I would like Bernie Sanders to stay in the race

[needledriver]

through the Phoenix debate, so we can see Joe up there being calm, clear, competent, passionate, and presidential.

So we can put a stake through the heart of the whole senile dementia crap.

[getagrip_already]

1. Go now.... Enough damage done.

Phoenix will prove nothing. No contest from here on will prove anything.

But every attack and retweet will hurt every democrat in the fall.

[needledriver]

6. Joe doesn't need to prove it to Democrats

But his campaign needs to stomp the dementia angle. It’s getting a lot of traction among RWNJ and some of that will bleed over to decent but undecided voters.

[getagrip_already]

7. bullshit - sanders camp itself is spreading it

He doesn't need to prove anything. End the madness.

[needledriver]

13. Not just the Sanders camp.

I have plenty of crushingly disappointed Sanders friends who are crapping all over Joe - including the dementia angle. Those people need a swift kick in the pants. The RWNJ are also catapulting the senile propaganda. When undecided voters are hearing about "Biden dementia" from both the left and right, they need help understanding that it is all crap.

[USALiberal]

2. I agree! Good practice! Nt

[PubliusEnigma]

3. Biden can debate Trump.

Bernie needs to spend all the time between now and the General Election convincing his supporters to vote for the Democrat.

[democrattotheend]

4. I agree

I want to see if he's still as good a debater as he was 8 years ago. It'll be good practice, IMO. A one on one debate is a different animal from a 6 candidate debate.

[getagrip_already]

8. we've just had 5 friggin debates!

He did great!

End the madness! This is just more sanders smoke.

[democrattotheend]

9. As I said, those were 6-candidate debates

Very different from a 2-person debate.

[getagrip_already]

17. no, it isn't - the primary is over - done

there is nothing left to debate. 6 people or 2 we know what we need to know. There have been one on one town halls with hostile interviewers. There have been plenty of speaches and interactions with voters. You know what you need to know.

If bernie contests every state, he will just keep losing by bigger and bigger margins.

The only thing you can do is hurt biden so badly he loses the general.

[George II]

5. We don't need Sanders around to show Biden as calm, clear, competent, passionate, and presidential.

We know Joe already. Those spreading that crap know that it's false, too.

[needledriver]

10. Yes, we know it.

But you should see my Facebook feed - I haven’t cleared all my RW friends from it. They are pounding hard on "senile Joe". That doctored video which has Joe saying we must elect Trump? I posted links to the full statement- and they still won’t believe it. They point to it as proof Joe is losing it.

[getagrip_already]

18. so now the trolls and bots set our direction?

No thanks. Keep your facebook feed. I don't need it.

[needledriver]

19. This from a disappointed Sanders voter today:

"You boomers are gonna be dead when the climate collapses so why not try to vote in a shitty pedo who’s brain is currently melting out his ears. You stupid fucks"

He’s not a troll, or a bot. I know him IRL.

It’s bad enough dealing with deliberate lies from the right, but when this level of unhinged vitriol is coming from the left, what should the Biden campaign do to push back against the claim that Joe is losing it?

[getagrip_already]

20. nothing.. you can't prove a negative - never could - never will

They will either see that their choice is the destruction of what little they have or a vote for the dem.

A thousand debates and a hundred votes won't change their minds. Time to move on.

[ucrdem]

21. Yep. The answer is to pull the plug.

This has gone on long enough.

[SlogginThroughIt]

11. Many Berners are cultists

They will never see it any other way.

He needs to suspend.

[ucrdem]

12. The only benefit is to Sanders and he's not the nominee.

Joe will go through with it, the jackals will do their thing, Sanders will limp to another squeaker or two, and the whole thing drags on and on, like last time?

No thanks. Clyburn is right: it needs to end now.

[FailureToCommunicate]

14. Nope. I disagree. It only benefits Trump and Republicans to have us still at each

others throats.

[redstatebluegirl]

15. No, it is like the number 1 pick in the NFL draft going to the combine.

You can only lose ground if something goes wrong.

[SKKY]

16. I was thinking almost the exact same thing...

...One of the things that made Obama such an excellent candidate was because the primacy against Clinton really put him through the ringer. Biden needs to be stress tested a bit more, so while I'm obviously glad he is squarely in command of things at this point, I would like him to have to work a bit harder for it.