W.J. Astore
Three days, three candidates, three exits. First, Tom Steyer. Next, Mayor Pete. And now Amy Klobuchar. Pete and Amy are dropping to clear a path for Joe Biden, and indeed Klobuchar has already endorsed Uncle Joe.
The Democratic establishment thinks this is a good thing — the best way to block Bernie Sanders. But is it?
In debates featuring six or more candidates, Joe Biden was able to elide or hide, to a certain extent, his dubious record, since he had so little time to speak. When he did speak, he came across as angry and sputtering, often garbling his message. Now that there’ll be fewer candidates, Biden won’t be able to hide his poor debating skills as easily. This can’t be a good thing for Joe.
Billionaire Mike Bloomberg also takes votes from Biden. Will he drop out as well? He can’t be bribed, so how will pressure be applied to get the Master of Stop & Frisk to go away?
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren recently claimed she’s in the race until the convention. That can only mean one thing: she’s in the race to block Bernie. In which case, she’ll be rewarded with — something. A VP slot under Biden?
I still think the dream ticket for the DNC is Biden/Harris. And it’s a guaranteed loser as well. But who cares about winning, right? As long as Bernie Sanders’s attempt to mobilize the people is defeated. That is “winning” for the DNC.
As my Kiwi friend just said to me via email:
Democrats now have to choose between Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg…and Elizabeth Warren. Not the most, er, diverse field ever offered to the electorate.
Fascinating times – I still am staggered at how the DNC and mainstream media just cut out Tulsi Gabbard like she was an “unperson” in the Soviet era. One minute she was there, next minute gone.
I still hope Bernie prevails, and if he does, I hope he has the guts to pick Tulsi Gabbard as his VP. Now is not the time for half-measures, Bernie.
Bracing Views 
Agree with much of your analysis, but question
your support for Harris as VP. I am a retired
physician and Vietnsm Vet, admire and respect Harris, but feel she doesn’t have the name recognition and political chops to help either
Biden or Sanders–also think either could beat
Trump with a VP like Klobuchar with her appeal to women, middle and working class
voters in Middle America, professional history as prosecutor, and ability to take on Trump
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Amy Klobuchar, along with Platitude Pete and Tom “the other billionaire” Steyer, all quit after only four rounds of voting. What weak-kneed little worms. And they folded only 48 hours before the March 3, primaries, many of which — like California — had early mail-in voting, which means that many voters, perhaps thousands of them, will see their votes completely wasted on three frauds who decided to abandon ship for Plagiarizin’ Joe, the Carpetbagger of Kiev, who at times has trouble remembering which president he served under and what year the Democrats regained control of the House so they could fund Trump’s wars, confirm his reactionary judges, and pass his legislative package — all while making utter fools of themselves by simultaneously slandering him a “Russian asset.”
Good riddance to bad rubbish. Anyone would would go into a fight behind waffling weasels like — tell me their names again? — deserves all the bullets they can catch.
Sure glad the candidate I voted for, Tulsi Gabbard, had more respect for my little vote and has stayed in the running until it gets counted. Anyway, this four month process has only just gotten underway and already only three other candidates, other than Tulsi, remain. And if the Democrats think that “Senior Moment” Joe will somehow carry them to “victory” against Bernie Sanders, let alone Donald Trump, they need to buy some Brooklyn Bridges from some Russian real estate agents.
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Trump’s egotism, narcissism, etc. are unnecessary to even cite at this point to try to explain his bizarre behavior. (I am on record declaring him, literally, mentally deranged. And no, I don’t have any degrees in Psychology!) So what the hell is Bloomberg doing in this contest?? Is he angling to become host, after this primary madness is over, of a new version of “Celebrity Apprentice”?!? Does he need a paycheck that badly? He will surely be gone from the race soon, leaving only 3 Dems standing: Bernie, ‘Uncle Joe,’ and Senator “I have a plan for that!” [To the chagrin of many of you, Tulsi Gabbard is, realistically speaking, a non-entity. Would she throw her hat in the ring for Green Party nomination? Hmmm.] Could there still be a “dark horse” entrant, riding in to “save” the Democrats from themselves? With Biden apparently moving to front of the pack–tomorrow’s Super Tuesday results will be very interesting–who would have the temerity to try to knock ol’ Joe off his pedestal?? How rude that would be!
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My sentiments exactly. I believe the Dem establishment (and MSM) are risking a proletariat backlash by being so blatant with their “stop Bernie” strategy. Bernie’s attack line should be: “their billionaire donors are calling the shots to preserve the status quo for their self-interests.” Sanders/Gabbard ticket would be lethal against “Iraq War” Joe and the illegal Obama drone killings and HRC’s wars in Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc.
