Bernie. Don't go there. Just do not. Just STOP.

[ehrnst]

114. He compared people saying he was old to actual racial and gender discrimination.

Please, if politicians think they are exempt from criticism and yes, sometimes mocking, about their public statements, they don't belong in politics, no matter how lofty their ideas.

If one thinks that their favorite politicians are exempt from the scrutiny of their statements that doesn't turn out to be positive, then they don't understand politics, or they don't have much faith in the ability of that politician to endure the realities of a public career.

I agree that Warren is a far, far better candidate Sanders for many reasons: knowlege of social justice issues, a deep understanding of economics in theory and action, interpersonal skills, the ability to understand and articluate complex ideas in understandable ways, the detailed plans that she has for putting her ideas into legislative reality, the influence she has among her colleagues especially behind the scenes (Obama consulted her on legislation), the ability to change her mind when new data come in that show things in a different light, her respect of and reciprocal respect by her colleagues.

Where others say “we should have a conversation about that,” Warren’s had the conversation, analyzed the problem, and come up with a plan to fix it.

I think that Warren will take the trajectory of Paul Wellstone - another professor turned Senator. Once Wellstone got into office, he realized that many of his campaign promises would, in practice, hinder his ability to serve his country and constituents, so he decided that those were wrong to have promised - that he would not hire "beltway insiders" as staff or advisors, that he would only seek one term, that Single Payer was the only way to universal health care. So, he let go of staffers that while they were wonderful activists, they couldn't manage the procedural administrative duties of a Senate staff, and hired experienced ones. He realized halfway through his term that he could be more effective in a second term after managing the learning curve of the first term, and ran for re-election. He talked to experts and other people on the hill (Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton among them) about their experiences with health care policy, and decided that single payer wasn't the most efficient or timely way to get to universal health care.

Perhaps it's because like Wellstone, Warren is an educator which enables her to value lifelong learning, gave her experience with cirrucula requiring her to keep up with evolving economic realities and strategies, new students every semester challenging her to articulate and defend her ideas clearly, so she doesn't get stuck latching on to one particular strategy policy solution for the sake of a foolish consistency.

Her ability to change party affiliation after watching firsthand the GOP's economic policy evolve into something that was contradictory to what she believed it was, and saw what the fruits of those policies actually were shows an ability to critically examine her own ideas on economic and social strategy. and to let go of what no longer applied to her vision of economic equity.

That kind of intellectual curiosity and openess is what I saw in Obama and HRC - along with some other 2020 Dem POTUS candidates.

That is something I do not see in Senator Sanders, and that is the primary trait that changed my openess to his candidacy for POTUS as he became more familiar to me.