The Attacks Against Bernie And His Ideas Have Begun-- Not That They Ever Ended

I would be very happy seeing a President Elizabeth Warren or a President Jeff Merkley. I've spoken with both from early in their national political careers and I have no doubt whatsoever either would be an extraordinary president. Blue America has raised money for both of their Senate campaigns and if either is the Democratic nominee for president, the campaign would be Blue America's top priority for 2020. If Bernie doesn't run, I would happily support either in the primary.

For their NY Times piece yesterday, For Bernie Sanders, Holding Onto Support May Be Hard In A 2020 Bid, Jonathan Martin and Sydney Ember spoke to a gaggle of Democratic Party political operatives who were paid to work for Bernie in 2016. They don't like to think of themselves this way, but most of the names I read in the piece are hired guns who work for the highest bidder-- within certain constraints. I doubt any of them would work for Trump. I don't doubt most of them would work for almost any non-Blue Dog who was paying them well-- and some might work for a Blue Dog. I doubt either Martin or Ember knows that or understands it-- and that idea is alien to the mildly anti-Bernie narrative they were busy developing anyway. "Some of his top congressional supporters won’t commit to backing him if he runs for president again-- and two may join the 2020 race themselves." Fair enough... but Bernie hasn't hasn't decided if he will run or not. Perhaps they should ask the two-- Jeff Merkley and Tulsi Gabbard-- whether or not they would run if Bernie does. When the two reporters write that "a handful of former aides might work for other candidates," they should wonder if any of these staffers have been offered jobs in Bernie's nascent 2020 campaign. I haven't heard of anyone turning those jobs down, although I have heard some bitterness from the second raters who haven't been asked back. And, as for Bernie’s "initial standing in Iowa polls is well below the 49.6 percent he captured in nearly defeating Hillary Clinton there in 2016," there aren't just two or three candidates; there are twenty. Eventually there will probably be two-- a corporate status quo type like Biden, Hickenlooper, McAuliffe, Castro, Bloomberg or Klobuchar and a progressive, either Bernie or another actual progressive like Merkley or Warren or someone trying to pass himself or herself off as one, say a Gillibrand or Booker. There are also a load of candidates who haven't decided what they are yet, like Beto, Sherrod Brown, Kamala Harris...

They generously acknowledge that Bernie was "the runner-up in the last Democratic primary," but then pull some really insane crap out of their asses: "instead of expanding his nucleus of support, in the fashion of most repeat candidates, the Vermont senator is struggling to retain even what he garnered two years ago." He's not struggling and, more importantly, he been building a far more diverse following, especially among minorities who largely backed Clinton in 2016 and have come around towards Bernie in a very big way since-- although you might not know that by following main stream media (MSM) reports like these two.

“It’s not a given that I’m going to support Bernie just because I did before,” said Lucy Flores, a former Nevada assemblywoman who previously endorsed Mr. Sanders. “There are going to be plenty of people to look at and to listen to. I’m currently open at this point, and I think the majority of people are.”

OK, if she decides not to-- a big "if"-- that's one less vote Bernie will get. One. "There would also be candidates," they write, "who are newer to the national political scene than Mr. Sanders, offering fresh energy-- something many in the party prefer-- as well as those who echo his message about economic justice and the corrosive effects of money in politics." Perhaps... or not. It's a little early to say and different polls say different things-- like Bernie is the most popular political figure in the country for example. Dishonest MSM journalists can pick the poll that fits their narrative.

“Ironically, Bernie’s agenda for working families will be the Democratic Party’s message in 2020, but he may not be the one leading the parade,” said Bill Press, a progressive talk show host who was an early backer of Mr. Sanders in 2016.

Mr. Press said he thinks a candidate like Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio could carry the same populist message. “What I hear from a lot of friends is that a younger Bernie is what we need,” he said.

