2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Sanders Explains How He Would Deal With An Obstructionist Congress [View all]Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)I assume you mean the math that the Republicans will almost certainly have a majority in the House in the next Congress. That, alas, is true. What's too simplistic, though, is to assume that all Republicans are identical.
There are Tea Party true believers. Then there are those who aren't true believers but pretend to be, because they're nervously looking over their right shoulders at a possible Tea Party challenger. Both those groups are probably hopeless.
BUT there are also Republicans who are more vulnerable on the left than the right. Notably, some of them represent districts that Obama carried. The strategy I'm suggesting is to bring pressure to bear on them to peel them away from the Republican majority on some key votes.
That Senator Sanders withdrew his single-payer bill doesn't say much about what President Obama could have done. By virtue of his office, Obama can get national TV time. By virtue of his popularity, he could intimidate Republicans in swing districts. Sanders couldn't have done those things.
I'm not saying this is a slam dunk. It's quite possible that, if Obama had tried this strategy from the beginning, he wouldn't have done any better with Congress. It's hard to see, though, how he could have done any worse.
With regard to Obama's term, this is hindsight. He chose to apply the tactic of "You'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar" and it might have worked out. Sanders, however, has learned from Obama's experience.