2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: If Bernie had any toxic secrets in his past, he would never have run. [View all]kstewart33
(6,551 posts)John McCain competed with George W. Bush for the Republican nomination in 2000. McCain beat Bush by a bunch of points in the New Hampshire primary. It was a huge upset given that the Bush family is from New England.
The next primary was South Carolina. Many years before, the McCains adopted an African American baby; I think she was from Africa. The Republicans spred the rumor that McCain had an affair with a black woman and the girl was his illegitimate child. As a result, Bush trounced McCain in the primary. Before the rumor, McCain was leading by many points.
In the 2004 re-election campaign, the Republicans turned John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War soldier, into a serial liar in their Swifboat campaign by paying a few guys who served with Kerry to lie about Kerry's service. It was hugely successful. They destroyed Dukakis in the 1988 Daddy Bush campaign with the Willie Horton ads.
Think about that for a moment. And then think about the facts in Bernie's biography and how the Repubs will attack relentlessly with exaggeration, fear, and innuendo. Communist, Marxist, atheist, a man with no sexual morals. I can see the ads now: "Would you vote for a Communist to lead this country?"
You probably are too young to know any of this. So believe this: they will destroy Bernie. He has never faced this kind of assassination. The public has no idea of the charges that will be made against him because the press has not thoroughly vetted Bernie's biography. I have no faith that he will respond well to it. Kerry did not handle it effectively, a far more gifted and experienced politician that Bernie. Bernie won't know what hit him.