Democrats slept on Bernie Sanders ... treating the Vermont senator as an afterthought. [View all]

[crazytown]

Democrats slept on Bernie Sanders. Now he's surging as Iowa approaches

(CNN) He has been dismissed, shrugged off, and, most gratingly to his campaign and supporters, ignored for long stretches by other leading primary rivals and national political pundits.

But with less than a month before the Iowa caucuses, this volatile 2020 presidential primary has taken yet another eye-popping turn: Bernie Sanders is being recognized by the Democratic establishment, sometimes in puzzlement and others in fear, as the real deal -- a legitimate contender, even a front-runner, to become the party's next presidential nominee.

(snip) Biden and other moderates like Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar have mostly passed up potential flashpoints with Sanders, preferring to zero in on his progressive ally Elizabeth Warren, whose headline-grabbing surge in the polls over the summer made her a more appealing target.

Both Biden and Klobuchar may have unwittingly boosted Sanders in their zeal to undermine Kamala Harris and Warren, respectively. In separate venues, both described Sanders as "honest" in order to knock down other rivals during exchanges over the nuts and bolts of "Medicare for All."

(snip) If Sanders succeeds, a Democratic establishment that either opposes his policies on a substantive level or views his leftist politics as a general election loser -- or some combination of the two -- will be left asking itself why it spent long stretches of the campaign treating the Vermont senator as an afterthought.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/09/politics/bernie-sanders-iowa-2020/index.html