Bernie: Into The Fox's Den-- While Corrupted Rich Democrats Work On Their Stop Bernie Crusade

Jonathan Martin's headline in the New York Times this morning said it all: 'Stop Sanders' Democrats Are Agonizing Over His Momentum. He starts with "a closed door gathering of about 100 wealthy liberal donors in San Francisco last month" freaking out about Bernie winning the nomination. These are people who have been served well by the status quo. They all want women to be allowed to have abortions and they support gays marrying each other. But beyond that, they're not liberals at all; they do not want anyone touching the economic fundamentals of the status quo, their status quo. "How, some Democrats are beginning to ask," reported Martin, "do they thwart a 70-something candidate from outside the party structure who is immune to intimidation or incentive and wields support from an unwavering base, without simply reinforcing his 'the establishment is out to get me' message-- the same grievance Mr. Trump used to great effect?"

Martin gets the crux of the story wrong though. He wrote that "From canapé-filled fund-raisers on the coasts to the cloakrooms of Washington, mainstream Democrats are increasingly worried that their effort to defeat President Trump in 2020 could be complicated by Mr. Sanders, in a political scenario all too reminiscent of how Mr. Trump himself seized the Republican nomination in 2016." He thinks it's about Trump. It isn't. To many of these wealthy establishment Democrats, Bernie is more of a threat than Trump is. After all, Trump may be an embarrassment... but he lowered their taxes. Bernie would raise them. For sure.

Hired political assassin-- once for the right, now for the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- David Brock, a vicious leader of the anti-progressive movement and a Bernie-hater, weighs in: "There’s a growing realization that Sanders could end up winning this thing, or certainly that he stays in so long that he damages the actual winner. He is chomping at the bit to organize the establishment into an overt anti-Bernie campaign immediately. Brock hissed that "the Bernie question comes up in every fund-raising meeting I do." Fellow plotters include rich party donors like Steven Rattner, Susan Swecker (chair of the Virginia Democratic Party) and former Clintonite operative.current Bloomberg factotum Howard Wolfson. This "discussion about Mr. Sanders," wrote Martin, "has to date been largely confined to private settings because-- like establishment Republicans in 2016-- Democrats are uneasy about elevating him or alienating his supporters."

Martin points out though that "to some veterans of the still-raw 2016 primary, a heavy-handed intervention may only embolden him and his fervent supporters. R.T. Rybak, the former Minneapolis mayor who was vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2016, complained bitterly about the party’s tilt toward Mrs. Clinton back then, and warned that it would backfire if his fellow mainstream Democrats 'start with the idea that you’re trying to stop somebody.' If the party fractures again, 'or if we even have anybody raising an eyebrow of I’m not happy about this, we’re going to lose and they’ll have this loss on their hands,' Mr. Rybak said of the anti-Sanders forces, pleading with them to not make him 'a martyr.'"

The matter of What To Do About Bernie and the larger imperative of party unity has, for example, hovered over a series of previously undisclosed Democratic dinners in New York and Washington organized by the longtime party financier Bernard Schwartz. The gatherings have included scores from the moderate or center-left wing of the party, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader; former Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., himself a presidential candidate; and the president of the Center for American Progress, Neera Tanden.

“He did us a disservice in the last election,” said Mr. Schwartz, a longtime Clinton supporter who said he will support former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in this primary.

...“If he is consistently raising $6 million more than his next closest opponent, he’s going to have a massive financial advantage,” said Rufus Gifford, former President Barack Obama’s 2012 finance director, noting that Mr. Sanders will be able to blanket expensive and delegate-rich Super Tuesday states like California and Texas with ads during early voting there.

Mr. Gifford, who has gone public in recent days with his dismay over major Democratic fund-raisers remaining on the sidelines, said of Mr. Sanders, “I feel like everything we are doing is playing into his hands.”

But the peril of rallying the party’s elite donor class against a candidate whose entire public life has been organized around confronting concentrated wealth is self-evident: Mr. Sanders would gleefully seize on any Stop Bernie effort.

“You can see him reading the headlines now,” Mr. Brock mused: “‘Rich people don’t like me.’”

I ran this poll yesterday before Bernie did the Fox News town hall. 65% thought going on Fox and bringing their viewers the truth was a good idea. 35% thought it wasn't. The media and social media buzz after the event was about 99% favorable. Bernie knocked it out of the park.

