Popcorn! Popcorn! Butter or Kettle?

One thing unites establishment Democrats: Fear of Sanders

STEVE PEOPLES and ALAN FRAM
Associated PressFebruary 17, 2020, 12:40 AM EST

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A growing number of Democratic lawmakers, union officials, state leaders and party strategists agree that Bernie Sanders is a risky nominee to put up against President Donald Trump. There's less agreement about whether - and how - to stop him.

Critics of the Vermont senator, who has long identified as a democratic socialist, are further than they've ever been from unifying behind a moderate alternative. None of the viable centrists in the race is eager to exit the campaign to clear a path for a candidate to become a clear counter to Sanders. And Sanders is looking to Saturday's Nevada caucuses to post another win that would further his status as an early front-runner.

With fear and frustration rising in the party's establishment wing, a high-stakes math problem is emerging. It could be impossible to blunt Sanders as long as a trio of moderate candidates - former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar - stay in the race. And with former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the swath of states that vote on Super Tuesday, March 3, the effort to stop Sanders will become even more challenging when the campaign goes national next month.

"You see this tremendous angst in the party - 'What are we going to do?'" said Terry McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor who was also chairman of the Democratic National Committee. "We need to unify as fast as we can."

The dynamic is complicated because each of the major moderate candidates has glaring vulnerabilities.

Biden began the campaign as a front-runner, but the aura around his operation took a hit after a fourth-place finish in Iowa gave way to a fifth-place finish in New Hampshire. Buttigieg has proved to be the most effective centrist in raising money from the party's traditional high-dollar donors, which puts him in a strong position to compete in an expensive national contest. But the 38-year-old faces linger questions about his experience and his ability to win support from black and Latino voters, a challenge that could come into greater focus if Buttigieg loses badly in Nevada and South Carolina.

Kloubchar is newly emboldened after a third-place finish in New Hampshire, but she too has little support among minority voters and has largely run a bare-bones campaign operation.

"When you have three or four candidates in that same lane, math becomes a problem," said Harold Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Firefighters and a Biden loyalist, who admits being "disappointed" by Biden's bad performances and Sanders' rise.

Though the opening contests of the primary have only begun, time may quickly run out for a moderate alternative to emerge.

By the end of Super Tuesday, more than one third of all delegates will be awarded. Should Sanders build a significant delegate lead - and his strength in California alone makes that possible - it would be very difficult for any other candidate to catch him in the slew of state-by-state elections that follow based on the way delegates are apportioned.

"We have a lot of good candidates, but in general we're incredibly frustrated that the field hasn't winnowed," said Robert Wolf, a major fundraiser for Barack Obama, who said he has donated money this cycle to more than a dozen Democrats. Sanders is not one of them.

The situation is similar to the Republican primary in 2016, when several anti-Trump alternatives divided their party's moderate vote and allowed Trump to become the nominee despite failing to win a majority of the vote in early primary contests.

There is no significant movement in the works to stop Sanders. And so long as there are a half-dozen viable candidates in the race, it may not matter if there were.

Sanders' team expects his Democratic critics and their allies to intensify their attacks in the coming weeks, although they suggest time may be on their side with Super Tuesday just two weeks away. If Sanders comes out of Super Tuesday with a 100-delegate lead, which is possible based on his popularity in California alone, they believe it would be virtually impossible for anyone to catch up before the party's national convention in July.

Sanders was showing new signs of confidence as he campaigned over the weekend in Nevada ahead of the state's caucuses next Saturday. Rallying supporters in Carson City on Sunday, he declared he could win Nevada, then California and the Democratic nomination and highlighted attempts from his rivals in both parties to stop him.

"I've been attacked by the media establishment, I've been attacked by the corporate establishment, I've been attacked by the Republican establishment, I've been attacked by the Democratic establishment, and they're nervous," Sanders said.

Sanders told The Associated Press last week that he was ramping up his outreach to other lawmakers and party officials who have been skeptical of his White House bid, although he offered no details. The senator has also agreed to host at least two fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee, which he had previously resisted.

Asked about the response he was getting to the establishment outreach, Sanders said: "I think we're going to do just fine."

Yet as Sanders' strength grows in the early voting states, there is no evidence that his standing is improving among the party's skeptical political class. Several elected officials in recent days have raised concerns about his ability to beat Trump and his impact on other Democrats running for election this fall.

The competition for endorsements helps tell the story of the moderate muddle.

Since Biden's underwhelming finish in Iowa, Sanders hasn't received a single congressional endorsement. Buttigieg and Klobuchar, who have shown some strength on the campaign trail, have earned just one congressional endorsement each.

Over that same time, at least seven congressional endorsements have gone to Bloomberg, a 78-year-old former Republican who is threatening to become a top-tier candidate even after skipping all four February primary contests.

Steve Shurtleff, a Biden backer and the speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, believes Buttigieg and Klobuchar are the new leaders in the party's moderate wing, while Bloomberg is making a case.

As for Sanders, Shurtleff noted that most New Hampshire voters supported somebody else. Indeed, Sanders won last week's primary with just 26% of the vote, a low bar made possible because his moderate alternatives split up the rest of the electorate.

"It's very crowded in that lane," Shurtleff said. "It's really kind of a conundrum."

Just don't ask any of Sanders' rivals to step aside.

