Post-mortem: Did Sanders run a good campaign?

[RaphaelDLG]

Flawless?  Hell no.

Shockingly good, massively over-performing against a woman with as much name recognition as any other one on planet earth, who regularly makes the top 5 most admired females list, who is from the most powerful family in Democratic politics, who had overwhelming establishment support...?

...the answer is obvious.

[RaphaelDLG]

Hell no.

Have friends inside the campaign, it was an absolute nightmare.

There were tight operations on the state level, and the field staff were top notch. Digital obviously did a good job fundraising. A lot of the younger folks hired on to run states etc were VERY good.

But the upper levels of the campaign, especially in Comms, and the ambiguous Political/Mucky Muck/inner circle staff were a mess of backbiting, outdated strategy, and micromanagement.

I buy that, and part of that blame lies on the Captain of the ship, but it's not like any top notch folks were dashing to work for Sanders.  Clinton locked all of the experienced veterans up way early.

[RaphaelDLG]

He was certainly good at sexist and racist dogwhistling.

You forgot occult squirrel torture.

[RaphaelDLG]

I hope Sanders and his supporters finally realize that the Obama coalition is the ascendant coalition of the Democratic party.

You can't win a DEM primary moving forward on the backs of white men and young men and women.

So, did he run a good campaign? In my opinion, no. Strategically, he forfeited the South. He had the funds and chose to allocate them in strange ways. Skip Texas, cede Florida, etc...

If it weren't for caucuses, I doubt he wins many states. I hope the DEM party does a few things for future nominating contests: closes all primaries to allow only registered DEMS to vote; gets rid of caucuses and gets rid of superdelegates.

Bernie had few options because he was not going to win black voters in a few mere months of outreach against a candidate named Clinton.

Agree strongly that caucuses and superdelegates should go, but your stance against closed primaries is counter-productive, I think - the Democratic party is a party that wins when registration, turnout, participation, etc swell.  Same day registration would be acceptable IMO.

[RaphaelDLG]

Oh yes closing off the primary sounds like a fantastic idea. Let's NEVER consult independents on who we nominate.

Sorry, but ratfukng a primary should be a priority for Democrats and Republicans to guard against. If you want to vote in the Democratic primary, register as a Democrat. Have a 30 day registration deadline. If you're an Independent, change your affiliation.

That's a phantom menace that barely happens, like voter fraud.

[RaphaelDLG]

I hope Sanders and his supporters finally realize that the Obama coalition is the ascendant coalition of the Democratic party.

You can't win a DEM primary moving forward on the backs of white men and young men and women.

So, did he run a good campaign? In my opinion, no. Strategically, he forfeited the South. He had the funds and chose to allocate them in strange ways. Skip Texas, cede Florida, etc...

If it weren't for caucuses, I doubt he wins many states. I hope the DEM party does a few things for future nominating contests: closes all primaries to allow only registered DEMS to vote; gets rid of caucuses and gets rid of superdelegates.

Bernie had few options because he was not going to win black voters in a few mere months of outreach against a candidate named Clinton.

Agree strongly that caucuses and superdelegates should go, but your stance against closed primaries is counter-productive, I think - the Democratic party is a party that wins when registration, turnout, participation, etc swell.  Same day registration would be acceptable IMO.

I have to disagree - first, early polling from the Summer of 2015 showed Sanders huge vulnerability with POC. He didn't address it in any meaningful way.

Secondly, it shouldn't have been about winning black votes but at least trying to slim the margins. Clinton hammered him in SC. She demolished him in Georgia and Florida. He ceded all of that to her - and then he dismissed her victories there by denigrating the "Deep South."

I don't think he ran a good campaign. He didn't appeal to the constituencies that the DEM party is currently built on. And like I mentioned, if caucuses didn't exist, he would only have won a handful of states. Just look at the difference between ND and SD today. Or the Nebraska caucus vs. primary, same thing with Washington, etc...

He spent a lot of time and money in South Carolina and didn't move the needle at all.  In my opinion with hindsight, way too much time.  He should have punted black voters and spent more time in the whiter southern states like Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida - the margins ran too high against him there.

Black voters, especially in the south, vote very monolithically and have a long-standing love for the Clintons.  HRC also used her relationships with black pols in DC to bring the Black Caucus down on Bernie in terms of surrogacy, endorsements, etc.  Bernie would have had to be endorsed by Obama or have started working on his relationship with them several years before the primary to have a chance.  It was Hillary freaking Clinton.  She's way too strong a candidate among AAs for Bernie to have fought her with his limited resources.

[RaphaelDLG]

When you think about how badly insurgent candidates like Bill Bradley and Howard Dean flailed against relative losers (to HRC) Al Gore, Dick Gephardt, and John Kerry, Sanders overperformed.

[RaphaelDLG]

No.

A bullet has been dodged. There is no real reason to disbelieve the thrust of the Politico article. Much of it, in retrospect, was hidden in plain sight; people and groups with a history of working and knowing both Clinton and Sanders (Planned Parenthood for example) endorsed Clinton no doubt on similar understanding. There may indeed be a hint of the internal sabotage of Edwards’ campaign in 2008 and certainly the mess of all this will be fascinating reading.

You've got to be high if you think Planned Parenthood was going to endorse ANY other candidate than Clinton, including Biden, Warren, etc

Same to Lyin' Steve's comment about nobody endorsing him in Congress.

It's Hillary freaking Clinton - from the most powerful family in Democratic politics and one of the most powerful and influential political families/networks in the entire globe.