Here’s the documentation on Bernie’s superdelegate positions:
- Bernie’s superdelegate flap: On Feb. 10, just after Bernie won New Hampshire, Bernie’s supporter started a petition on MoveOn against superdelegates. Before that, Bernie was sure they would switch to him, like they did for Obama. But that didn’t happen until after obama had such a large elected-delegate lead that it was impossible for Clinton to catch up. Bernie wanted the switch after winning just one small primary. So he lectured his follower about one-person, one-vote democracy, until he far outspent Clinton in New York and still lost 42% to 58%. See what happened then in Reason #4.
- Here are the three petitions to “Let the Voters Decide” from Bernie supporters. They should send these to Bernie !!!
- Robert Reich, Bernie’s most popular spokesperson launched a petition: “Bernie or Hillary? Let the voters decide — not superdelegates.” (signed by 179,000 Bernie supporters, here)
- MoveOn, Bernie’s main base of support is running two petitions. Here’s #1: “Superdelegates: Don’t Deny Democracy. Announce that in the event of a close race, you’ll align yourself with regular voters – not party elites.” (209,000 Bernie supporters, here)
- Here’s MoveOn’s 2nd petition: Superdelegates: Let the voters decide. The race for the Democratic Party nomination should be decided by who gets the most votes, and not who has the most support from party insiders.” (188,000, here)
- At the National Press Club, on May 1, reporter Mary Alice Williams from NJ public television popped the question.
- Mary Alice: “If you do not secure the majority of pledged delegates, do you still believe that superdelegates should switch [Bernie nods yes] and back you [yeah] as in rejecting the will of the voters?
- Bernie: Yeah, well you know it’s a funny thing. … I hope that we will win the pledged delegates, but at the end of the day … if those superdelegates conclude that Bernie Sanders is the best candidate, … yes I would very much welcome their support.” (Watch it. This Q&A has not been reported elsewhere.)
- The full transcript of Bernie’s reply include his rationalizations:
- Bernie Sanders: Yeah, well you know it’s a funny thing. Where right now you have the state after state where we have won landslide victories and there are superdelegates who are saying “we don’t have to listen to the people,” we’ll vote for Hillary Clinton. I think at the end of the day, superdelegates are going to have to consider — and by the way I hope — it’s a steep hill to climb — I hope that we will win the pledged delegates, but at the end of the day the responsibility the superdelegates have is to decide what is best for this country and what is best for the Democratic Party. And if those superdelegates conclude that Bernie Sanders is the best candidate, the strongest candidate to defeat Trump and anybody else, yes I would very much welcome their support.”
- Bernie only has one Senator, Jeff Merkley of Oregon. The amazingly unpopular Ted Cruz got 6 Senatorial endorsements. And he is telling Sanders to dop out
- “Secretary Clinton, then [in 2008] senator, said, ‘OK, I had the discussion across America. I’m ready to pivot and work together.’ And Obama reached out, and she reached out, and that should be a model for us to follow,” Merkley said outside of the Capitol on Thursday [April 29]. “I think after California, June 7, is about the time it would be appropriate — all states will have weighed in by then. It will then give them five weeks to work together” before the convention.
- Bernie’s workers and volunteers are urging him to concede early for his own good and the good of his movement. See the May 12 story in the NY Times and Politico. They have sketched their plan in a three-page document with the title:
- “After Winning on June 7th Bernie Sanders Should Suspend his Campaign and Launch an Independent Organization to Defeat Donald Trump.”
- Bernie is losing. The problem for Bernie is that he is now behind by 276 elected (pledged) delegates (9%) and is losing the popular vote by 16%. The reason he’s doing worse in popular votes is that a lot of his delegates come from caucus states, and caucus force people to sit through long-boring speeches before they vote. This favors young people and students and is basically a form of voter exclusion. It’s less democratic.
- Bernie is not fighting Trump, and he keeps Hillary from pivoting to Trump. But the only way Bernie can win is if something extraordinary happens. But in that case, he didn’t need to be fighting her anyway. He thinks is gaining power, but he’s just making enemies.
What’s Bernie’s Problem? There are fewer supers now than Obama faced. He was also an outsider facing the Clintons. He never whined. He just won over the voters and the elected delegates.
Bernie just doesn’t make friends — he only want followers. His track record is all hostility. Look at this post from the little party he was president of in the 1970s. They still hate him. He won’t even join his Vermont Progressive Party, so it get’s less than 4% of the vote after 35 years of “political revolution” in Vermont.
