Perhaps it is all wishful thinking - But if Bernie Sanders did run for President in 2016 - would you

[MADem]

55. Let's go to that link where that foolish flag was raised, shall we?

It was here that the language was cherry picked to make it appear that BS running was an actual possibility, and not a distant, faint chance:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023933909

The thread headline (replete with dot-dot-dots) read:

"Bernie Sanders talks about...the possibility of a presidential run...."


Of course, if you click on the link, Bernie wasn't "talking about" that at all. He was talking about OTHER stuff, and was, briefly, ASKED the question all Senators get in a non-incumbent election cycle.

http://inthesetimes.com/article/15784/social_democracy_in_the_south/

Here's the ACTUAL headline, without the dots and the allusions:

Social Democracy in the South
Bernie Sanders talks about economic justice—and the possibility of a presidential run—on a three-day road trip.

Oh, so now it's not "a Presidential run" but the "possibility" of one.

So would that be a strong possibility, or a weak one?

Let's go to the text!!!

Sixteen--yes, SIXTEEN paragraphs in, we come to this sub-head, consisting of three brief paragraphs and a declarative sentence:

Presidential ambitions or lefty pipe dream?

One couldn’t help but notice the vaguely presidential tinge of the whole affair—the wide-reaching stump speeches delivered in unfamiliar territory coupled with the fact that Sanders was greeted with a rock star reception that few other senators are capable of generating—let alone in the immediate aftermath of a government shutdown that left an already deeply unpopular Congress with its lowest approval ratings in the history of polling.

I asked the Senator if he was contemplating a presidential run in 2016. Some left-wing Democrats urged him to challenge Obama in the primary last election, and there’s once again talk of him mounting a campaign—like last time, all of it speculative. He says he doesn’t want to.

“I suppose if you’re running for president, probably going to Mississippi and Alabama is not the place most candidates would go. You go to Iowa and New Hampshire or something like that,” Sanders says with a laugh. “But what I do think is there needs to be a progressive voice in the presidential process. I hope very much there will be a voice coming up to do that.”

But when pressed to say if he’s completely decided against running, he acknowledges he hasn’t. “I haven’t ruled it out.”

No sitting Senator--and even former ones--ever "rule it out." They believe in their hearts that they, with their long terms and their positions in the upper chamber, are the cream of the crop, the chosen few, and the best pile of presidential timber in town. They have more gravitas than those in the rambunctious House, they serve in the "cooling saucer" where laws are dissected and made to -- ostensibly -- be 'all that they can be.'

But if his pointing out that he's playing Wrong Way Horrigan by going to the deep south as a Presidential Feeler Patrol isn't evidence enough, and "He says he doesn't want to" also isn't clear enough for some folks, well, I guess there's no convincing the "Pipe Dream" (to quote the article) crowd.