Sherrod Brown? The same guy who announced a few weeks ago, when he was scared he might lose his reelection bid-- that he doesn't believe in breaking up the too-big-to-fail banks any longer (because "no one" cares about that any longer.) That Sherrod Brown. Yeah, I remember him; he does really disgusting and stupid things during elections. The first Senate race featured him backing Bush's torture bill-- the only House progressive to do so-- and then apologizing after he won and promising to never do anything like that again. What a shit-bag candidate for president he'd make

Wait! Wait!. The 2 MSM guys have another concession before they continue undermining Bernie: "There is no doubt that Mr. Sanders, 77, would be one of the most formidable contenders if he does run. No other potential candidate would start with the foundation of a 50-state organization, a small-dollar fund-raising list that delivered $230 million and undying devotion from a core group of backers. His advisers note that these advantages could prove crucial in a splintered field when only a plurality may be needed to prevail at the end of a long race."

But... but... but... what about conservative Democrats and corporate Democrats? That isn't what Bernie is looking for. He's looking for Democrats, independents and Republicans who are sick and tired of being lied to and fleeced by the establishment-- political, financial and media.

Mark Longabaugh, one of Mr. Sanders’s top strategists, said he had no expectation of winning over the more cautious factions of the Democratic Party.

“Insurgent candidates never come back and become the establishment favorite,” said Mr. Longabaugh, noting that Gary Hart, after shocking the political world with his success in 1984, nevertheless had plenty of company when he ran again in 1988.

And some of Mr. Sanders’s most dedicated devotees are already moving to resurrect his organization.

“We have an opportunity to start organizing, and missing out on this moment is not an option,” Spencer Carnes, a leader of the volunteer “Organizing for Bernie” group, wrote in an email promoting the group’s first volunteer organizing call last week.

Melissa Byrne, who did digital and get-out-the-vote work for Mr. Sanders in 2016, said she’s eager to work for him again and noted, “We’re all more experienced and battle-tested.”

...The senator’s views on issues like universal health care and his willingness to shun corporate contributions have increasingly become not only part of the Democratic mainstream but also litmus tests within the party.

...Mr. Sanders does still enjoy some bedrock support in states like Iowa and New Hampshire. Unlike some of his lesser-known rivals, his unwavering base of progressives will guarantee him a floor of support should he enter the race.

But the first surveys of Iowa caucus-goers indicate he has lost some of his less-ardent backers. He is polling in the teens there even though he has universal name recognition and won nearly half the state’s vote in the Democratic caucuses in 2016. And while he is in second place at the moment, he is closer to Mr. O’Rourke, who was virtually unknown outside Texas until this year, than he is to the early front-runner, former Vice-President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Of course, Mr. Biden may not run, leaving even more votes up for grabs. But other likely candidates will work just as aggressively to step into that vacuum. And this surfeit of contenders may keep some institutional pillars of the left on the sidelines.

Then there's the chance that voters who don't know anything about Biden other than that he was Obama's VP will start learning about his repulsive corporatist record for even more years than Bernie's progressive record. After all, Biden's first Brush with political fame was as a poster-boy for segregation, an ardent fighter against racial integration. I bet most of the Democratic base doesn't know that. And how many people have seen the videos of him going after Anita Hill. And how many have looked at his record as the most banister-friendly Democrat in the party? Biden is more than the friendly gaffe-machine from the Obama administration-- much more. And, yes, "organized labor, for example, is unlikely to rally around Mr. Sanders should another populist like Mr. Brown enter the race, according to multiple union officials." Did they last time? Or did most of organized labor rally around the status quo candidate? The establishment is the establishment is the establishment. And those who benefit from the status quo will do all they can to deny agents of real change, like Bernie.

Speaking of whom... did you get this note from him today? "Whenever I am asked about running for president in 2020," he wrote, "I answer that if I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run. That is the truth." That's what those close to him tell me and it's what he tells them as well-- the real Bernie supporters and staffers that our two MSM hacks didn't bother interviewing. But, he wrote...

If that happens, the political, financial and media elite of this country will stop at nothing to defeat us. You know that. We’ve lived through it together once before. Our ideas terrify them. So what they will do is try to divide us up with attacks-- some old, some new-- and our political opponents will spend obscene sums of money on ads to defeat us.

I just did not expect the attack ads to begin before I even made a decision. But they have…

Right now, a group of Wall Street Democrats known as the Third Way is running ads in early primary states-- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada-- calling me out by name and saying our ideas, like Medicare for all, are a path to defeat in 2020.

