What could Bernie have done to win?

[Crumpets]

I remember a post along these lines about Bush. Granted, Bush was in a much better position to win originally and blew it, while Bernie was always an underdog and has performed admirably. But apart from "winning minorities" (duh), what specific actions could Bernie have taken early on or more recently to actually win the nomination?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Attacked Hillary more than just a little.

[dspNY]

Actually build up relationships in minority communities for a year or two before running instead of parachuting into those communities asking for their votes with no relationship whatsoever

[ag]

Get Hillary Clinton indicted between mid March and early April. Pretty much the only thing he could do. Any earlier, and somebody else would have run on her machine. And by now even that may be too late.

[Admiral Kizaru]

Actually build up relationships in minority communities for a year or two before running instead of parachuting into those communities asking for their votes with no relationship whatsoever

[IceSpear]

Attacked Hillary more than just a little.

He would've done much worse if he did that. His numbers began to fall after he got more aggressive.

I don't really think there's anything he could've done. He did about as well as possible given the circumstances. The only way he could've won is Hillary not running or getting indicted, both of which were out of his control.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Attacked Hillary more than just a little.

He would've done much worse if he did that. His numbers began to fall after he got more aggressive.

I'm not sure that's true, and even if it is, correlation isn't causation.

[Figueira]

Actually build up relationships in minority communities for a year or two before running instead of parachuting into those communities asking for their votes with no relationship whatsoever

This, basically. Even during the campaign, he should have focused on minorities from the beginning rather than awkwardly shifting his focus to them after Iowa and New Hampshire. Also, he should have prepared for the debates better, especially on foreign policy.

Overall though, he's done fairly well considering the circumstances.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Actually build up relationships in minority communities for a year or two before running instead of parachuting into those communities asking for their votes with no relationship whatsoever

This, basically. Even during the campaign, he should have focused on minorities from the beginning rather than awkwardly shifting his focus to them after Iowa and New Hampshire. Also, he should have prepared for the debates better, especially on foreign policy.

Overall though, he's done fairly well considering the circumstances.

Well obviously he could have done more if he was campaigning for longer. Maybe he should start campaigning now for 2020.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Build a relationship with communities of colour, realise that appealing to the jferns of the world doesn't win the nomination alone.

And remember Rule 101 of Democratic politics - he who relies on the youth vote is f***ed.

Oh and maybe actually be a Democrat before running, might help in closed primaries.

Sanders being negative helped him with the already converted, he needed to remain positive. It was the same with Clinton. His supporters don't seem to acknowledge or understand that Hillary is extremely popular with Democrats and going after her might give the jferns of this world ragers, but turns off moderate and minority voters who decide the election.

Oh and have POLICIES, not just vague ideas.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Build a relationship with communities of colour, realise that appealing to the jferns of the world doesn't win the nomination alone.

What a ridiculous straw man, he got 45% of the pledged delegates.

[Doimper]

Attacked Hillary more than just a little.

He would've done much worse if he did that. His numbers began to fall after he got more aggressive.

I don't really think there's anything he could've done. He did about as well as possible given the circumstances. The only way he could've won is Hillary not running or getting indicted, both of which were out of his control.

Or if Biden won. He would've peeled off a fair chunk of Clinton voters.

[Lyin' Steve]

He should have done more in congress, maybe had some actual accomplishments instead of tacking redundant amendments onto other people's bills.  Then he could have run on more than just ideas and attacks, and he might have gotten some support from his colleagues.  He also could have done a lot more to enhance his foreign policy credentials.  Take some high profile trips to Syria and Libya in 2014 and write some doomed peacenik bills.  As it was he just accepted being weak and clueless which scared a lot of dems over to Hillary.

[SATW]

I echo the calls for stronger relationships with minority communities. He should've started with his own Jewish Community, imo.

He assumed that minorities would just flock to him because of policy, which clearly was a massive mistake.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

He assumed that minorities would just flock to him because of policy, which clearly was a massive mistake.

I don't think he ever assumed it. It's just that if you're a politician from Vermont heavily campaigning in Iowa and NH, you start out with mostly white support. In fact, even regardless of the racial breakdowns of those 3 states, white insurgent candidates tend to start out with mostly white support in primaries when running against someone with very high name recognition.

[Famous Mortimer]

Win about 300 more voters in Iowa.

Also, focused less on Black people.

[Meclazine for Israel]

This one is easy.

Time.

You need to be in the media spotlight for over a decade.

It's not the 'Woman Card'. It's not the 'Trump Card'.

It's the Media Card over a prolonged period of time. Getting familiarity with a candidate. Think of the year you first heard about Trump and Hillary.

For people not in politics, what is the year they heard about Rubio?

That familiarity is what people vote for.

It's a human condition to like someone you have known for 20 years. You grow with them and then look back at the pains and successes of life and realise they have grown with you.

Brad Pitt would have been more successful than Rubio.

