President Trump has accused Joe Biden of being a puppet of the “radical left,” and it would appear the left-est of leftists – Bernie Sanders – has confirmed this opinion with his latest, somewhat surprising (but perhaps CYA-based) comments.
As Biden is forced to emerge from his subterranean safe-space, addressing some awkward positioning of the Democrats amid mass violence in America, and shifting towards the center, Sanders, according to a Washington Post report on Sunday, “told associates that Biden is at serious risk of coming up short in the November election if he continues his vaguer, more centrist approach.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is privately expressing concerns about Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations, and is urging Biden’s team to intensify its focus on pocketbook issues and appeals to liberal voters.
Sanders, the runner-up to Biden in the Democratic primaries, has told associates that Biden is at serious risk of coming up short in the November election if he continues his vaguer, more centrist approach, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive talks.
The senator has identified several specific changes he’d like to see, saying Biden should talk more about health care and about his economic plans, and should campaign more with figures popular among young liberals, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
Sanders was careful to begin with a positive of course:
“Senator Sanders is confident that Joe Biden is in a very strong position to win this election, but nevertheless feels there are areas the campaign can continue to improve upon.”
But one wonders, why, if he really believes that, would he go so public with the following comments pushing Biden back to the left. As The Hill reports, Faiz Shakir, Senator Sanders’ former campaign manager, said in a statement:
“He has been in direct contact with the Biden team and has urged them to put more emphasis on how they will raise wages, create millions of good paying jobs, lower the cost of prescription drugs and expand health care coverage.
He also thinks that a stronger outreach to young people, the Latino community and the progressive movement will be of real help to the campaign.”
As American Thinker’s Monica Showalter notes, this positioning demand from Bernie is also the opposite of what Biden is trying to do in his campaign – gaslight the voters into the hazy impression that he’s a moderate.
The whole Biden approach has been the opposite. Keep Biden in the basement. Allow campaign appearances only when necessary. Have Joe read off the teleprompter so the handlers can call the shots. Pretend to be a moderate, talking out of all sides of his mouth. Retreat when something comes out as too rabidly leftist. Say it never was said at all. Or better still, pretend Trump said it.
For the Bernie set, this is disgusting, and Bernie knows that at least his branch of the party is quite likely to stay home. Bernie is realist enough to know he’d rather have Biden over Trump, as feckless and malleable as Biden is. There’s still power in it for the radicals if they can get the empty vessel into the White House.
So he’s pushing Joe, and he’s going to the press about it, hoping others will push him too. For Biden, who wants to be thought of as Mr. Reasonable Moderate, it’s a no-win situation. He can’t win by shunning the Bernie-ites and their crazy leftist program, and he can’t win by shouting directly that he’s all Bernie-ite, too.
So now it gets played out on the public stage though the press that Bernie sees some problems, Bernie sees a loss on the horizon. Lucky Joe.
“Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters?” Biden said in a speech last month in response to Trump’s claims’ he’d exacerbate national protests over systemic racism.
Even The Washington Post is forced to concede that polls have shown Biden leading Trump among Latinos but not as widely as many Democrats hoped. As a result, fretful discussions are underway in the party about Biden’s standing with Latino voters in battleground states such as Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where Latinos could play a pivotal role in the outcome.
And finally, while most MSM focus on the polls’ question “who will you vote for?”, the most important question is perhaps “who do you think will win?” And the answer to that question is Trump by a wide margin…
Perhaps this is why Bernie has gone so public with his concerns…