Biden Takes SC. Steyer Drops Out.
In the first actual primary of 2020, Joe Biden smoked the opposition, taking 49% of primary voters in South Carolina. Bernie’s showing was lame, at less than 20%; the Zero Percenters trailed far behind him. Steyer has already dropped out. Time for Mayor Pete, Warren, Klobuchar, and all the rest to do the same. This is between Biden, Bloomberg, and Sanders. Everyone else needs to go home.
You are calling for the 3rd and 4th
Place finishers and delegate leaders to drop out … in favor of a guy who hasn’t collected a single vote?
Ooh, the wisdom, it burns.
1Hear Hear
2bloomberg has not gotten a single vote.
Has run false advertising to create false image of an Obama endorsement.
Has no plan for anything.
All he has is money.
When did the D’s put the nomination up for sale to the highest bidder?
Yeah………..don’t think so dude. let’s hold off the twin coronations until after Super Tuesday. that will pretty much lock-in who should continue, and who should honorably bail out.
3El Jefe, the Fat Lady has not yet sung.
Also too, in my high school marching band rule #3 was “don’t anticipate.” You just broke rule #3.
4Bwahahahahaha! El Jefe again shows his bidenista colours. Super Tuesday is just days away, will you write how Sanders took Texas? Probably not since you didn’t write about his win in Nevada. Or anywhere else for that matter.
5Don’t really like Biden, and a large turn out for him in SC just reinforces my feelings.
6I disagree. I’d like to see latecomer, vanity candidate Bloomberg drop out and perhaps put his money into something useful, but Buttigieg, Warren, and Klobuchar not only are viable candidates but also have valuable input we all need to hear. And they’re not elderly white guys, which is something I appreciate. It’s early days. I’m so old I remember when the convention is when these things got decided in any case.
7It’ll be over by the time the fat lady sings “New York, New York”…
8Oh. Great. 3 Old White Guys. I’m SOOOOO excited.
p.s. Think I, too, will wait until after Super Tuesday to start crowning the Homecoming Court.
9@RA #4, in my high school marching band, we were at the level of the band director telling us to put our hands out in front of us, palms facing the floor, thumbs extended and fingers together. The one that makes an L? That’s your LEFT! 😉
10OT
How many of JJ’s readers are in a Super Tuesday state? I am – I live in Virginia.
11Gee, I wonder what you REALLY think?
One of the most backward states in the country is the first real primary? When NH was two weeks ago? Stop it.
Your centrist/ DNC/ establishment bias couldn’t be more clear.
See you next Tuesday.
12El Jefe,
13We agree on many things, plus l like the way you write. You already know that you rile up many of the customers here at TWMDBS. With this post, I finally arrived at why that is. You have written some great analytical posts on varied subjects. But when you write something that is purely your opinion, you also present it as the most logical conclusion. (See above. Bloomberg: no wins, no delegates) Your intellect and experience certainly entitle’s you to have a gut feeling about things. Just preface those positions not supported by basic logic with, “I feel,” or “My gut tells me.” You might also acknowledge that, at least with Bloomberg, you really jumped the gun, if not the shark, on this one.
Biden can draw more votes from a wider spectrum than the other front runners. He can beat Trump, which is the major consideration here. He also represents a stark contrast to the morally defunct Trump Administration and can help win the Senate. The sooner the Democratic field narrows, the sooner voters can make a practical choice.
14@Paul ADK
15“see you next tuesday”?
OUCH!
Hope that was unintentional.
South Caroline, an “actual primary”? Biden and the DNC establishment put all their eggs into a red state basket because they are Republican 2.0 lite.
16Super Tuesday will sort out the chaff.
“South Carolina, too small for a nation, too large for a lunatic asylum.”-James Petigru
17160 years later his comment still holds. The last time SC went D in the general election was in 1976, so why the big fuss?
Question: If anti-Sanders Democrats were serious, they’d unite around Biden
How are Bernie Sanders’s elite Democratic opponents this incompetent?
Edit: “How you can spend four or five months hoping you don’t have to put a bumper sticker from that guy on your car,” former Sen. Chris Dodd told the paper.
