And oh Lord was Florida a bloodbath for Bernie. Via John Whitesides and Ginger Gibson at Reuters:
Joe Biden coasted to a blowout victory over Bernie Sanders in Florida’s Democratic presidential primary and was projected to win Illinois on Tuesday, edging closer to the nomination to face President Donald Trump in November’s election.
Biden rolled over Sanders by nearly 40 percentage points in Florida, the largest of the three states voting on Tuesday, and beat Sanders in every county in the traditional political battleground state.
Edison Research and television networks projected Biden also won in Illinois, where he opened a huge lead of more than 20 percentage points over Sanders with 41% of the precincts reporting...
The easy Biden wins appeared to be a sign Democrats were ready to unite for the campaign against Trump, and could increase pressure on Sanders, 78, to end his presidential bid. Democrats have worried about a possible repeat of 2016, when they believe his long, bitter primary battle with Hillary Clinton played a role in her upset loss to Trump, 73.
In somber remarks broadcast from his home in Delaware, Biden, 77, said the coronavirus outbreak demanded leadership from the White House and appealed to the many young supporters drawn to Sanders, a democratic socialist U.S. senator.
“Let me say especially to the young voters who have been inspired by Senator Sanders: I hear you. I know what’s at stake. I know what we have to do,” he said. “Our goal as a campaign and my goal as a candidate for president was to unify this party and then to unify the nation.”
Young voters between ages 18 and 44 were the only major demographic that backed Sanders in Florida and Illinois, the Edison polls showed...
Thing about Florida was, Bernie didn't do so hot back in 2016 either, but he at least won 33 percent versus Hillary and a number of counties. This time, he was under 23 percent and every county went for Crazy Uncle Joe.
And while Bernie is doing his best to appeal to young voters, a strong and growing demographic for liberal-leaning votes, his turnout is still meager at best. It's not enough to foment the revolution in the Democratic Party he's hoping to achieve.
Also, Bernie, it really doesn't help you to say nice things about Fidel Castro in Florida, even to Democratic voters. It's just not sane. But that's Bernie for you, sticking to his ideals but not out of practicality more like ego...
Twitter is awash of Bernie supporters screaming about the unfairness of it all, how Biden is a lying monster, how the Dems are backing a loser when it will come time to stop trump. However, it's not convincing anybody I know. It's all petulant sour grapes now, and it's the kind of self-harm that this nation doesn't need. And yet... sigh.
Personally, I was hoping Warren would still be in the race by now, but she wasn't and there's my Blues for you.
I'll have more to say later, but for now I have to cope with the Coronavirus crisis my own way. Translation: My library finally closed to the public and we've got a lot of cleanup work to do.
1 comment:
Bernie might want to consider not dragging this thing all the way to the convention (if there is one) in the thick of the pandemic.
That's one thing about revolutions: they have to seem like the most important thing going in order to catch fire. Perhaps that might have flown back in 2016 when things were sort of OK and it seemed like there might be the electoral leeway to start something big, but now many very important things are on fire, and putting them out seems like the most important thing to get done.
I like Bernie's policies, and he has been more consistent than many politicians I could name, but I have grave doubts about his ability to enact said policies in the reality of 21st century politics.
Good luck with your work. It feels kind of odd to be reading about those shelter in place orders from this snowed in hillside that I couldn't leave if I wanted to.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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