What Will Bernie Do?

The e-mail investigation is the [img]other one[/img]. This is the one about the Clinton Foundation.

How long are you going to just shut your eyes to the corruption?

The problem isent the death threats, or the people who made them. The problem is that you and Bernie refuse to condemn then or even acknowledge that they happened.

So what do you guys think? Is Bernie going to ever do a clear concession speech, and get behind Hillary? The more I see him, the harder it is for me to imagine this man saying "You won, I lost."

I think he's going for the concessions from Hillary/ DNC now, and when he gets them (or as many of them as he can), then he'll do a clear concession speech. The framework would be about how much he accomplished -- and I think that he's earned a certain amount of crowing there -- and that now he's willing to step back and work for Hillary, since he's been able to create some needed changes. (Open primaries, same-day voter registration, etc.)

I'll be okay with it if he toots his own horn and then does a clear concession and throw of his support behind Hillary. But how convincing do you think he will be to his followers? Did you see it as passive aggressive dissing of Hillary when he would let his crowds boo her name without rebuke? It's all relevant to me, especially if his concession speech is a red hot Bernie promotion followed by a lukewarm nod in Hillary's direction.

I think once he comes around he'll be pretty good. Probably a notch down from how thoroughly Hillary supported Obama, when it was her turn for this. But he said a lot of nice things about her in the beginning of the race, before he started to think he really had a chance of winning it, and the ends of these things are always rancorous. I don't think he'd let his followers boo her, once he's ready.

Since he was there in the recent past, I think he can get there again -- she didn't actually do anything so terrible between then and now, he just got close enough that he could taste it and I don't think that was great for him, generally speaking. So it's possible he's permanently turned on her, but I think it's more likely that he'll come around.

I've had this on my desktop since last fall and have deployed it on Facebook a few times:

Wow, that's nice Soz. Very positive and hopeful.

I see what you're saying - that he will come back to being cordial when it's all said and done. I wish he hadn't let them boo her - that really affected my opinion of him. And I still wonder - even if he comes back -if he can bring his followers back from the dark place he either led them to, or let them go to.

I don't think it'll be anything too cause and effect -- like, he says to his followers, "Support Hillary," and they say "Oh, OK."

But I think he's going to frame this as, I did all I could to make your voices heard, and now we have to vanquish Trump. And I think that combined with other factors will result in a good number of Bernie's supporters coming around.

Let me just ask you - don't you think they followed his lead as he went from being cordial to hostile during the campaign? You say you don't think it will be straight cause and effect, but just as they followed him from friendly to not so friendly, I think they will be taking their cue from him - his attitude/ how enthusiastic or not he is about supporting her. I hope you're right,and I tend to think you are - that most of them will go with Hillary.But I'm more worried about this crowd than I was with the PUMAs. And the difference is the behavior of the one who lost.

What does the PUMA acronym mean? I tried looking it up, no luck.

Party Unity My Ass
It was the Hillary followers' equivalent of Bernie-or-busters

Ah, thanks for the clue.

Well, they met and then both posted almost identical press releases.
Still hard to know what Bernie is thinking...


"The two discussed a variety of progressive issues where they share common goals like raising wages for working families, eliminating undisclosed money in politics and reducing the cost of college for students and their families," a Clinton official said, echoing the same policy items listed in Sanders' statement.

However, while Clinton's statement discussed "unifying the party," Sanders' made no mention of the "u" word.

The first thing is who "they" is, exactly.... I think the bloc of people who supported Bernie in the primaries is pretty diverse.

Many of my friends on Facebook supported Bernie strongly for a while but they didn't hate Hillary, they just liked Bernie better. That subgroup started to peel away pretty early, when it became clear that barring something catastrophic, Bernie was not going to win. That group supports Hillary already.

There is another (smaller -- only one person I can think of that I have a direct connection with, though like-minded friends of hers chime in when she posts something) group who is just 100% anti-Hillary, period. They're saying that they don't give a damn what Bernie says -- that he was the result of a movement (not the cause) and the movement will go elsewhere if he tells them to vote for Hillary. They're talking about Jill Stein a lot.

Then there is a middle group -- also midsize out of the three, in my own sample -- who really liked Bernie, really dislike Hillary, and have just kind of gone quiet in the last month or so. When I see stuff from them it's more anti-Trump. I think they are going to end up as Hillary supporters but they want a bridge, a way to do it. I think this is the group that would be most influenced by what Bernie says and how he says it, but not necessarily in terms of whether he changes their mind in any way, but in terms of how good of a bridge he gives them.

I think he'll give them a good-enough bridge.

I hope you are right, sounds like you are in contact with a quite a few Bernie supporters. It is just that this year has been a year full of surprises, usually not good ones.

Well what's "good enough" is a matter of opinion. But, if Bernie gave her a bridge that you saw as weak, would that shock you?

(Good enough as in at least minimally effective at providing his supporters with a way to justify changing their support to Hillary, not as in what I think of it.)

I would be kind of surprised if Bernie doesn't eventually come out with a pretty strong endorsement. He's going to be annoying (to us) and grumpy and recalcitrant along the way, and Weaver isn't going to help anything at all, but yeah I think he'll get there.

And how'd you get so dang optimistic?

Well here's something to consider about Bernie and concession speeches - that I learned watching Hardball the other night.

He has to concede before Wednesday during the Convention (July 25-28), or else he won't get to speak until after the nomination is announced Wednesday night. When hardly anyone's paying attention any longer.

Aren't I always?