Has Bernie Sanders “effectively conceded” or are we hearing only what we want to hear?
Today Bernie Sanders told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing that he will be trying to convince super delegates to switch their votes to his campaign based on the fact that Sanders is more electable in the general election than Hillary Clinton. I wanted to embed the video, but MSNBC videos from their Politics page are not whitelisted. Here’s a transcript of the two minute conversation:
SANDERS: The other thing we are gonna have to do is make the case to the super delegates, many hundreds of whom came on board [with] Sec. Clinton before I even announced. They were with her way back when. And make the case to them that is what is most important is that a republican not gain control of the White House. Now I think in any objective assessment of political reality that Bernie Sanders is a much stronger candidate against Donald Trump than is Hillary Clinton. And that’s just not me talking. That’s poll after poll, state polls, national polls. And the reason for that is we are appealing to Independents and some Republicans, interestingly enough, who are tired of establishment politics and establishment economics, who would prefer a Bernie Sanders to a Hillary Clinton.
JANSING: But her supporters would say “She has 3 million more votes.”
SANDERS: In the Democratic primary, sure. I understand that. But look at every poll that’s out there. And by the way many of….I’ll give you an example. Just yesterday there were five primaries. We did badly in three, we did ok in Connecticut, we won in Rhode Island. The one state that we won was an open primary. Well, you know what, the general election is open. If you’re an independent you can vote for a Democrat, you can vote for a Republican. We are winning, in the Democratic primary and caucus process Independents , I think roughly two to one compared to Hillary Clinton. So it’s not me. Every poll that’s out there, national and state-wide, shows Bernie Sanders defeating Trump by a significantly larger margin in many cases than is Hillary Clinton.
I can update this diary with the video when it or if it becomes available for embedding. Sorry for my lousy transcription skills.
Then we have this tweet from Jansing:
I only heard a brief clip of the Purdue rally and it contained a relatively weak attack on Clinton (voted for the bailout), so I would have to take Jansing’s word that he was “hitting” Hillary Clinton in other parts of the speech.
And then there’s the concept of the Democratic primary process which, apparently, Sanders thinks can be subverted in favor of his alleged superior electability math (The whole “objective assessment of political reality” vs. the reality of math does not equal the reality of how Democrats nominate their candidate for president, I guess).
But all that aside, how does this jibe with Markos’ diary earlier today?
Bernie Sanders effectively conceded last night.
I congratulate Secretary Clinton on her victories tonight, and I look forward to issue-oriented campaigns in the 14 contests to come [...]
The people in every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as president and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be. That’s why we are in this race until the last vote is cast. That is why this campaign is going to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia with as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform that calls for a $15 an hour minimum wage, an end to our disastrous trade policies, a Medicare-for-all health care system, breaking up Wall Street financial institutions, ending fracking in our country, making public colleges and universities tuition free and passing a carbon tax so we can effectively address the planetary crisis of climate change.
Bernie is talking about his agenda. That’s true. But he’s still going after Clinton and is still talking, in detail, about his plan to try to switch the super delegates to his side. So where is the concession to concentrate on challenging the party platform to look Sanders’ agenda?
Earth to Bernie or Earth to us?