Bernie as nominee would allow trump to steal the election with no questions asked

[ecstatic]

It's not about whether Bernie can actually win or not. I think he can, but the fact that so many people question Bernie's electability is a huge problem because it provides plenty of cover for the GOP and /or Russia to do whatever the hell they want on election day.

They could make Bernie lose all 50 States, and nobody with the ability to investigate would do so. Why? Because we've never attempted to run a self proclaimed socialist before. A massive loss wouldn't elicit cries of election fraud. In fact, the media would immediately blame Democrats for choosing a socialist candidate and everyone would agree.

I just don't get why we would take this type of risk with so much at stake. It's crazy to me!

[Moderateguy]

1. Not a 50 state rout

We could run a dead dog and win CA. Sanders would win VT so they can’t get a 50 state rout past us

[ecstatic]

9. I don't know

Even for the bluest states, the talking heads will just trump-splain the abnormal results. Democrats were not willing to go full socialist, so they voted for trump!

[OliverQ]

12. Even Nicolle Wallace, a former Republican and Bush staffer

said she'd gladly vote for Bernie. Bernie polls better as a Socialist than a Democrat.

And Republicans call all our candidates Socialists. At least Bernie can explain his policies and then people are like, "Oh, that sounds awesome!"

[ecstatic]

18. I hope you're right on this

It's possible that I'm overthinking things. I just cannot handle another 4 years of trump.

[OliverQ]

19. None of us can, which is why everyone is so on edge about who is

the best candidate to beat him. But truthfully, no one knows. Normal political calculations don't work anymore. And Trump is going to cheat like crazy.

[IronLionZion]

2. I still question Trump's electability

Hillary or Bernie should have completely destroyed that steaming pile of manure

[OliverQ]

14. Goes to show you trying the typical method

doesn't seem to work as well anymore. Can a centrist candidate that will suppress the youth vote beat a populist, or do you need another populist with a huge following to beat him?

[juliuswest]

22. We won't know until November

Any proclamations that this never happened before so it won't now are mute. My congressman Ted Lieu put it best via Twitter

I will support whoever is the Democratic nominee for President. I also note the following facts:

-Many people believed Obama was unelectable
-Many people believed Trump was unelectable

Conventional wisdom when it comes to presidential elections can be very, very wrong.
@tedlieu

[IronLionZion]

25. I agree with Ted Lieu, he's an enlightened fellow

lots of experts made proclamations about what America was or wasn't ready for and it all turned out to be completely wrong every time.

[LexVegas]

3. Bernie as nominee will not require cheating. nt

[ecstatic]

6. But that's the problem: it's an experiment, so we really don't know

what to expect.

I'm not comfortable with that type of uncertainty when our democracy is in the middle of a 5 alarm fire.

[OliverQ]

15. But you are comfortable with

a moderate candidate, the type of candidate that has lost every presidential election this century?

[LovingA2andMI]

4. Ditto....

This....

[underthematrix]

5. I went back and looked at 2008 DEM primaries

and it's still possible for the nominee to be BIDEN or someone other than Bernie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries

[Fiendish Thingy]

8. If ALL the other candidates drop out, except for one, before Super Tuesday

Then there is a chance the other candidate would have more delegates than Sanders going in to the convention.

After Sanders’ projected wins on Super Tuesday, it will probably be mathematically impossible for anyone to surpass Sanders in delegates.

[underthematrix]

11. IN primaries delegates are proportional, e.g. CA

As candidates leave, they can give their delegates to Biden or Bloomberg, which could keep Sanders from getting 50%+1

[Fiendish Thingy]

21. My understanding is delegates cannot be released until after the first ballot

They must vote for their original candidate on the first ballot- they can’t be reassigned before the convention.

That is why dropping out before Super Tuesday is critical if any other candidate is to have a chance at beating Sanders on the first ballot. I’m not advocating for that course of action, just acknowledging the mathematical reality.

[IronLionZion]

30. I remember our long and divisive primary that year handed the election to John McCain

except it didn't!

Lots of DUers promised us there was no chance in hell Obama could ever be electable, America wasn't ready, etc.

[AlexSFCA]

32. he won because economy collapsed.

If same happens before November, Bernie would win a landslide.

[Frasier Balzov]

7. Trump vows that this will never be a socialist country.

Is Trump right? Or is he about to be proven wrong?

[Bucky]

17. If you're a farmer, Trump has already made this a socialist country

Also if you're a billionaire or a Trump brat

[Squinch]

27. And there is the winning campaign slogan. That's all he has to say.

We Democrats are being really dumb at a moment when everything is on the line.

[Voltaire2]

10. Trump already did that.

[jmg257]

13. Just how are they going to "make Bernie lose all 50 states"???

[Bucky]

16. Yeah, weak old pinko Bernie, he's got no fight in him LOL

I don't think he'd be our strongest candidate, obviously, but he's not some pushover. I still don't think he's going to get the nomination. After Super Tuesday it'll be a two-person race. I just hope the party does a better job of holding on to the new people he's bringing into the process. That's to be admired and celebrated and rewarded.