They not only want to discourage or defeat a Sanders candidacy, they want to make sure that the progressive agenda is not advanced by anyone. They want us to go back to their failed corporate approach which has led to a massive level of income and wealth inequality, a bloated military budget and a failure to address the crises of climate change, a broken criminal justice system and inhumane immigration policies.

...Our agenda terrifies the political and financial establishment of this country.

But the truth is, their agenda should terrify all of us.

Our ideas will lift people out of poverty, they will guarantee health care as a right for every man, woman and child, and they will make certain that every person in this country with the ability and the desire can get the education they need, regardless of the income of their family.

Ours is not a radical agenda. It's the agenda the American people want.

Their agenda, paid for by wealthy campaign contributors, has led to record levels of inequality, a health care system that costs more per capita than any other developed nation while leaving millions uninsured and underinsured, and grotesque amounts of student debt that rob many of our young people of their futures.

Theirs is the agenda that made Donald Trump possible. Ours is the agenda that will defeat him. Want to chip in for Bernie's campaign? That's what the thermometer on the right is for. If you dion't want to commit to $1,000 or even $100 until after he officially declares, how about $5 or $10 now to show him you're still with him?

Because I mentioned this on Nicole Sandler's radio show yesterday, people have been asking me who's behind the smear efforts against Bernie in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. This is the board of directors of Third Way, basically a cabal of banksters and one of the most destructive forces from inside the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Meet the scumbags:

• John L. Vogelstein, Chairman- Chairman of New Providence Asset Management, LLC and Senior Advisor to Warburg Pincus, LLC.

• Jonathan Cowan, President- Andrew Cuomo's ex-Chief of Staff

• David Heller, Vice Chairman- formerly the Global Head of Equity Trading for Goldman Sachs

• Bernard L. Schwartz, Chairman Emeritus- former Chairman of the Board and CEO of Loral Space and Communications Inc., now the Chairman and CEO of BLS Investments, LLC.

• William D. Budinger- founder and former chairman and CEO of Rodel, Inc.

• David A. Coulter- Managing Director and Senior Advisor at Warburg Pincus, formerly chairman of J.P. Morgan & Chase Co.

• Lewis Cullman- engineered the very first leveraged buyout (LBO) — with $1,000 cash, he and a friend bought Orkin Exterminating Company for $62.4 million.

• William Daley- Prior to being appointed Chief of Staff by Obama, he was Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Midwest for JPMorgan Chase

• Robert Dyson- Chairman and CEO of the Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corp, an investment firm

• Michael Edwards- a partner at Arrowgrass Capital Partners

• Andrew Feldstein- CEO and Co-CIO of BlueMountain Capital Management

• Brian Frank- funder and Managing Partner of Declaration Partners LP, an investment firm. Previously, he was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at MSD Capital, the private investment firm founded by Michael Dell.

• David Greenwald- chairman of Fried Frank since 2013. Before that he was the international general counsel of Goldman Sachs.

• David Horvitz- Chairman and CEO of SouthOcean Capital Partners, LLC and SouthOcean Investment Partners, LLC.

• Peter A. Joseph- Chairman of Trenton Fuel Works LLC, previously a private equity bankster

• Derek Kaufman- Head of Global Fixed Income at Citadel, previously a Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase

• Derek Kirkland- Managing Director and Co-Head of the Global Financial Institutions Group at Morgan Stanley’s Financial Institutions Group in Investment Banking.

• Daniel R. Lewis- former insurance executive for Progressive Insurance and former real estate developer

• Thurgood Marshall, Jr.- partner and lobbyist for Bingham McCutchen LLP and a principal of Bingham Consulting Group

• Susan McCue- Lobbyist, Harry Reid's former Chief of Staff

• Rachel Pritzker- a Pritzker

• William Reeves- co-founder of BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd., former managing director of JP Morgan

• Marc Spilker- Founding Member of GPS Investment Partners LLC and chair of Chiron Investment Management LLC., previously co-head of at Goldman's Investment Management Division

• Ted Trimpa- lobbyist and head of Trimpa Group, LLC

• Barbara Manfrey Vogelstein- venture capitalist and "someone's" wife

• Joseph Zimlich- CEO of Bohemian Companies, family-owned real estate and private equity holdings