Anti-Sanders writers like New York magazine columnist Jonathan Chait are expressing enthusiasm for a move by party elites to block Sanders. Exactly zero “frontline” Democratic members of the US House — those the party has designated as most vulnerable and in need of support in November — have endorsed Sanders, with many endorsing moderates.
But here’s the thing: The worriers aren’t taking the one step that would most plausibly imperil Sanders’s nomination — encourage voters to back former Vice President Joe Biden.
By my count of swing-district House members, eight of the 42 are backing Joe Biden and seven are backing former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Sanders-critical editorial pages are all over the place, often backing former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg or Sen. Elizabeth Warren or Sen. Amy Klobuchar and not unifying in any way. Stridently anti-Sanders columnists like Chait and operatives like James Carville aren’t advising a vote for anyone in particular.
read full article:
https://www.vox.com/2020/2/29/21156359/bernie-sanders-joe-biden-south-carolina-unity
18Forgive me – ANSWER: Its not just about denying Sanders the oval office. Its an object lesson for the proles. Fossil fuels belong to US. Health Care is OUR domain. We don’t ALLOW unions. Social Security must DIE… You get the idea.
19“A President Who Doesn’t Need to Beg the Powerful for Money”
Sanders Campaign Raises Record $46 Million in February. – That is revolutionary.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/01/president-who-doesnt-need-beg-powerful-money-sanders-campaign-raises-record-46
20I would certainly like to have a nominee who will say:
21“I’m proud to be a life-long Democrat!”
Unfortunately being a Democrat is not a prerequisite for running in our primary. I believe it should be. Bernie should be running in the Democratic Socialist Primary and Bloomberg should be running in the billionaires primary. The only reason they are pretend Democrats is because they want to use the infrastructure that the Democratic Party built for their ends, not ours.
The Democratic Party promotes from within rewarding those who have spent years working on our common goals. We don’t go outside the party looking for a johnny-come-lately candidate whose commitment is seasonal.
A point about “pretend Democrats.”
The Senate Democrats have Bernie Sanders on their front page. Bernie is also their Chairman of Outreach.
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/
Based on his bills and his amendments, Bernie has spent more time being a democrat than many Democrats.
When the League of Women Voters were in charge of the presidential debates, independents COULD be in the debates.
Since the DNC and the RNC took over the debates, only Democrat and Republican candidates have participated because their rules say a third-party can participate only if that third-party garnered at least 5% of the votes in the last presidential election.
P.S. “Bernie Isn’t A Democrat” = “Party Over Country.”
22@Wally #15:
Super Tuesday is next Tuesday. By the time that’s over this race will have clarified. And Biden will not end up with much, and Bloomberg, even less.
23Dem Centrists serve their corporate masters. Did you miss the callout of anti Sanders party opponents from the post above?
“How are Bernie Sanders’s elite Democratic opponents this incompetent?”
Paraphrasing Pelosi: If Bernie becomes president, his agenda is dead on arrival.
Listen to her acid view on progressives ideas in her own party: “The Green Dream or whatever its called…”
I don’t seem to recall Bernie calling for “Stop and Frisk” or cutting SS in his career, like Joe or Misogyny DINO MIKE did in their time in office.
24@ Ralph Wiggam #21: If the DNC continues to press its plan to deny Sanders the nomination even if he gets the most delegates, you just might be able to test that theory.
I can guarantee you that the Democratic Party needs progressives much more than progressives need moderates and conservatives. The status quo is broken and people in this country are aching for an alternative.
25Up her so close to the sausage factory, some folks were floating a Biden defeat, but it just didn’t ring true and gosh all heck I was right! the South Carolina primary was the only primary worth my time and attention. The caucus states are like SNL skits – just not the real deal.
26My biggest, but not only concern, with Joe Biden is will he repeat Obama’s high-minded, but terribly wrong, decision to not pursue the criminals that formed the previous administration. We have Trump in part because the Bush-Cheney administration committed numerous crimes which were allowed to go unpunished. Had Obama’s Justice Department gone after the Bush criminals the Republican Party would have been tainted, and rightly so, by the misdeeds of Bush, Cheney, et al. and would likely have done poorly in the subsequent elections.
I have long held the opinion that those who are recipients of the public trust, whether public officials or private sector executives, should, if they violate that trust by breaking the law, receive harsher punishments than a private citizen would for a similar offense. What shouldn’t happen is them getting a slap on the wrist and told, “now be a good boy/girl and don’t do that again”.