Bringing in new voters is the key to defeating Trump for good. It makes a lot more sense than fighting over 3-5% of the 55% of Americans who already vote and are somehow still swingable.

[Squinch]

26. He yells and points. I'll grant you that. But what has he DONE?

[cwydro]

33. Lemme know if you get an answer to that.

Thinking you won’t.

[Squinch]

34. I've been waiting 5 years for an answer.

[cwydro]

35. Lol.

No one seems to want to answer the question of why he won’t release his medical records either.

Hmm.

[milestogo]

20. LOAD OF SHIT.

[Squinch]

29. Compelling. Loud and aggressive, but no substance whatsoever. Hmmm.. Who does that remind me of?

[redqueen]

23. FUD! FUD! FUD!

[Claritie Pixie]

24. ...

[MrsCoffee]

38. A bit hyperbolic perhaps, but there is a reason Putin is helping Sanders campaign. Again.

And Bernie didn’t want us to know about it.

Everyone who isn’t affected by the cognitive dissonance is worried.

[redqueen]

44. Bullshit. The Russians don't care who wins as long as easily led Americans

participate in the chaos the establishment creates to try to stop any significant change.

And yeah, Bernie didn't say anything because the briefing was classified. But nobody wants to discuss that, or who leaked it, or why they leaked it when they did.

Doesn't matter anyway, looks like his momentum is only growing.

[MrsCoffee]

45. Yeah, that excuse doesn't fly as usual.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287559600

Natasha Bertrand: IC would *not* have told Sanders to remain silent about campaign meddling

Natasha Bertrand, just now on Weekends w/ Alex Witt, re: source says IC would *not* have objected to the Sanders campaign speaking publicly about efforts to meddle in campaign, indicating he had no such directive *not* to speak. FYI. (I was wrong in other replies since this news broke).

Sanders folks, If Bernie knew and sat on this info for a month *for whatever reason*, it was wrong to do so. We *needed* to know a month ago (before Iowa).

She also said IC wouldn't tell the campaign to keep it quiet because that, in itself, would help the Russian efforts.

I'm sorry, but this pisses me off...

[NurseJackie]

28. I'm certain that the loss would be his own without additional help from Russia.

Russia just wants to "set it and forget it". Once they put into place the worst possible candidate against Trump... they can just walk away and let Trump win without further interference.

[Kurt V.]

31. this severely understates the popularity of liberal policy.

[Beringia]

36. So you're saying he shouldn't be the nominee

because people will cheat on him better?

[ecstatic]

46. Electing someone like Sanders would require 100% free and fair elections

in every district across America.

trump and the GOP have made it clear that they're not interested in protecting our elections.

trump has been clear on his willingness to cheat.

We've already seen reports of how hackers can toss voter registrations and change vote totals.

We cannot nominate someone like Sanders unless all of the vulnerabilities in our election system are addressed and resolved.

[MrsCoffee]

37. I had a dream last night that all the other candidates met up and decided to sacrifice

themselves to save the country. They all chose Warren to run against Bernie and the rest dropped out. Warren went on to soundly beat Sanders, chose Harris as her running mate and taunted Trump into several humiliating debates. The overwhelming popularity of the ticket made it impossible for Trump to steal it.

But in real life, there are too many egos involved for us to have nice things.

[MH1]

42. +1000

I would really love to see your dream come true!

But sadly have to agree with your last line.

[Magoo48]

39. I'm sad to see so many fellow Warren supporters turn on Bernie,

who happens to be the only other progressive in the pack. If or when Liz is out, I’ll happily vote for Bernie. If they both wipeout, I vote blue, of course. Drop the fucking pearl clutching and prepare to push our candidate to victory.

[MH1]

43. I'll be shocked if Bernie were elected and then actually gets any PROGRESS done.

I supported him early in the 2016 cycle. As I learned more about him I felt I couldn't support him any more.

Warren is the only true progressive in the race, who has a track record of getting things done.

I was very sad that Bernie chose to run himself instead of passing the torch to Warren. But by that time I had assessed his character and fully expected his ego would not allow him to do that.

[Johnny2X2X]

40. Nonsense

If they’re going to try to steal the election they’ll think of a cover story for whoever the opponent is.

[MH1]

41. The other (hypothetical) is that Putin doesn't care if Bernie wins

The stakes are a lot lower for Putin if the Dem nominee is Russia-friendly.

Bernie's history shows some friendliness to Russia, and this cycle he hired key staffers who supported another Russia-friendly campaign in the GE in 2016.

That does NOT mean that Bernie would necessarily be as friendly / helpful to Putin as Trump is. Just that Putin may calculate that he loses significantly less with a President Sanders than with a President Biden.

I still think Bernie is not electable. But if somehow he manages to be the Dem nominee, I sure as hell hope to be proved wrong. Even though I also think he is more Putin-friendly than I would like, and lacking global leadership ability, he is still less bad than Trump in those areas (I think), but more importantly, massively better on domestic policy.

Please let's not nominate Sanders though. We need someone who will be respected on the world stage and I don't think he's got it.