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I just wish Sanders would stop insisting on the Socialist or democratic socialist label and just express his policy objectives. Socialist has been redefined many times over the last century or so but the word has been toxic since the Soviet Union, Communist China and others. Now Venezuela is the boogey man. Never mind that Venezuela is to socialism as Trump University is to higher education but still, many people are turned off by the label, no matter how much they may agree with the policies. The swastika was a revered symbol of peace, divinity, spirituality for over 10,000 years but no one in their right mind would wave a swastika flag and try to claim it represents those ideas now. (Though there are still swastikas on the tile work at a VA hospital in Florida and several places named swastika, all which preceded WW2 German of course.) If Sanders gets the nomination, he will have to spend all his time and energy just fighting the label. And he’ll lose to that clown.
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If Bernie succeeded in becoming Mayor of Burlington, Vermont–and trust me, Vermont on the whole is no hotbed of leftist radicalism!!–by calling himself a “democratic socialist,” I think it is a mark of that now terribly old-fashioned notion for politicians called personal integrity that he hasn’t deep-sixed the “label.” However one may define “democratic socialism,” the content would surely exhibit more democratic ideals than what our present society evidences. It looks like we need a new Civil Rights Movement to empower citizens to regain a right to vote that’s being stripped from them by the GOP at any opportunity.
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My favorite Australian lady journalist (and artist/poet) truly nails the excruciating spectacle of “Senior Moment” Joe Biden mentally deteriorating before the world’s eyes even as he tries to pronounce “Russian” while attempting to focus on just whom he should attempt to slander with that wholly manufactured and thoroughly debunked epithet. See: Dems Converge Around Dementia-Addled Warmonger Ahead Of Super Tuesday, by Caitlin Johnstone, caitlinjohnstone.com (March 3, 2020)
I thought we had inept and bungling military and civilian “leadership” back in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, but I wouldn’t follow this decrepit fool into the shallow end of a rain puddle after a five-minute sprinkle. Amy, Pete, and Tom, unsurprisingly, have enthusiastically dove in head first. “Desperation,” you now have a visibly decaying personage to “rally around.”
And all this after only four rounds of voting with three more months to go. Talk about surrender monkeys.
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My first question, after Klobuchar and Buttigieg withdrew, was what deal had the DNC made with each of them?
I could see RoboPete being offered a Cabinet position in a Biden administration – would give him national/international exposure that would serve him for all his future runs at the Presidency. His political identity is a carefully created narrative to become President, and a SecDef or SecState would serve that narrative.
KlobuCop is more interesting at least in the short run. I can see her being told she’ll get a serious look as a VP candidate and/or a free run with DNC support in 2024 or 2028.
In the end, it won’t matter if the DNC succeeds today’s Super Tuesday in torpedoing Bernie; means a dementia-addled Biden and whatever person is chosen as his VP candidate will lose to Trump / Hailey (if Paul Begala’s prediction comes true).
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Trump/Haley would be formidable. Will be interesting to see if Trump does this.
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Interesting speculations. Sure, it’s easy to see backroom deals having already been made with Pete and Amy. I still don’t picture Haley replacing Pence UNLESS Pence has expressed a desire to not return as VP so he can pursue something else. Building the most mega- mega-church in history, perhaps?
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First off: Thank you, Russia, for “helping” our US astronauts get up to the International Space Station and safely back down to earth again. And thank you also for granting asylum to Edward Snowden, one of the few Americans who value informing the public of totalitarian government infringements on our personal liberties. If those two acts alone constitute “interference” and “sowing discord and chaos” in the US (since gullible and obedient Americans would never argue among themselves over anything unless tricked into doing so by “outside agitators”) then let us by all means have more of the same. We could use all the help we can get. We apparently have no ability to think for ourselves or take responsibility for the consequences of our own actions.
That out of the way, two paragraphs from a recent article by Michael Tracey at The Spectator (USA):
“I personally would never have voted for Pete. Nor would I have voted for Amy Klobuchar, who pulled the same 11th-hour dropout stunt today. But part of me still finds it disgraceful that these candidates would gut-punch their staff, volunteers, supporters, and voters in such a manner — hours before a major national election they’d been working toward for a full year — after both candidates gave every indication that they were going to actively contest. Instead of patting themselves on the back, shouldn’t Amy and Pete be begging for forgiveness, especially from those who already voted for them in Super Tuesday states — as it turns out, on false pretenses? (This highlights a problem with so-called ‘early voting’, a now widespread practice which sounds nice in theory but may be a very bad idea in the context of volatile, sequential primary races.)”
“Pundits today have been applauding the selfless courage of Pete and Amy, but what exactly about their actions is reflective of courage? They nuked their campaigns, in which many thousands of people were invested, on the basis of some vague strategic calculation about ‘uniting moderates’, whatever that means exactly. And they have to run around pretending that they are so very thrilled to be endorsing…Joe Biden? Does anyone in their right minds actually believe this shit? The performance put on today was so transparently phony and craven, it’s almost hard to process. There’s nothing heroic about what these two did; it just confirms that their campaigns were thoroughly devoid of principle all along. (Although that should have never been in doubt with regard to Amy and Pete.)”
