Hawaii's Democratic Politics Is Very Confusing

I'm thinking that there aren't that many Democrats in Hawaii who haven't already made up their minds about who they're going to vote for in the caucuses today-- or even if they're going to go to a caucus at all. Democrats are pretty split between the two candidates and there are 34 delegates at stake. I had to laugh, though, when I looked at who had endorsed Bernie and who had endorsed the conservative establishment candidate opposing him on behalf of the status quo. Hawaii's two progressive U.S. Senators, Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz have both endorsed Hillary, who is pretty far to the right of them policy-wise. (Former Senator Dan Akaka, another liberal, has also endorsed Hillary, despite the fact that in 2002, when they were both serving in the Senate, Akaka--and even Inouye-- had voted against authorizing the unjustifiable Iraq War (as did Bernie in the House of course) while Hillary voted with the GOP and the conservative Dems in favor of authorizing it. And of Hawaii's 2 current House members, Mark Takai, some kind of a quasi-liberal, is with Hillary and Tulsi Gabbard, basically a conservative Democrat on most policies, is with Bernie. I don't know who Ed Case is backing-- who would brag about that?-- but the other right-wing Hawaii ex-congressmember, Colleen Hanabusa, has also endorsed Hillary. State Senator Russell Ruderman and state Rep. Kaniela Ing have been campaigning for Bernie.

Bernie is backed by the very powerful-- and very left-leaning-- International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union, whose president, Robert McEllrath, said this week that Bernie is "best on the issues that matter most to American workers." Which should be pretty clear to anyone paying attention. I hope enough Hawaiians are. Perhaps a message about Bernie from as far away from Hawaii-- at least geographically-- as you can get will resonate. The Boston Globe reported yesterday that Elizabeth Warren isn't one of the Democrats being swayed by the drumbeat from the Clinton Machine and it's captive media puppets that Bernie should get out of the race. She's been focussing on the dangers of Trump lately and had a few words about why she's happy Bernie is still running against the establishment.

The Massachusetts Democrat described the Republican presidential front-runner as a failed businessman who inherited a fortune from his father and then maintained it "by cheating people, by defrauding people, and by skipping out on paying his creditors through Chapter 11" bankruptcy protection.

"Donald Trump claims that the reason he’s qualified to be president of the United States is that he is a very, very, very successful businessman." Warren told reporters after touring a community health care center. "Donald Trump is not a great business success and it’s time he’s called on it."

Warren also said she’s troubled by the authoritarian image she said Trump is cultivating, noting that he retweeted a quote from Benito Mussolini, the 20th century fascist dictator of Italy.

Trump last month said he knew who said the quote, which read: "It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep." He said it didn’t make a difference whether Mussolini or someone else said it because it’s an interesting quote.

"He’s the one who quotes Mussolini," Warren said. "That is really scary and the American people should pay very close attention."

Warren has yet to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary. On Thursday, when asked if Bernie Sanders should drop out of the race, Warren praised the Democratic senator from Vermont.

Sanders has echoed Warren’s criticism of Wall Street and rising student load debt more than any other candidate.

"He’s out there. He fights from the heart. This is who Bernie is," Warren said. "He has put the right issues on the table both for the Democratic Party and for the country in general so I’m still cheering Bernie on."

Warren declined to say which candidate she voted for in the Massachusetts primary. She said she plans to make an endorsement, but not yet.

Not yet. That leaves the Warren-wing in Hawaii, as well as in Washington state and Alaska, to make up their own minds today. But, of course, people in the Warren-wing tend to make up their own minds about everything anyway. Otherwise, they wouldn't be part of the Warren-wing.

Independent voters are excluded from the caucuses in Hawaii today, which is good news for Hillary since independents overwhelmingly favor Bernie. The bad news for Hillary is that they'll decide who wins in November. This national polling of likely Democratic primary voters came out, from Reuters, a couple of days ago. The momentum against the tap-dancing, grotesquely deceitful establishment candidate is pretty obvious... and pretty palpable, although not if you get your news by watching MSNBC:

UPDATE: Big Wins For Bernie

AP called Washington and Alaska for Bernie quickly. With 47% of precincts counted, 74.3% of Washington voters opted for Bernie and just 25.5% for the establishment protector of the status quo. It looks like Bernie may well have won every single state. With 73% of precincts counted in Alaska, Bernie took 79.2% and Hillary took 20.8%. We'll update again when we start getting results from Hawaii where caucusing has just started. The Hillary-bot squad at MSNBC did everything they could to downplay the importance of the results, of course.

Update #2: All the precincts are now in in Alaska and Bernie clobbered Hillary 80.7% to 19.3%. So far he's taken 13 delegates to her 3. Washington is 83% counted and Bernie is leading Hillary 72.1% to 27.7. The only county where she hit 40% was in tiny Garfield County in the southeast corner of the state, but most counties gave her less than a third of the votes.

All precincts have been counted in all three states and it was a perturbed day for the unelectable, establishment candidate, who was badly swamped in all three states: