The last few days have been interesting. Blogger and pundit alike seemed very intent on telling us that Sanders is hurting the party.
If I took all the comments here seriously I might think the Party is coming apart at the seams.
So this is basically bullshit. I learned long ago that the things that get pundits and bloggers all upset often have very little resemblance to reality.
And so Gallup provides some this morning:
Though tensions have boiled over recently, the dramatic events are not representative of the feelings of rank-and-file Democrats, who don't share with Republicans the view that a continuing campaign for their party's nomination is damaging the party itself. Republicans' more pessimistic views could stem from a long process that has involved a large group of candidates, name-calling and many heated, televised exchanges. While the Democratic candidates have had impassioned exchanges of their own, the temperament of the contest pales in comparison to that of the GOP.
What is interesting: neither Clinton nor Sanders people think the Party is being hurt. From Gallup: Do you think the continuing campaign for the Democratic nomination is hurting the party or not hurting the party?| Hurting the party% Not hurting the party% | |
| 25 | 70 |
| 23 | 74 |
| 27 | 69 |
As I wrote earlier this week, I am not thrilled with the Sanders campaign’s response to Nevada, though Sanders did talk to Barbara Boxer after the event.
But Sanders hasn’t come close to playing the hard ball in that Clinton played in 2008.
Want Hardball? This is what Clinton strategist Mark Penn wrote in 2008 about Barack Obama:
His roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values ... Every speech should contain the line you were born in the middle of America to the middle class in the middle of the last century ... Let’s explicitly own ‘American’ in our programs, the speeches and the values. He doesn’t.
Show me a Sanders ad EVEN CLOSE to as negative as this one:
x YouTube VideoAnd despite all of this we still won.
Rank and File Democrats don’t think this campaign is hurting the party. Of course we get all manner of very concerned Clinton supporters here that it is. But they are not representative of most Clinton supporters. They write because they don’t like opposition.
Most Democrats are fine with it.