Monday, February 22, 2016

The Democrats' State of Play

Hillary pulled off a narrow victory against Bernie Sanders after leading in Nevada by double digits.  Once again the black bloc voted overwhelmingly for Ms. Clinton.  A bright spot for Sanders is that he polled a majority of Latino voters.  After three primaries the two candidates are tied for pledged delegates to the convention: 51 each.

But that unexpected situation does not tell the whole story.  Clinton has a large advantage in money since she is funded by Super Pacs not subject to limitations under Citizens' United (Mourning Nino?  Not so much!)  As the process wears on, money plays a crucial role in buying advertising intended to lure undecided voters.  The Sanders campaign has got to find a way to connect with minority voters.  It got off to a bad start when the candidate walked off the stage at a rally commandeered by a black activist group (Hillary supporters?).

That is not the only card the former Secretary of State has to play.  The Democratic Party establishment made up of big donors like George Soros, and elected Democratic officials and former officials are solidly behind Madam Secretary.  Superdelegates hold the balance of power in a convention deadlocked by elected delegates; this is an intended circumstance in a political party free to make its own rules of procedure and fearful of a runaway convention in which a presumed unelectable candidate is chosen in a moment of democratic excess.  US Person thinks this influential support that controls the party's superdelegates may go beyond the Beltway, across the river and into the Pentagon and Langley, the so-called "deep state".  The timing of a US air raid against ISIS-Libya was just about perfect in order to influence a tight race in Nevada.

Socialist Sanders is viewed as suspect by professional militarists.  Clinton, with her votes for the wars in the Middle East, a disastrous regime change in Libya, and her cover for the Benghazi fiasco has proven she is not unreliableHer past is no liability either; she supported Barry Goldwater in 1964.  Sanders was just one of sixty-six congressmen who had the courage to vote against the Patriot Act. Being a socialist in the right wing's opinion is just a person who does not have the cojones to admit being a communist.  And you know how godless they are!