Wednesday, February 03, 2016

A tie and a warning

From the Daily Kos:

After Iowa, I see basically bad news for our party, bad news for each campaign. I'm hoping this doesn't get worse, but I'm not getting my hopes up. 
First, although Clinton is the winner here, this was way too close for this campaign to claim any bragging rights. Now I know Clinton people will offer up the usual caveats: rural white people, semi-open caucus system, etc. And that's all true. But the fact is the campaign chose to compete here and the win was unimpressive. There is no way I'd be thinking ‘stick to the plan’ after a what is basically a tie. Even if the nomination case is on firmer footing, the general election caae for this campaign is weak. They have to do better than this crap. Clearly. Democrats should be thanking Bernie Sanders right now because clearly the frontrunner has some glaring weaknesses that need correcting. 
Second, for the Sanders Campaign to claim something out of this is perfectly fair. They remind me of ‘flurry’ boxers from my GG days. Huge myriad of combinations, none of them strong enough to leave a mark. The Sanders Campaign promised to expand the electorate and win the disaffected and so on. But that failed to materialize in probably the most favorable territory he's going to see for the next month and a half. Sanders should be especially disappointed by his underperformance in Des Moines, which is the most Democratic Party of America looking place in Iowa. If I were the Sanders Campaign, I'd be asking about why they campaign can't seem to get out of a very rural, very white box. There's no path to victory there in this party. A strong performance, but not one likely to change any minds elsewhere in the country. I know Sanders folks believe a wave of socialism is sweeping the country, but if Iowa is any indication, its a very narrow demographic, not big enough for victory. 

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