This pg 1 NYT shoulda/woulda/coulda is a fucking meltdown for team Sanders (Devine out of his mind?)

[swag]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/04/us/politics/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

. . . more

His strategy for capturing the Democratic presidential nomination was based on sweeping all three early-voting states, and he had fallen short, winning only New Hampshire — to the consternation of his wife, Jane, who questioned whether he should have campaigned more in 2015.

Without that sweep, his aides thought at the time, Mr. Sanders had little hope of overcoming his vast problems with black voters in the Southern primaries. And he had no convincing evidence to challenge Hillary Clinton’s electability.

“If Clinton had lost Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, it would have been a devastating series of defeats that would have called into question her entire campaign,” said Tad Devine, one of several Sanders advisers who described the Feb. 21 conference call. “We had to shift our strategy. But no matter what, the nomination became tougher to win.”

Mr. Sanders is now campaigning more effectively than many expected, exposing Mrs. Clinton’s weaknesses as a candidate, and is positioning himself to win contests like the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday. But allies and advisers of Mr. Sanders say they missed opportunities to run an aggressive political operation in 2015 that would have presented more of a challenge to Mrs. Clinton. She has now firmly built a big lead in delegates needed to clinch the nomination — a margin that would be smaller if Mr. Sanders had run differently last year, according to interviews with more than 15 people who are on his team or close to him.

. . . more

And that line later in the story about Sanders not wanting to be bothered by other candidates if he's having a coffee at a diner - could it be more clear that he is uninterested in helping down-ticket Democrats?

This story, on page 1 of the New York Times, two weeks before the New York primary. Real smart, Team Sanders.

[CanadaexPat]

1. No matter what, they have outperformed everyone's expectation,

and everyone knows that.

[swag]

2. Well, then. I hope they find a nice frame for their Certificate of Participation.

[GreatGazoo]

3. That's it ?!

Sanders won NH and now Nevada. The rest is just the same old, tired and debunked narrative. Maybe this is their last chance to roll that out since Clinton just lost Nevada on Saturday and will lose Wisconsin tomorrow.

Clinton is losing support, just like in 2008.

If the Sanders' campaign made mistakes in timing they are more than balanced by the string of gaffes that continue from team Clinton -- "awful legacy of the last 8 years", "I'm so sick..", "I feel sorry for..." Nancy Reagan fantasies, "no one died in Libya", ...on and on.

[MBS]

4. I agree that Bernie's lack of emphasis on retail campaigning -

-especially in early states - is a real weakness.

Mr. Sanders also resisted pleas to do the kind of retail-style campaigning that Iowa voters like. He wanted to do more large rallies instead, even though many Iowans like politicians winning them over face-to-face.

I also remember earlier articles which criticized Sanders' lack of emphasis on retail campaigning, so this is far from the only time his lack of retail campaigning in Iowa was mentioned in a critical way.

But, to be fair, that statement you quoted about having coffee in a diner was really a quote by the (often-wrong) Tad Devine, asserting that Bernie's view is that voters don't want candidates interrupting them while they're having their coffee. If so, Bernie and Devine would be wrong, especially in Iowa and New Hampshire. And, judging from his approach so far, I personally suspect that Bernie in fact really does enjoy large-scale rallies more than retail campaigning. But that's not what Devine's statement said.

[zalinda]

7. To be fair to Bernie

he does have another job, which he has not ignored. Hillary, on the other hand, has no job except to give $$$$ speeches, so she can add more money to her wealth.

Z

[Nitram]

8. This latest excuse is very creative. Well done!

[zalinda]

9. Not an excuse, it's a fact. eom

[Bluenorthwest]

5. The gist of the article is that he should have more strongly attacked Clinton's weaknesses early on

"At several points in 2015, Mr. Sanders rejected strategies that most serious candidates would embrace against an opponent.

In October, as they gathered at a hotel outside Las Vegas to prepare for the first Democratic debate, Mr. Sanders’s advisers urged him to challenge Mrs. Clinton over accepting $675,000 from Goldman Sachs for delivering three speeches, according to two Sanders advisers. They thought the speaking fees meshed with the senator’s message about Wall Street excess and a rigged America. But Mr. Sanders, hunched over a U-shaped conference table, rejected it as a personal attack on Mrs. Clinton’s income — the sort of character assault he has long opposed."


I'm not sure I agree.

[Blue_Tires]

6. I've repeatedly pointed out that the Sanders campaign

is run by a bunch of idiots...

The he's doing so well in spite of them really makes me wonder what could have been...