A good week for Bernie Sanders


Bernie Sanders has tough climb in order to win the New York primary on Tuesday where Hillary Clinton currently has a big lead in the polls. But if he falls short, it will not be for want of trying. The last week has seem him having a series of high profile events that generated positive publicity.

He had a good lightning visit to the Vatican where he apparently gave a well-received speech that vigorously attacked modern capitalism and later had a brief private meeting with Pope Francis, someone whom he has repeatedly said he admires for his stances on economic justice issues and his criticisms of ‘unfettered capitalism’, though he disagrees with him on some social issues such as same-sex marriage.

Sanders also held a massive rally in Washington Park in the Greenwich Village area of New York City that attracted over 25,000 people and pretty much shut down the whole area.

Dozens of NYPD officers barricaded every entrance and managed the line, which stretched from the southeast entrance all the way around the park. Even the line for members of the press spanned an entire city block, from the northern tip of the park to Eighth Street in Manhattan.

The campaign also put out what I thought was an excellent ad.

Comments

  1. Holms says

    My suspicion is that Bernie will stage a comeback compared to what the polls say; it remains to be seen whether the comeback will be enough to overturn the lead, or simply give him a much closer second place.

  2. Golgafrinchan Captain says

    @ Holms,

    That has happened a bunch already. Younger generations support him far more and the polls haven’t been great at predicting their turnout. It might be wishful thinking, but I really hope it happens.

    The other day (in Canada) I heard an ad on the radio giving info to first responders info about their risks for PTSD and how access paid-for services. I actually got a bit choked up when I thought about how many people in the US don’t have access to decent heath care, mental or otherwise. How the hell does the US have soldiers coming back from war and ending up homeless?

    The frigging 9-11 first responders had to fight for something that the States can afford to provide for everybody.

    Are roads a handout? Are police a handout? Water and sewer infrastructure? Military?

  3. StevoR says

    FWIW. Greg Laden has some excellent analysis of the Democratic party primary here :

    http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/tag/democratic-primary/

    Additionally, Ed Brayton among others has explained why Sanders almost certainly won’t win the nomination here :

    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2016/03/29/time-to-accept-reality-sanders-supporters/

    Plus we have the consensus of political experts here :

    Under some unlikely circumstances, Sanders could win a general election. But nominating him would make it significantly more difficult for Democrats to keep the White House. “

    Source : http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2016/02/09/political-scientists-ask-can-sanders-win-the-general-election/#sthash.PZV8DvT7.dpuf

    At this stage of the election cycle and with the risk of Trump or Cruz or really any Republican becoming POTUS, I think its time Sanders and his supporters faced reality and put their energy into ensuring the democratic party wins this election because I think they’re hurting their chances of doing that not helping right now. And the consequences of a 2016 Republican win are too dire to be worth taking any chances.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *