Sanders: 'Despair is not an option'

[Tom Rinaldo]

13. Danger: Don't. Go. There.

There was plenty of negative propaganda spread about Hillary, all true. And, as Bernie always said, she would have been "light years" better as president than Trump. But every candidate, and by extension those who help nominate him or her, have to take responsibility for any weaknesses of that candidate. That is what the realm of competition known as politics centers around. Who can win enough support to win an election?

There were things that Hillary herself did that contributed to some of the negative feelings some had about her. She herself admitted that she didn't initially handle the private email server controversy as well as she should have. She ran knowing full well that she was under investigation by the FBI which is always problematic for any candidate for any office and she was in the public eye for months while underneath that cloud. While Hillary was initially cleared from any prosecution before she won the nomination, her conduct still received scathing criticism from the FBI Director and that was on public record before Democrats nominated Hillary. She also spent much of her time after she left the State Department, before she declared for President, courting Wall Street for money, millions upon millions of it. There is nothing illegal about it and it did not in any way establish that she might have become beholden to them as a result of that. But it did little to exactly polish her image as a fierce defender of the little guy and gal against powerful corporate special interests, free from divided loyalties in that regard. And this was an election year when perceptions about being part of or apart from the status quo mattered.

I supported Hillary in public and voted for her in the privacy of my polling booth, but blaming her soft degree of widespread popularity - which was apparent from low approval numbers dating back from a year before the election, on Bernie Sanders who went out and campaigned for her is counter productive now. Which is the only reason why I am writing this. Bernie is fighting on our team. This OP reflects that. Hilary is starting to speak out more again now, which is also good.