Berniemania!

by JASmius



Hillary Clinton's campaign collapse is becoming more breathtaking with each passing day:

Some ten thousand people packed the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin, to hear Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a seventy-three-year-old self-described socialist accustomed to drawing double-digit crowds, speak of his plans for America.

"Tonight we have made a little bit of history," the underdog [communist], who represents a state of 626,562, told the energetic crowd Wednesday. "Tonight we have more people at any meeting for a candidate of president of the United States than any other candidate."

I hope that mangled syntax didn't come from his speechwriters.

During his hour-long speech, Sanders touted an agenda that includes a $15-an-hour minimum wage, a single-payer healthcare system, expanded Social Security benefits, debt-free college, tax hikes for the wealthy, and a "massive government-led jobs program to fix roads and bridges," according to the [London] Guardian.

"The big money interests — Wall Street, corporate America, all of these guys — have so much power that no president can defeat them unless there is an organized grassroots movement making them an offer they can’t refuse," Sanders said.

I can just see Barack Obama exclaiming, "WHAT?!?"  And you have to admit, Weekend Bernie is engaging in some heavy-duty gimmick infringement with that radical, and retreaded, policy laundry list.

He mentioned his Democrat opponent, Hillary Clinton, just once, according to CNN, when he told his raucous supporters that his campaign "is not about Bernie Sanders, it is not about Hillary Clinton, it is not about anyone else, it is about you!"

James Webb), either, all Donk "establishmentarians" to whom the Democrats' leftwing extremist base will never, ever rally (all are in single digits, to the extent pollsters bother to survey their microscopic campaign impact).

What does a spectacle like this one indicate?  Not that Senator Sanders has (yet) any serious chance of toppling Mrs. Clinton from her purloined throne, but that the Nutroots are even more desperate to escape the Hillary trap than even I figured, given that their goddess, Elizabeth Warren, isn't running, and yet they're surging towards an old white guy just to get away from her.

And Weekend Bernie's chances at knocking off the Empress keep growing more serious all the time:

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is gaining ground on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Iowa Democrat Caucus and now trails the front-runner 52% – 33% among likely Democrat Caucus participants, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Vice President Joseph Biden has 7%.

This compares to a 60% – 15% Clinton lead over Sanders in a May 7th survey of likely Democrat caucus-goers by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University…

“Secretary Hillary Clinton should not be biting her fingernails over her situation in the Iowa caucus, but her lead is slipping and Senator Bernie Sanders is making progress against her. Her 52% score among likely caucus-goers is still OK, but this is the first time she has been below 60% in Quinnipiac University’s Iowa survey,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

That's a twenty-six point pickup in a little under two months.  At this rate, Sanders will be leading 52%-44% by Labor Day.  In Iowa.  And remember, he's even stronger in New Hampshire.  Which explains why La Clinton Nostra has deployed all over Vermont to dig up the dirt with which to try and destroy him, which will, in turn and of course, simply turn Sanders into a martyr and make him even more popular with the Nutroots.  In short, the escalation of the Democrat civil war.

I still see Bernie Sanders as Hillary Clinton's version of Pat Buchanan, a significant thorn in her fat ass that won't deny her the Democrat nomination but will put her roaring weakness as a national candidate on full, months-long display.  But the possibility now exists that he will become the Howard Dean of 2016 if the Donk base hadn't narrowly opted for John Kerry instead.

Exit questions: Could Mrs. Clinton be out of the race before the end of the year?  And would not the entire GOP field be licking their chops at the prospect of running against Weekend Bernie almost as much as they already are the Ugly Dutchess?