AP Dispatch from November 4th, 2020

[CalFione]

From the potential universe in which Bernie Sanders is the Democratic nominee:

“Trump, GOP Win Resounding Mandate”

President Trump cruised to re-election last night, winning 350 electoral votes and 51% of the popular vote.

Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell gained 1 seat in his Senate majority as Doug Jones went down to defeat in Alabama to Jeff Sessions and five vulnerable GOP Senators held on to win. Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, Martha McSally, Corey Gardner, and Joni Ernst - all of whom seemed to be in trouble six months ago - managed to win by relentlessly tying their opponents to Bernie Sanders’ democratic socialist agenda.

But in the most crushing news for Democrats on the night, their 18-seat House majority was wiped out as the GOP won back 25 of the 41 House seats they lost in 2018. Speculation is that Kevin McCarthy will be the next House Speaker when the new Republican majority is sworn in on January 3rd. Nancy Pelosi has strongly hinted that she will retire.

For stunned Democrats, forced to come to grips with how they lost so badly in a political environment in which Trump’s popularity was so low, the news got potentially worse. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the 86 year old Supreme Court justice, has hinted at her retirement. Mitch McConnell has indicated that Trump’s next nomination to replace her will sail through the Senate before March.”

We can still avoid this future, Democrats.

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Nonsense...

[CalFione]

2. if your preferred candidate gets the nom, I agree

This future will be avoided if Biden is the nominee

[UniteFightBack]

16. If only dotard dump believed that then he wouldn't of went through the trouble of impeachment

and committing such acts that led to it.

[CalFione]

18. It is because Trump believes Biden is a big threat that he committed impeachable acts to stop him

[DanTex]

3. Bernie is polling ahead of Trump...

[CalFione]

4. There's a reason for that

The GOP has been treating Bernie with kid gloves so far.

They are waiting until he secures the nomination.

They want him to be their opponent, so they aren’t attacking him yet.

[DanTex]

6. The reason is that most people prefer Bernie to Trump.

[CalFione]

8. Because the attack machine hasn't spun up yet

[DanTex]

12. Yes it has. Every pundit on TV and in the media has been bashing Bernie for years.

Chris Matthews said Bernie would be cheering Central Park executions. Joy Reid pulled out a "body language expert" to say that Bernie's "turtle posture" means he's a liar. Bloomberg called Bernie a communist. Every little nitpick, like the health records thing, is repeated by all the media over and over.

Everyone knows Bernie is a democratic socialist. It's not a secret.

[Dennis Donovan]

13. Yeah, like they won't attack EVERY Dem nominee...

[CalFione]

14. Yes but those attacks won't resonate like the socialism attack will

The only candidate the socialism attack sticks to is Bernie. It does not work with the other candidates.

There is a reason GOP candidates up and down the ballot are salivating at the prospect of a Bernie nomination.

[Dennis Donovan]

22. They've already said EVERY DEM candidate will be labeled a socialist

...and they've been doing it for years:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/06/20/republicans-have-been-tying-democrats-socialism-years-trump-is-going-all-tradition/

Republicans have been tying Democrats to socialism for 90 years. Trump is going all in on the tradition.

By JM Rieger

June 20, 2019 at 3:58 p.m. EDT

While formally launching his 2020 reelection campaign on Tuesday, President Trump circled back to a word he has used publicly at least 118 times since becoming president: socialism.

“No matter what label they use, a vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American Dream,” Trump said at his 60th rally since being sworn in.

Republicans linking Democrats and Democratic policy proposals to “socialism” or “communism” is nothing new, examples of which you can watch in the video above. But the tactic of “red-baiting” has roots in a near-century-long Republican campaign to discredit policies including Social Security, the G.I. Bill and Medicare.

Former president Herbert Hoover and the son of former president William Howard Taft warned that President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal would lead to socialism.

</snip>

[CalFione]

23. Yes... but the label fails when it is applied to the other candidates

The label sticks when applied to Bernie.


Yes... they will *TRY* to call Joe Biden a socialist. But the attack doesn't resonate. For an attack to resonate, it has to have SOME kernel of truth to it that people will believe.

[Dennis Donovan]

24. It fails with Bernie as well once his positions are articulated

What is the purpose of your OP here?

[honest.abe]

9. Not nearly as well as Biden especially in the battleground states.

That's where the election will be decided. Bernie can get 60% of the vote in the blue states and still lose an electoral college landslide.

[Turin_C3PO]

5. No way.

Bernie may lose but he wouldn’t lose the popular vote and we’d hold onto the House. Plus, the EC would be closer. Bernie would win the Northeast, MidAtlantic, West Coast, NM, and IL.

[CalFione]

7. Add up the EVs from what you listed

It means only about 180 EVs for us.

[UniteFightBack]

17. Who cares about the popular vote? He would lose in the swing states and beyond....especially

AFTER the Gop smear machine and it's media arms get to serious work. I'm not even going to include the Russians!

Wake up America.

[Turin_C3PO]

19. I'm just saying it's not all doom and gloom.

Even if Bloomberg gets the nomination, by far our worst and weakest candidate, we can win if we all convince just a few people who don’t vote to get out there and vote for the Democrat.

[Kurt V.]

10. read some data. good grief

[CalFione]

11. If your preferred candidate gets the nomination, you are right

This future would be avoided if Elizabeth Warren is the nominee.

[honest.abe]

15. If we lose Ginsberg's seat we are screwed for a generation or more.

Currently its 5 (Cons) to 4 (Liberal) if we lose Ginsberg's seat then is 6-3. Ugh.

[nobuddy]

20. Who wins the World Series?

I'm going to go Biff Tannen.

[CalFione]

21. I know who does NOT win the world series

The Pittsburgh Pirates.

[Sneederbunk]

25. UNDECIDED indeed.

[Turbineguy]

26. Sometimes societies make a collective decision

to destroy themselves.

We're the Romans who are given a chance to elect the Visigoths.