Bernie Would Have Won-- And Will In 2020

We know, we know... but now even Trump's main campaign pollster, Tony Fabrizio, is saying that Bernie would have beaten Trump. Imagine if Obama had never appointed Wasserman Schultz DNC chair, his second worst appointment-- or maybe tied for first-- after making Rahm his chief-of-staff...

Anyway, did you see that polling data about all the U.S. senators yesterday? Vey interesting stuff. The pollsters questioned 255,120 registered voters in every state about their state's senators. I was shocked to see how many people have never heard of their U.S. Senator. Imbeciles in the media may be gaga over Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate but 28% of voters in California, where she was Attorney General until 10 month ago when she began her Senate career, either don't know who she is or have no opinion of her. Even worse is a little known and unaccomplished neoliberal from Michigan, Gary Peters (35% don't know who he is though he was first elected to the Senate in 2014). 90% of Arizonans know who McCain is and 89% of voters in Massachusetts know who Elizabeth Warren is. But 92% of Maine's know who Susan Collins is. Pretty good, right. Only one senator is better know by their own constituents: Bernie-- 94%. He's the best know; he also has the highest approval rating: 71%.

And in a PPP Trump/Bernie 2020 matchup, Bernie just stomps Trump in a way most of America would like to see Trump stomped-- 53-38%. Yes, it's a long time before the election but every single indicator points to the fact that Bernie will be more popular in 2020 and Trump will be even less popular-- and more loathed-- than he is now.

And speaking of Señor Trumpanzee, the Washington Post rounded up the A-team to report on the Trumpazoid reaction to the first Putin-Gate indictments-- Robert Costa, Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker. "Trump," they wrote, "woke before dawn on Monday and burrowed in at the White House residence to wait for the Russia bombshell he knew was coming... Trump clicked on the television and spent the morning playing fuming media critic, legal analyst and crisis communications strategist, according to several people close to him." Who leaks this kind of stuff to Post reporters? It must driven Señor out of his skull. They described Trump as filled with "exasperation and disgust," repeatedly calling his own attorneys.

[W]ith rising irritation, he watched live footage of his onetime campaign adviser and confidant, Paul Manafort, turning himself in to the FBI.

Initially, Trump felt vindicated. Though frustrated that the media were linking him to the indictment and tarnishing his presidency, he cheered that the ­charges against Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, were focused primarily on activities that began before his campaign. Trump tweeted at 10:28 a.m., “there is NO COLLUSION!”

But the president’s celebration was short-lived. A few minutes later, court documents were unsealed showing that George Papadopoulos, an unpaid foreign policy adviser on Trump’s campaign, pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI about his efforts to broker a relationship between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The case provides the clearest evidence yet of links between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials.

For a president who revels in chaos-- and in orchestrating it himself-- Monday brought a political storm that Trump could not control. White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, along with lawyers Ty Cobb, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, advised Trump to be cautious with his public responses, but they were a private sounding board for his grievances, advisers said.

...Trump’s anger Monday was visible to those who interacted with him, and the mood in the corridors of the White House was one of weariness and fear of the unknown. As the president groused upstairs, many staffers-- some of whom have hired lawyers to help them navigate Mueller’s investigation-- privately speculated about where the special counsel might turn next.

“The walls are closing in,” said one senior Republican in close contact with top staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. “Everyone is freaking out.”

Trump is also increasingly agitated by the expansion of Mueller’s probe into financial issues beyond the 2016 campaign and about the potential damage to him and his family.

This portrait of Trump and his White House on a day of crisis is based on interviews with 20 senior administration officials, Trump friends and key outside allies, many of whom insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters.

Trump and his aides were frustrated that, yet again, Russia steamrolled the start of a carefully planned week of policy news. Trump is preparing to nominate a new chairman of the Federal Reserve and is scheduled to depart Friday for a high-stakes, 12-day trip across Asia, and House Republicans are planning to unveil their tax overhaul bill.

...Trump staffers fretted privately over whether Manafort or Gates might share with Mueller’s team damaging information about other colleagues. They expressed concern in particular about Gates because he has a young family, may be more stretched financially than Manafort, and continued to be involved in Trump’s political operation and had access to the White House, including attending West Wing meetings after Trump was sworn in.

Some White House advisers are unhappy with Thomas J. Barrack Jr., Trump’s longtime friend and chairman of his inauguration, whom they hold responsible for keeping Gates in the Trump orbit long after Manafort resigned as campaign chairman in August 2016, according to people familiar with the situation. Barrack has been Gates’s patron of late, steering political work to him and, until Monday, employing him as director of the Washington office of his real estate investment company.

...On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, some of Trump’s allies are privately revving up their own version of a counterattack against Mueller. Several top Republican legislators plan to raise questions in the coming days about the FBI’s handling of a “dossier” detailing alleged ties between Trump and Russian interests. They intend to argue that Mueller’s team has become overly reliant on a document that was funded in part by Democrats, according to two people involved in the discussions. Mueller does not appear to have relied on the dossier for the cases revealed on Monday, however.

For Trump and his team, the bad news began as disconcerting drips last Friday, when CNN first reported that indictments were probably coming Monday. The only question: of whom?

...[A]ides were simply happy that the initial batch of indictments did not include Michael Flynn, Trump’s former and controversial national security adviser, who was fired from his top White House perch after misleading Vice President Pence about his contacts with Russian officials. Flynn had been intimately involved in both the campaign and the early days of the administration, and a Flynn indictment, most staff believed, would have been far more damaging.

So think again about Bernie only beating Trump by 15 points. While Trump continues to sink into a morass of his own making, Bernie is just becoming more and more beloved of everyone in the country (other than some mentally deformed Clinton dead-enders who are as crazy as anyone on the other side of the aisle sitting and watching Fox News all day).