An energized Klobuchar said in an interview that her third-place finish in New Hampshire left her "as scrappy as I was when I started."

She shrugged off any concerns about moderates dividing the vote. And she highlighted her strengths in Nevada, where she and Biden earned the endorsement of the state's largest newspaper and may benefit from the success of female candidates. Both of the state's U.S. senators are women and the state legislature is majority female.

"I don't think it's as simple as two lanes," she said in an interview. "Everyone brings something else to this."

___

Fram reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Nicholas Riccardi in Carson City, Nevada, contributed to this report.

-------------------------
Dora Hates You

Sure, because Bernie would take on the elites who own both parties. Ask yourself why the party would outright attack its front runner?

-------------------------
Capitalism is based on the ridiculous notion that you can enjoy limitless growth in a closed, finite system.

In biology, such behavior of cells is called "cancer".

I guess I'm not establishment.

-------------------------

"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Funny thing is, it doesn't matter who eventually get the Dem nod, they will certainly be denounced as a socialist/communist by trump and his allies who have never read a book let alone Marx.

-------------------------
Capitalism is based on the ridiculous notion that you can enjoy limitless growth in a closed, finite system.

In biology, such behavior of cells is called "cancer".

That's the funny part. They've called everyone a Socialist for years and every program to help consumers with credit cards, every effort to raise minimum wage, every attempt to stop Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Big Oil, Big Insurance and every corporate mulitinational has been called socialism. Now its here. A democratic socialist. They are so used to having their way, buying their results and prosecuting their lawsuits that they thought it was permanent.

-------------------------

"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Cultural Hegemony

-------------------------
Capitalism is based on the ridiculous notion that you can enjoy limitless growth in a closed, finite system.

In biology, such behavior of cells is called "cancer".

Im not a democrat, establishment or otherwise.
To me, and most of america, (other than the dopes supporting this fat orange traitor), there is only one task at hand: get rid of this magat nightmare. Period.
We grow weary of this silly pie/sky nonsense about bernie, medicare for all. And silly rusty's foolish nihilist bullshit about some soon to never be lenin/marx fantasy.
A vote for sanders is a vote for herr chumpf. Period.
This is just as stupid as the green, libertarian kaka that helped elect chumpf. And bush before him.
Wise up folks. Fat mcdonald must go. No matter what.
Or nothing else will matter.....

-------------------------
It's a democratic hoax

Fear of Bernie??!?!?!?!?!? We love and respect him for his dedication to the masses. It's repugs that deal in fear. Look out for dark people taking your minimum wage schitt job. If that doesn't work, they fly drones into buildings and accuse Saudi's (then start a war against people other than Saudis.) It got so that the rubes got numb so they send in the clown.

Most non affiliated and never chumpfers are non remotely interested in Medicare for all or silly tax increases. They won't pass either house of congress. Period.
Undoing herr spraytans deficit killing fat cat tax giveaway should happen immediately though.
The whole bernie silliness is just killing down ballot candidates for congress and Senate in potential swing districts folks.
Without taking over the Senate, and blowing the control of house.
And handing comrade orang another term, courtesy of bernieisms:
bad things a comin'
Please wise up folks....

-------------------------
It's a democratic hoax

Edited: 02/17/2020 at 02:29 PM by nukeh2o

must have a bernie poster on your mantel, you defend this white, rich fucked up old dude to the death. hope youre not crushed when he loses

How does Trump's dick taste? lol



-------------------------
I was right.

LOL we're not the ones with the flags and hats and shit. It's not about Bernie, you can ask him. "Not me, us" is his slogan.

We may have to finish off the Dem party first and then pass the baton to AOC. Or Illian. Or Rashida.

-------------------------
Capitalism is based on the ridiculous notion that you can enjoy limitless growth in a closed, finite system.

In biology, such behavior of cells is called "cancer".

No buddy - that's you who defends the white, rich fucked up old dude. You're just too fucking stupid to see otherwise...


-------------------------
QOP = Terrorists
FK = Gay

You probably should direct that question to Mayor Butt.

-------------------------
I :heart; Q

Just a reminder:

How much did those JOBS cost?

Comparing jobs vs. annual budget deficit

Reagan: 15M jobs
$79B to $159B

Bush: 2M jobs
$153B to $255B

Clinton: 23M jobs
$255B to $128B surplus

Bush 1.5M jobs
$128B surplus to $1T debt

Obama 12M jobs
1.16T to $585B

Trump 5M jobs
$585B to $1.1T

-------------------------
QOP = Terrorists
FK = Gay

The GOP blue bloods hated twitler but they voted for him. Much ado about nuthin with Bernie.

The Democrat party has officially split in two. If Bernie gets the nomination, I don't think enough of the centrist Democrats around the country are going to vote for a socialist.

If Bernie gets screwed out of the nomination by billionaire Bloomberg, as he buys his way into the race and was a Republican a few years ago, I don't think that enough of Bernie's supporters are going to go along for the ride and vote for Bloomberg.

The divide is too wide. The Democrat party has no clear agenda. They are just a group of people who want to beat Trump by any means necessary.

-------------------------
"The government who robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul," - George Bernard Shaw

“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f—k things up.” - Barack Obama

“End of quote. Repeat the line.” - wise words from Joe Biden