright.  I think he is truly beatable. Yes, more electable than Sanders but I don't think he's electable.

The real concern here is that after two weeks of Democrat establishment freaking out over Sanders potentially winning this thing and warning voters not to nominate a socialist because of the down-ballot impacts, it looks like Democrat voters continue to be the sheep we conservatives believe Democrats are.  Bernie Sanders is a potential train-wreck for the country but at least Democrat voters were not beholden to the Establishment status quo.  It looks like they did not learn anything from Republican voters about trying to reshape the structure of their party.  They seem to be content to remain the party of managed American decline.

So now what?

Bloomberg may now finally see the writing on the wall and bow out.  If he does, the nomination probably becomes a lock for Biden.  If he continues on then it seems a brokered convention still remains possible, in which case Bloomberg might manage to have enough delegates to demand a VP slot.  Although Biden would be smarter to save that position for Sanders or Warren in order to heal the divides within the party. That said, Sanders supporters might not vote for the candidate that Sanders ends up supporting just because Sanders says so.  They didn't buy into his backing of Clinton in 2016.  Even Sanders on the ticket may not be enough to swing their votes.  Then again, I would not expect Biden to pick Sanders for his VP.  Clearly the Democrat Establishment freaking out over Sanders would not support the choice of Sanders being a step away from running the country.

Elizabeth Warren has proven she's just an also ran, but I would not preclude her from staying in the race just to attempt to be in a position to get the VP slot.  That serves the Democrat Establishment and it servers her.  It would certainly slow Sanders support but not by much to be honest.

There's something else to consider.  Sanders is not out of it.  Despite the Biden upset win in Texas, he won in a group of states that were mostly his to lose.  And there are a lot of states coming up where Sanders clearly has an advantage.  Sanders will need a string of wins in the next set of races in order to not fade away.  Should he do so we may be back to a brokered convention situation.  Should he fail to win convincingly, he's going to have to drop out.  March 10th, just a week away are primaries in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, and Washington as well as a caucus in North Dakota.  

Sanders should do well in 3 of the 5 primaries, while Biden looks well positioned in the southern states of Mississippi and Missouri.  The North Dakota caucus could go either way but Sanders needs a big win on the 10th or he will have truly lost all momentum to Biden.

Annnnnnd.....Klobuchar Out!

President Trump was right - pre-Super-Tuesday both Buttigieg and now Klobuchar drop out (in addition to Tom (who now?) Steyer) drop out to clear a path for either Bloomberg or Biden to go mono-a-mono with Sanders and take him out.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar is suspending her presidential campaign after failing to break into the top tier of Democratic candidates.

She plans to drop out of the race and endorse former Vice President Joe Biden in Dallas on Monday night, according to her campaign.

It's just hours before polls open in her home state of Minnesota on Super Tuesday.

Don't be surprised if Warren is encouraged to stay in. That hurts Sanders too.

Pete Buttigieg is OUT. All of his SuperTuesday votes will go to Sleepy Joe Biden. Great timing. This is the REAL beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play - NO NOMINATION, AGAIN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2020

This is all happening pre-Super-Tuesday.  That matters because the votes do not get split as much.  Clearly Establishment  Democrats are enthusiastic given Biden's win in South Carolina.  This could really backfire on them.

Warren TKO's Bloomberg in Round 1

Yesterday I was speculating about the possible outcomes of the Democrat debate.  My last point seems to be the most apt with respect to the outcome.  Warren went after Bloomberg hard and fast and it made a difference. It could provide her with a mini-resurgence in polling.  More importantly she hurt Bloomberg.  Bloomberg meanwhile went after Sanders and got in a few jabs himself.

It was so bad it almost makes Bloomberg the preferred candidate for president Trump to trounce in November.  But watching the debate, it seems the candidates' impacts are as follows:

-everyone not on the stage, has become irrelevant (I'm looking at you Tom Steyer)

-Warren should see a mini surge but it is likely to not be a sustained trend unless she does something else to capitalize on it (i.e. when is the next debate where she has the opportunity to attack someone?)

