Who do you think has a better prescription for up and down ballot Democratic success?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Dire Warning: Bernie Sanders' Candidacy 'Built On False Premise"
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/02/24/former-chicago-mayor-rahm-emanuels-dire-warning-bernie-sanders-candicacy-built-on-false-premise/
CHICAGO (CBS) – Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel had a clear warning for Democrats: A primary victory for Bernie Sanders puts the whole future of the party at risk.

“His candidacy is built on a false premise, strategically and policy-wise,” Emanuel, who served in both Clinton and Obama administrations, said of the far left canidate on CBS This Morning.

Bernie Sanders view is, I don’t want these moderate and fickle voters. We just have to turn out our base,” Emanuel said. “His view is, forget the center, we just want to be left. And that’s never been tried.”

Emanuel pointed to six elections—the four presidential wins by Clinton and Obama and the two midterms in 2006 and 2018—in which a center left strategy and “big urban and suburban turnout” were the keys to victory.

Sanders, who has emerged as the front runner after early primaries, is “an ideological risk policy-wise. I don’t think there are 70 million waiting socialists to be woken, who don’t know they are socialists yet.”

He cited Illinois House districts, which are traditionally conservative but were flipped blue in 2018. None of those candidates has rushed to back Sanders. Similar seats nationwide are in jeopardy without a plan to reach moderate voters at the top of the ticket.

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[guillaumeb]

1. I think that former banker Rahm feels a need for attention.

At one point, the rumor was that Rahm really wanted to be President. So to lay the foundation for a possible , he must position himself as a wise man of politics.

[TwilightZone]

2. For Sanders, I think the message is as much of a problem as anything issue-related.

His campaign's strategy seems to be based on the assumption that the campaign can alienate people who don't buy into him 100% and still win in November. I can't see how that math works.

"I don’t think there are 70 million waiting socialists"

We don't need 70 million socialists. We need 70 million people who don't see Sanders' interpretation of socialism (which isn't actually socialism) as a problem and aren't alienated by his aggressive campaign strategy in the primaries. Attacking Trump is one thing; attacking voters who might otherwise be quite likely to vote for you - like the majority of Democrats some seem to lump together into some vague "establishment" - is another.

We're going to vote for him regardless, but we're not representative of the public at large.

[wyldwolf]

3. Rahm has actually led the party to House control.

[HarlanPepper]

5. I don't think Bernie cares much about the down ballot races

The first response in this thread suggests his supporters don’t either.

[redqueen]

4. I don't have many good things to say about Rahm, but one thing I can say

is that his right wing governance of Chicago led to the election of several democratic socialists to the Chicago city council - so thanks for that, Rahm!

[kentuck]

6. How strong would the Democratic Party be without the left?

I think the entire Party has to be united to win. We cannot afford to drive away any voters.

[TwilightZone]

7. How strong would it be without the 70% of Dems who support others?

"We cannot afford to drive away any voters."

Then, Sanders should probably stop alienating potential allies with his "both sides are bad" nonsense and his never-ending attacks on the party.

Meanwhile, some of his supporters write off groups all the time, the latest being Cubans in Florida. Some have also said Democrats in red states don't matter because we won't win those states in November, though I've noticed they've toned that down since Sanders started doing better in states like SC.

[kentuck]

8. Sounds like both might be pretty weak without the other?

Just from the looks of it.