27Paul ADK,
It is not the most delegates, it is a MAJORITY of delegated that wins the nomination. If Bernie only gets 40% that means that 60% voted against him. Would you really want a nominee that has alienated 60% of his base?
And it is quite common for people whose beliefs are righteous to also believe that their beliefs are universally accepted. No matter how virulent Bernie’s support, it does not represent a majority of the Democratic Party. And if the Bernie Bros are not willing to get on board with the majority, they are not the team players that we need to beat Trump.
28And that Party over country nonsense is just plain insulting. I love my country as much as any one. I just believe that the Democratic TEAM has a better chance of beating Trump and saving our country. My response is that putting Bernie over country is just the same as you accuse me of.
29Ralph @21, Paul@25: Sounds a little like ‘my party, right or wrong’ to paraphrase. IMO I try to define the person first and then fit a label to avoid emulating the repubs methodology.
30@ Ralph Wiggam #28:
Yes, that is the corporate line, and I heard you the first time.
What you don’t apparently realize is that any decision to award the nomination to anyone but Sanders, if Sanders gets the most votes, will be met with a schism the likes of which the Democratic Party will NEVER recover from. There will be a new Progressive Party (some of us have wanted that since the last time when the DNC stole the nomination for Clinton) that people wanting real change will flock to, like flies to meat.
And then you’ll see what Republican Lite gets you. Not elected, I will tell you that.
31Bob Boland @ 27 – Viewing: The Greeks: Chasing Greatness – 3 of 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkG-FUBa-I8
noun (pl. ostraca |-kə| or ostracon)
Ancient digs in Athens dug up potsherds showing names inscribed on the inside by Athenians these were called ostracon
Once a year, citizens could carve names that would be deposited into a large pot. Any politician who abused the laws or office who had their names counted too many times would be ‘ostracized’ and be banished from the city for 10 years.
“Pretty much every prominent citizen of the first half of the fifth century BC took one of these 10 year vacations, courtesy of the Athenian people.”
32@ van heldorf #30:
You know, I’m not all that much on labels, myself, I was talking about the ideologies behind the label. And I’ve found my candidate, thanks, which I why I’m not at all interested in yours. Oh– and calling me a Republican is just as offensive as can be. What is it, they say in Texas? Yes, bless your heart.
Republican Lite does not win elections. Clinton did it in 92, but only because there was a significant third party candidate. Anyone who is not a Democrat (independent voters… that group that actually elects the president) will not go for Republican Lite when they can have the full blown episode, and they will vote for Trump. I know, Obama governed as a moderate, but he ran as a progressive. Shame on us.
33All y’all just keep up with the pissing contest. Trump will use every word against whatever D gets the nod. And Trump’s will win again. And the democrats will wonder what the hell happened, one more time. Just the Trump campaign has 160 million $ already. That’s not counting the PACS and other questionable sources. He’s been spending 6 million a month on FB ads. There is no democrat running who will engender enough enthusiasm to get out the vote. The Bernie supporters will scream they were robbed, again. Perez has no clue or plan.
34SMELL THE BERN
35Will you be drinking for “Super Tuesday,” El Jefe? If not, lay in a good supply of aspirin anyway. There’s a colossal headache coming your way:
Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, VermontCalifornia, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, and Virginia. The strike through are the “red” states. Look to the other states for the national trend and for actual delegate numbers. Shout out to Ms. Juanita Jean Herownself and Mr. Maxey for making Texas count!And, a little catnip for our friend K. That boy Buttigieg ain’t got a lick of sense playing the ‘Veteran’ card. Matching shirt and pants do not a sailor or soldier make. Being assigned as a chauffeur isn’t exactly the stuff of a George C. Scott movie nor considered as the fast track for any officer. Ike, Kay Summersby, yep Pete wait for it. And Naval Intelligence? The jokes will be writing themselves, Pete.
36If the Bernie Bros decide to quit the team because they don’t get to pick the quarterback, so be it. You can’t blame anyone but yourselves for Trump’s victory.