Sure glad that Tulsi Gabbard has continued on, with vastly fewer resources but enormously greater resourcefulness and dedication. She makes me feel proud of her. For the other easily melted snowflakes I have nothing but disdain.
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Agreed, Mike. Cast my vote today for Bernie. Hoping that Tulsi stays in the race — her voice needs to be heard.
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THANKS for that vote, from ‘the rest of the world’. As for Tulsi and with all due respect for her spine and courage, would her voice in fact not be heard much louder if she stepped down and officially endorsed Bernie?
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Actually, Pamela, I think that you have put the proposition precisely backwards. Bernie Sanders, not Tulsi Gabbard, swallowed the entire steaming pile of Russiagate bullshit four years ago and now he cannot — or, rather, won’t — extricate himself from his own quandary. As matters stand, Tulsi Gabbard has nothing to endorse. Doing so would repudiate her own, exceedingly more accurate and principled critique of America’s insane foreign policy. This would extinguish her voice, not amplify it. As Peter Van Buren wrote just the other day, “The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!”, WeMeantWell.com (March 3, 2020):
“Kind of a miss on Bernie. He did very well in Nevada despite the leaks. But the Great Game of Russiagate II has a long way to go. Bernie himself assured us of that. Instead of poo-pooing the idea the Russians would be working for him, he instead gave it cred, saying “Some of the ugly stuff on the internet attributed to our campaign may well not be coming from real supporters.” Sanders handed Russiagate II legs, signaling he’ll use it as cover for the Bernie Bros online shenanigans called out at the last debates. That’s playing with fire; it’ll be too easy later on to invoke all this around Comrade Bernie memes in the already wary purple states. [emphasis added]
Or, as Michael Tracey put it:
“Bernie was accused on a national debate stage by Mike Bloomberg of being supported by Russia. And he didn’t refute the charge correctly. If you participated in fomenting the Russia hysteria that has engulfed our political system for 4 years, you share some of the blame here.” [emphasis added]
Or, as Margaret Kimberley wrote in her essay, “Bernie Sanders’ Foreign Policy Trap”, Information Clearing House (February 28, 2020):
“The belief that peace must be sacrificed for domestic issues on the altar of lesser evilism is a canard.”
…
Russiagate, the invention of the Democratic Party and the surveillance state, will never be allowed to die. The ongoing fraud is quite useful to the people who invented it [emphasis added].
…
“This won’t be the last effort to fool the public with tales of Russian skullduggery. But it should be the last time that Bernie Sanders isn’t called to account for repeating the same tropes that are used against him.” [emphasis added].
…
Sanders already made clear his support for imperialist policy. During the 2016 campaign he referred to the late Hugo Chavez disparagingly as “a dead communist dictator.” He has followed up with attacks on Kim Jong Un, Nicolas Maduro, and Xi Jin Ping. The effort to burnish his establishment credentials is an indication that left supporters must be wary and should expect him to follow through on continuing imperialist policy unless they speak up forcefully.
Sanders is certainly the most progressive Democratic party candidate on domestic issues but he has shown no such inclinations regarding foreign policy. It is time for leftists to stop giving him a pass and make demands on him and all other candidates for office. Foreign policy should not be treated as icing on the cake that can be ignored in exchange for medicare for all or student loan debt forgiveness“.
I could go on citing chapter and verse as to why Bernie Sanders needs to endorse Tulsi Gabbard’s critique of the asinine and infantile “Russiagate” in all its lunatic manifestations. Until he does, Tulsi has no reason to “step down” and lose the self-respect and credibility that Bernie squandered four years ago in 2016.
(And, one more thing: Shaking his fist at Russian President Vladimir Putin seems awfully childish. Bernie really ought to knock off that sort of playground taunting. Absolutely “un-presidential”)
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I read part of an article (warning could not read too much of it as my stomach was becoming upset) it was the usual “elect ability” crap and and how “The Centrists” may stay at home rather than vote for Bernie.
I go to another Blog, that is inhabited by Democratic Partisans, they jumped on Mayor Pete Wine Cellar as a great communicator and blah, blah, and he is triangulated too. Oh boy a gay president. As much as these Democratic Partisans slam the Citizens United decision they see nothing wrong with Mayor Wine Cellar, or Corporate Joe Biden loading up their campaign coffers with money from the 1%.
These so-called Democratic Centrists are simply Jerry Ford Era Republicans, before the Bible Thumper’s ejected them as too Liberal from the Reactionary Right Wing Republican Party.
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CNN website is painting this as a big day for Uncle Joe Biden. DNC must be pleased as punch that they (apparently) have succeeded in sending their constituents stampeding toward the “center,” away from Crazy Commie Bernie!! But it ain’t over ’til it’s over, and most of Biden’s wins look to be in very conservative states anyway, e.g. Texas and its neighbor, Oklahoma.
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