-Bloomberg is definitely wounded and he needs to recover quickly.  More advertising is not the answer here, he will need to do interviews and brush up for the next debate so he can perform better.  His weakness was obvious and it's exploitable unless he can correct it quickly.

-Biden seemed annoyed that he had to debate, when he was making points it seemed like scripted talking points

-Klobuchar and Buttigieg both were unremarkable but looked like they were going after each other as a sort of under card, side battle.  It diminished both of them overall.

The real winner was president Trump.  The Democrats looked badly in disarray.  Coming out of this I think if I had to call a Democrat winner it was Sanders - he continues to lead and he wasn't the main target last night.  As long as that continues, he will be able to consolidate his lead unchecked, perhaps only stalled a little due to Warren's good showing.  The big loser was clearly Bloomberg.

Democrat Debate Free For All on Bloomberg

We know that his opponents are going to go after Democratic candidate Mike Bloomberg at the upcoming debate in Nevada.  It's his first debate in a long time, and he does pose an existential threat to all of their chances for the nomination.  If he wants to win, he should be prepared for an onslaught.  Everyone else in that debate has something to prove - either their own ability to withstand an advertising blitz and a faltering campaign of their own (Biden), or their ability to take on a billionaire and ultimately president Trump (e.g. Warren), or the fact that he represents the antithesis of the ideology of the future of the party (Sanders) or even just the viability of their continued campaigns (Buttigieg or Klobuchar  -the former seems oblivious and almost seems to be embracing Bloomberg, the latter too, seems resigned to acceptance).

I expect that save for the latter two, who oddly may have pre-conceded to Bloomberg and are busy vying for a VP slot, there will be a battle for a change from the previous love-in debates.  But what will be the fallout?

Does Bloomberg effectively acquit himself of all of the recent charges of racism and sexism?  Does he falter?  Does it even matter if he has become the perceived first choice thanks to his ad blitz?  This is all hard to predict.  But my suspicion is that this will not be a game changer for everyone.  But I do think it will winnow the field. Anyone who does not go after Bloomberg will become irrelevant and start to fall in the polling in the coming weeks.  Warren has signaled her intent so Sanders has to outdo her and so too does Biden.  The question is who will be the most effective.  

I think the result of this debate is that you will see Buttigieg and Klobuchar will start to fade.  Here are the IFs:

-If Bloomberg looks like he handles it all well, he will knock Biden into an also-ran.  If he does not, Biden may see a resurgence (unless Buttigieg actually does go after Bloomberg and does so better than Biden)

-If Warren does a better job than Sanders in attacking Bloomberg she will experience a mini-revival and continue to pull votes from Sanders.  If not then she will fade as well and it will allow Sanders to become one of the 2 people in what seems to be headed towards a two-person race.

Should we be cheering for Bernie Sanders?

It's early in the Democratic primaries.  President Trump is the strongest Republican president and candidate since Ronald Reagan, and he's fearless.  He should trounce his Democratic challenger in November no matter who it turns out to be.  Biden is a gaffe machine. Buttigieg is a lightweight with no staying power.  Warren is a complete dud.  Klobuchar is equally uninspiring. Tom Steyer is as appealing as taxes.  That leaves two candidates that merit discussion. Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg.

Both are completely beatable.  Bernie Sanders winning the nomination could split the Democratic party asunder, and that alone is enough reason to cheer him on.  Not only would a Sanders nomination ensure a Trump re-election, it would probably ensure a victory for Republicans in Congress and Republican presidencies for at least two more cycles.

But that's not it.

