Bernie Sanders
In reply to the discussion: Why Bernie should be very careful about O'Malley's proposal to hold Debates himself. [View all]merrily
(45,251 posts)IMO, "No" and "regardless of anything else" should be dropped from the last option, which I chose with the following reservations.
Here is my full answer.
First and foremost, Bernie should participate in the DNC debates. If you're running as a Democrat, you don't want to piss off the DNC and the super delegates, which refusing to participate in the DNC debates would accomplish. If the DNC lifts its own ban, there is no issue at all and, of course, Bernie should, in that case, participate in the DNC debates AND in as many other debates as he can. He'll win against O'Malley, Chafee and Webb, hands down.
Right now, O'Malley's best hope (and probably the dream of Hillary and the DNC) is to get Bernie out of the way. I don't know what deals, if any, O'Malley may be making with Hillary and/or the DNC. I very strongly suspect that Kerry made a deal with Dean in 2004 and Obama made a deal with the Clintons in 2008, though. I'd be very cautious about anything coming at Bernie from Hillary, the DNC, O'Malley, Webb or Chafee. (Yeah, I know, duh, merrily.)
This option also made my choice more difficult: "Yes, participate but ONLY IF Webb and Chafee do so also and/or if the DNC lifts their ban."
Whether Webb and Chafee participate is totally irrelevant to my response. Neither of them has a thing to lose at this point. The key is whether the DNC lifts it's own ban. However, ONLY if the DLC lifts the ban is not a clear, stand alone choice in the poll. I'd drop make the DLC's lifting the ban a separate option if you want clearer results. JMO