37IMHO, the most important races in 2020 are the Dems for any congressional seat. It doesn’t matter one whit which Dem, if any, gets elected to the WH; if the Republicans control the House and the Senate, they will get out the playbook they used with Obama and nothing will be accomplished. At least if we have a Dem majority in Congress, even if we have to suffer more Trump, Congress can block him at every turn. With luck, they can impeach the monster. GET OUT THE SUPPORT FOR YOUR LOCAL DEMOCRATIC CONTENDERS FOR CONGRESS and stop all this infighting about the presidential race.
38Good grief centrists, Ralph Nader did not cost that election for Gore. Selecting Joe Lieberman as VP probably contributed nearly as much as corruption in FL and a whacked SCROTUS did to Gore’s loss. Unless the bots from a Russian troll farm gave Hilz those bacterium called mycoplasma pneumoniae and Tim Kaine, the mythical “Bernie Bros” were not the cause of a campaign lacking the strength to steam into Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida which would have given her the electoral college votes to match her popular vote win.
Think 2008 and 2012, when Democrats won with Obama. People want change. They want the course corrections needed to restore FDR level democracy. Centrist nation? Okay, I’ll “give” you that. But since Reagan Republicons have driven us so far into the fascist oligarch ditch that incremental change and the status quo won’t begin to achieve “center.” Universal health care, public education, oh and where’s that infrastructure week Donnie* promised, yeah in the ditch with his most excellent health care promises. Read the policy proposals to determine what needs to be done to get to where you want to be. 1945? 1965? Hell, we can do that. We can even do 2020 to address issues like global warming and yes, we can pay for it if we get our priorities straight.
39treehugger, thank you for that infusion of energy and optimism! We do need to smile more and there’s no happier thought than removing Moscow Mitch and Leningrad Lindsey from the Senate along with the rest of the ***king moron’s* rubber stamping paper towels. Keeping the House and adding to the majority; we’d like to do our part by replacing our varmint and complete moron Mark Amodei (R-NV2). Texas you can do this, take down Cornyn!
40Headline: DON’T TELL CABLE PUNDITS THAT BERNIE SANDERS IS LEADING NATIONALLY AMONG BLACK VOTERS
Edit: AT 7 P.M. SHARP, multiple networks called South Carolina for Joe Biden, breathing a collective sigh of relief.
The results, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said, called the viability of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s campaign into question. “If anybody knows anything about winning the Democratic nomination and about what it takes for a Democratic nominee to win a general election, it is black voters,” Maddow said.
“I want every Democrat in the country to see what that looked like tonight: That is what winning looks like,” celebrated James Carville, an old-time political operative MSNBC brings on to panic its viewers. “That is the job of a political party. Not utopian fantasies, but winning elections.”
Last week, the Reuters-Ipsos poll found Sanders besting Biden by three points nationally among black voters — certainly a relevant data point when considering whether Sanders can win among black voters. An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll found Biden up two among black voters.
In other words, the national picture does not exactly portend a shellacking among black voters — important context that was kept from MSNBC viewers, who would be left to conclude that the same minority-voter problem that hobbled Sanders’s campaign in 2016 remains a major obstacle. It simply isn’t true.
full article:
https://theintercept.com/2020/03/01/south-carolina-results-biden-black-vote-sanders-msnbc/
41Yeah, I get it, you’d rather play kick the hippie, and reelect Donald Trump, then allow the people’s choice to be nominated.
That’s not us, that’s YOU.
I’m sure the oligarchs appreciate it. The people sure don’t. And that stuff is piling up.
42….and Mayor Pete just dropped out.
43I made the commitment to vote for the Democratic nominee even if he is not a Democrat. Will you make the commitment to vote for the Democratic nominee even if he IS a Democrat?
44Voted for Bernie in the 2016 primary then Hillary. Just as I did last time I will vote for the nominee.
In 2020 I did not want to vote for anyone older than myself but all the young’uns have fallen off the tree.
I believe it is time to hold all our state primaries on the same day, a national holiday so that those of us not in Iowa, NH or SC get to choose from the whole menu, not just the leftovers
45It doesn’t surprise me anymore when I’m wrong. El Jefe, except for Warren, you pretty much called it. Tomorrow will be interesting. I really hope the party recognizes that Bloomberg is not the savior they’re looking for.
46