[Famous Mortimer]

Actually build up relationships in minority communities for a year or two before running instead of parachuting into those communities asking for their votes with no relationship whatsoever

This is such a bizarre concept.

So basically you're saying, no one from a mostly White state can run for president. HN, VT, IA, WA, OR, OK, WV. Nope! No one from there can be president.

Also, even if you were a politician from a state with a lot of minorities. Why would minorities in Alabama care that you were nice to minorities in New York? They aren't all the same.

Unless you're saying, in order to run for president, you should have built relationships with minority communities on a national level. So then you would be saying no outsiders ever. Basically the only people qualified to be president are people who have run for president before or their spouses. Because no one else even has the opportunity to build such relationships.

[VPH]

He wasn't going to win. The idea of completing minority outreach and building a machine akin to the tried and true Clinton machine nationwide with older voters, POC, etc was simply not possible for Bernie unless he had made a concerted effort over the past 5-6 years, which would have been unfeasible. Bernie was always too far out of the mainstream to win over the minds and the ballots of even the Democratic Party. Sure he won its heart and soul, but there was simply too much skepticism at play. His ideas will live on with a new importance in the party, and his tone will live on too, but quite simply, Bernie had a snowball's chance in hell.

[NHI]

Attacked Hillary more than just a little.

This. When he refused to go after her on the emails in the first debate he lost any chance to win the nomination.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

This one is easy.

Time.

You need to be in the media spotlight for over a decade.

It's not the 'Woman Card'. It's not the 'Trump Card'.

It's the Media Card over a prolonged period of time. Getting familiarity with a candidate. Think of the year you first heard about Trump and Hillary.

For people not in politics, what is the year they heard about Rubio?

That familiarity is what people vote for.

It's a human condition to like someone you have known for 20 years. You grow with them and then look back at the pains and successes of life and realise they have grown with you.

Brad Pitt would have been more successful than Rubio.

Wow, your signatures are truly repulsive and actively sexist. Such wonderfully charming people we attract during election years.

[TomC]

Oh and maybe actually be a Democrat before running, might help in closed primaries. 

This

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

As a Sanders supporter who never thought he had a chance at any point in the race, I intended to write something of an autopsy to share with a small group of fellow supporters after the primary season.  For now, I'll just bullet point what I think he could have done to at least modestly improve his chances or vote margins.

Electorally, simple answer, really: sweep Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada.  Dominating in one state and tying or losing in the others just wasn't enough for him to have a wide path to the nomination, considering Hillary's popularity and the fundamentals of the primary.  Would it have a changed a hell of a whole lot?  Probably not.  But comfortably winning the first three contests wouldn't have hurt.

Strategically?  Well.  It's a tall list.

• Most obvious thing that comes to mind is diversifying the damn platform.  The problem with Bernie's campaign was not that it was "single-issue" as it was exclusively centered on domestic areas of policy.  Hillary, having been SOS under the incumbent Democratic president for four years, was always going to have the upper-hand in any foreign policy debate.  That shouldn't have prevented Sanders from doing his homework earlier so that he could have assuaged some of his skeptics and drawn some reasonable contrast between himself and Hillary on foreign policy.
• Repackage the single-payer proposal as something more resemblant of an Obamacare expansion (which Democrats like), rather than a do-over.  On that note, he probably would've done better to just rally support for a public option, instead, which actually had a conceivable chance of passing the Congress before it was gutted in the Senate bill.  Now that whole idea hasn't gone much further than a brief mention of shallow support on Hillary's campaign site.
• Capitalize on his consistent opposition to domestic spying and the PATRIOT ACT; this was mentioned once at the first debate and never revisited.
• The death penalty issue could've gotten some more attention, too.
• Just scrap almost every area of his Fed policy; that's one Sanders proposal I wouldn't even attempt to defend.
• Maybe spend a few days campaigning with Democrats who actually endorsed him?  John Fetterman probably would've appreciated at least some acknowledgement.  Maybe a phone call.
• Something he should've done years before he ran: have developed at least some kind of personal relationship with the people he's allied with in Congress for 20+ years.
• Fire Weaver, and be a little more involved in what the campaign team says and does.  Micromanaging is bad, but letting a campaign go without any discipline or oversight isn't much better.

All things considered, otherwise, he actually ran a great campaign - arguably the best one of the cycle, considering the fundamentals of this election.  I never expected him to carry more than his home state (if even that!) on the day he announced.  But, he made it a race, and if half the people he brought into the fray stick around in the political scene, that will be a huge win for Democrats.

(Oh, and just as an FYI, Sanders has indicated that he will run in all future elections as a Democrat.  His name won't be on the Independent line again, should he run for another Senate term.)

[Famous Mortimer]

Oh and maybe actually be a Democrat before running, might help in closed primaries. 

This

I missed this. This is seriously dumb as hell.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Foreign Policy: aquire one.