Even his CAP-centered enemies-- already reeling from his polling success and the 10 years of taxes he had just released-- couldn't come up with anything negative to say. DC-based journalist Skip Kaltenheuser observed that "about half-way through, the FOX moderators started looking like deer caught in the headlights. I imagine the Democratic Party Grand Poobahs who watched had a similar look on their faces." By this morning, they were all weeping bitter tears over the Holly Otterbein piece at Politico, Sanders takes on Fox-- and emerges triumphant. "Bernie Sanders entered the Fox's den on Monday night," wrote Otterbein, "and he not only survived the hour-long encounter, but often dominated. Appearing at a Fox News-hosted town hall smack dab in the middle of Trump Country, the Democratic presidential front-runner played the part, swatting down tough questions from the hosts about health care, defense spending, and his newfound wealth. At one point, the Vermont senator even led the network’s audience in a call-and-response that found them cheering loudly for his policies." Part 1 of the town hall is up top and part 2 is below. You should watch them both. And if you like them, you can contribute to Bernie's campaign by clicking on the thermometer on the right.

Someone's frightened

In the days preceding the event, Sanders faced backlash from liberals who said he shouldn’t participate given the network's nativist bent and cheerleading for President Donald Trump. But when it was over, Sanders had received an hour of positive exposure on the highest-rated cable channel-- something none of his primary rivals have yet risked.

The town hall took place in a cultural center in the shadows of a former steel mill here, in a county in Pennsylvania that voted for Trump after twice supporting Barack Obama. But the room was packed with Sanders supporters, and the Vermont senator fed off the energy of the crowd.

Still, the image of an audience on Fox News rallying behind the democratic socialist and his left-wing platform gave Sanders the appearance of strong support in an area that was key to the president’s victory in 2016.

For the Sanders campaign, it was an ideal end to a four-day swing through the industrial Midwest that was meant to show that he's the presidential candidate best positioned to beat Trump. Significant numbers of Democratic primary voters are more concerned with a candidate's ability to win than his or her ideology, according to recent polls.

Some of the difficult questions asked by the hosts, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, were about Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan.

When asked how he would fund the program, Sanders didn't shy away from the fact that many Americans would pay more in taxes. But he insisted the “overwhelming majority” would end up spending less money overall because they would not pay for deductibles or other out-of-pocket costs. He also downplayed concerns that people would be kicked off their insurance, arguing that millions already lose their health insurance when they get fired from or quit their jobs.

His health care plan, he said, “gives you freedom of choice.”

One of the most surprising moments of the town hall occurred when Baier asked the members of the audience to raise their hands if they received health insurance through their employer. Most indicated they did. Then he asked how many would be willing to switch to Sanders‘ plan, and most people appeared to raise their hands again.

...When MacCallum said some would argue Sanders that supported felons‘ having the right to vote because it benefited him politically, she was booed by the crowd. “Oh, come on,“ he said. Asked about those who say that he is too old to be president, he shot back, “Well, follow me around the campaign trail.”

Sanders was also asked by an audience member how he would challenge the idea that “socialism is bad.”

He replied with familiar talking points: “Democratic socialism to me is creating a government and an economy and a society which works for all, rather than just the top 1 percent. It means ending the absurd inequalities that exist today.”

On the hot-button topic of abortion, Sanders‘ responses prompted an immediate rebuke from conservatives on social media. MacCallum asked him whether “a woman should be able to terminate a pregnancy up until the moment of birth.” He replied: “I think that that happens very, very rarely, and I think this is being made into a political issue. So I think it’s rare, it’s being made into a political issue. But at the end of the day, I believe that the decision over abortion belongs to a woman and her physician, not the federal government.“

...As Sanders traveled to Rust Belt states that were essential to Trump’s victory this weekend, he called on the president to keep his vow to working-class Americans and ditch the new NAFTA agreement. If elected, Sanders also said he would deny government contracts to companies that outsource jobs to other countries, such as General Motors.

Sanders had a similar message throughout the Fox News town hall. He attacked Trump, arguing that he didn’t keep his campaign promise to be a different kind of Republican and avoid cutting programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Feisty and confident, Sanders ended the engagement by gently ribbing the hosts of the network liberals despise. “Thank you very much," he told Baier and MacCallum, "and I hope I wasn’t too hard on you.”