BREAKING : Bernie Sanders

[libdem4life]

178. She lost to Obama, yes. I wasn't as into then as I am now, but neither one of them seemed

Progressive/Liberal at all to me. They were chewing each other up. I think that's why I didn't pay a lot of attention because I would vote for the primary winner, as I always do. Neither of them had a lot of political history...or baggage.

She's definitely a Left-leaning Centrist (which is pragmatic) and she'll take the big money, which they all must do if they are serious, and even if a Progressive does emerge, which I doubt based on the same money issue, she's still positioned to be the Primary winner.

The finances and party politics are very different now. There is no current war issue, the party is behind her because they want to win, and Bill is just yammering now, which beats what he was up to before.

She got elected as a New York Senator and has been SOS since then. There isn't a potential candidate with access/ability to raise the necessary billion dollars. And for many reasons, but Elizabeth Warren who is definitely a Populist, I'll bet money on it, will not leave her current work to take on another woman candidate and position herself in what would surely be a Primary rerun bloodletting a la 2008.

Populists don't win national elections, but they do affect them. Like Bernie Sanders, whom I adore, will be able to flesh out The Liberal while enhancing his own national political persona, and I also welcome it, but don't see him as a spoiler/Nader. She'll lean as far Progressive as they make her lean, but as you aptly note, in office it's another story. Somehow, she has to get around 50-60 million people to ultimately vote for her, and to do that, she's got to do the "pragmatic" thing.