I think Putin will work to get Sanders elected. Not Sanders fault and not welcomed by Sanders.

[Stinky The Clown]

This post is only peripherally about Sanders. It is entirely about Russia sowing discord in the US.

Last cycle they got Trump elected and half the country hated him. They knew Trump was a disruptor and easily controllable. They coached him and brought us to where we are now.

Emotions on both the Trump and Not Trump sides are running high and getting higher and hotter as Trump-favored wins and Liberal-favored losses mount.

With Sanders also being a disruptor - true enough, on the side of issues favored by the left of center - putting him in the White House would be sharp, incredible political whiplash. Kind of like when Trump got in.

So now we have years-long-emboldened, empowered right wing crazies, and newly emboldened, empowered left wing believers charged up and ready for a fight. One side wishing to maintain what Trump gave them. One side set on achieving what Sanders promised them.

No good can come of the overheated emotions of both sides, each trying to find a way forward that suits their belief systems.

Political things will get accomplished under President Sanders. And with each accomplishment, with each rolling back of Trump policies, hatred will grow.

Left wing policies will beget strife in the country. Peace will not prevail.

Once again, this is not about Sanders, per se. I don't lay blame at his feet. I am just setting out a theory of why the Russians would be working thier system in his favor. What is in it for them?

Or it could just be they think Sanders is easiest for Trump to beat.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. I will be succinct.

Putin wants Bernie to win the primary and lose the general election. If Bernie was elected out foreign policy would more resemble the foreign policy of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton than of Donald Trump and George Bush. Bernie would try to reassemble the liberal democratic order that Trump is obliterating to Putin's delight.

[W_HAMILTON]

2. It is somewhat Sanders's fault.

Because he prides himself on being separate and distinct from the Democratic Party -- except when he temporarily joins it because it benefits him politically, of course -- and regularly takes cheap shots at the party, its state and national organizations, individual Democrats, etc.

If the Russians want to simply sow division and discord within the Democratic Party, of course they will piggyback onto Sanders's divisive style and you most certainly can blame Sanders for his own actions that lead to this.

A lot of this could have been solved had Sanders stayed within the party and viewed himself as a true Democrat and worked within the party to "better it" instead of acting as an outside agitator mounting a hostile takeover.

So, yes, I will certainly blame Sanders for his part in advancing this.

[uponit7771]

3. K&R, Sanders has no historical swing state appeal outside of MOE, Biden has the most so Biden is

... not the person Putin wants his whore to run against

[Moderateguy]

4. I do not for a min believe Putin has any interest in seeing Sanders as President

I fully expect Putin to find all kinds of "evidence" of what Sanders did when he honeymooned there.

Putin wants control-he has none over Sanders but he OWNS Trump

[MisterFred]

5. Win-win for Putin.

Sanders loses the nomination, he divides the Dem. party with the narrative it was stolen from Sanders.

Sanders wins the nomination, he divides the Dem party with opponents of Sanders saying Putin stole the nomination for him.