I think a lot of Republicans seem to be secretly worried about the tidal wave of Bloomberg spending (>$400 million and counting, more than 10 times that of his nearest spending competitor who happens to be Sanders).  Money changes everything and billions can change a lot of minds.  I know president Trump tricked the media into A LOT of free publicity in 2016, but he can't count on them being that stupid this time around (true, they've given no reason for anyone to think otherwise so far).  But what we are looking at is the bombing of Dresden in political advertising form.  Bloomberg could overwhelm everyone.

I'll admit, I'm worried.  Yes Bloomberg could easily crumble when he has to debate, he could easily fail in facing reporters which he has so far avoided.  But he may be taking a page from Trump's book - run the campaign he wants and not what is expected.  If he manages that he can just approve messages and hide until election night hoping to have voters not know what a terrible leader he would be.  But the money, geez. I've always said that America has to have a robust economy because a strong military, strong alliances, a strong bargaining position internationally, pretty much everything, flows from a position of economic strength.

That's the case here.  Bloomberg represents an existential threat.  I think we should be propping up Bernie Sanders.  I don't think I'm alone in that.  I don't know, maybe it's just time now that he's starting to attract attention but it seems like in conservative circles, he's getting more attention now.  I think that's nerves.  Here's just one example of subtle coaching of other candidates to attack Bloomberg.

Bernie wins NH, but that's not the headline.

As of this posting it looks like Bernie Sanders has won the state of New Hampshire primary on the Democrat side. But that is not really the big story.

Here are the results right now:

• BERNIE SANDERS 25.9% (73,470 Votes) + 9 Delegates
• PETE BUTTIGIEG 24.4% (69,216 Votes) + 9 Delegates
• AMY KLOBUCHAR 19.8% (55,982 Votes) + 6 Delegates
• ELIZABETH WARREN 9.3% (26,266 Votes)
• JOE BIDEN 8.4% (23,813 Votes)
• TOM STEYER 3.6% (10,138 Votes)
• TULSI GABBARD 3.3% (9,255 Votes)
• ANDREW YANG 2.8% (8,023 Votes)

But Bernie's win is probably the 4th most interesting story of the night last night ranking just behind Andrew Yang dropping out of the race, Joe Biden tanking (so badly he may actually work for a gas company like Burisma himself) and the biggest story of them all - Mike Bloomberg is a racist.

It leads one to wonder if he will make it out of Super Tuesday where he is placing all his financial efforts (that's all the effort by the way, financial).  Democrats were starting to warm to his bombardment of advertising in some states but this could derail him entirely.

The pros and cons of the Democratic candidate field

I do not envy the Democrat voters, they have quite an unremarkable slate of options to choose from for their presidential candidate nominee.  Nevertheless, going into tonight's New Hampshire primary results, I have been following along on developments (just not with any enthusiasm).

I have compiled what I believe most of the candidates brings to the table for their fight to win the nomination as well as their eventual defeat by president Trump.

Michael Bloomberg
Biggest Pro: He has billions of dollars to spend to create an aura of his greatness.
Biggest Con: His real aura.

Bernie Sanders
Biggest Pro: He has a cult following of socialists and the naive.
Biggest Con: He has a cult following of socialists and the naive.

Elizabeth Warren
Biggest Pro: name a persecuted group and she'll join it.
Biggest Con: her medicare for all with no tax may be the biggest con of all time.

Pete Buttigieg
Biggest Pro: He looks like a cardboard cutout of a model.
Biggest Con: He answers questions like one too.

Amy Klobuchar
Biggest Pro: Is able to meekly refuse support for a socialist nominee
Biggest Con: Who, now?

Andrew Yang
Biggest Pro: He knows the maths.
Biggest Con: The maths are against him.

Tom Steyer
Biggest Pro: None
Biggest Con: What's the point?

Tulsi Gabbard
Biggest Pro: Common sense on many issues.
Biggest Con: Democrats are against common sense.

Joe Biden
Biggest Pro:  This was hard but I gotta go with the Establishment is only half backing him.
Biggest Con: He physically attacks his supporters and has probably gone insane.

Project Veritas -- more Sanders campaign exposed

Project Veritas has posted yet another Bernie Sanders campaign expose.  Part 4 was just released (see lower down in the post).  I'm posting these here mainly for my own benefit, so that all of the videos are accessible in sequence.  But these are all worth the watch if you have not seen them yet.

If you have not seen these yet, over the week or so Project Veritas has released a series chilling of undercover videos about Sanders campaign staffers.  Despite it being a bad month for Bernie as far as scandals (this, and the Warren accusations, for example) he seems to be surging in polls in the early primary states.  Maybe he's got some of president Trump's Teflon coating among his supporter base.

Part 1

Part 2



Part 3



Part 4

Pelosi, evil genius?

Is Nancy Pelosi and evil genius? Many people have been speculating that the reason Nancy Pelosi has held up handing the impeachment articles to the Senate, so that the likes of Bernie Sanders cannot engage in campaigning for the Democrat primary, thereby ensuring that an Establishment favorite like Joe Biden wins the nomination. Sanders will be stuck in the Senate for weeks, waiting for the trial to end.

If not that then that they are speculating that she realizes the case for impeachment is as full of holes as Swiss cheese.

But what if....

She's just trying to keep Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts (who must preside over the trial as not a judge but rather more as a process referee) out of deliberations of Supreme Court cases, leaning early year Supreme Court decisions slightly back in favor of the liberal agenda?

Just asking - I'm not sure what's on the court's docket for February/March.

Bernie Sanders is sicker than we thought

The headline applies to his policy ideas obviously but this relates to his recent heart issues and the classic Friday news dump style of the real information being released:

Is Bernie Sanders going to have to drop out?

According to Breitbart, Bernie Sanders is facing a medical issue:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) underwent emergency heart surgery, installing two stents in an artery, and has canceled all campaign events “until further notice,” his campaign announced Wednesday morning.

Sanders’ Senior Advisor Jeff Weaver said in an emailed statement that Sanders, 78, “experienced some chest discomfort” during a campaign event on Tuesday. A medical evaluation determined that he had a blockage in an artery, and two stents were “successfully inserted.”

Weaver said Sanders conversing and “in good spirits.” However, they are canceling all of his campaign activities until further notice.

It's well within the realm of possibility that Sanders will recover fully, but the question is whether his campaign can do the same. As a real contender, he can't afford an indefinite suspension of events and media face time. It puts his campaign at risk if he misses a weak. Further, there is an immediate perception problem. Voters will wonder, fairly, "is he physically up to the job?" It's not necessarily fair because he could recover fully but the perception may not follow suit. It's a fair perception because you cannot really know, but it is not necessarily fair to Bernie at the same time.

I am no fan of socialist Bernie, but it is an unfortunate development for his campaign. I suspect this is something that drops him back down to the top of the second tier - leaving Warren, Biden as the only contenders in the first tier. Sanders could find himself between that tier with support in the 20% plus range and ahead of Buttigieg and Harris in the 5% range. This could definitely drop Sanders from a barely top tier 16% down to 10%, clearly falling out of the top tier, away from potential recovery to a true contender.

That leaves Warren and Biden in the front runner category. If the Biden scandal pans out this becomes a Trump vs. Warren 2020 general election. Sanders' fellow socialist Elizabeth Warren has an opportunity to seize the nomination by the throat at this point. She will need to go after Biden to do it. It is interesting because with the next debate she will have to decide whether to go after the potential Ukraine scandal involving Biden, or to take the "high road" among Democrats and ignore the scandal.

Bernie Sanders wants a national enemies list

A wealth registry so we all know who is rich and who we can ridicule and blame for everything.  This is truly sickening.

Sanders' quasi-response to supporter sniper.

Following up on my earlier post, here's some background on the Sanders supporter who took sniper shots at Republicans, this video points out more detail about the shooter and Bernie Sanders' milquetoast response: