Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: My thoughts on why the Sanders' campaign is in meltdown [View all]Happy Hoosier
(7,283 posts)With the caveat that this could be premature:
1) He did not learn the lessons of 2016.
He could not assemble a winning coalition in 2016, owing largely to African American voters and older voters avoiding him in droves. Logically, if he wanted to make another run, he had to find a way to develop those segments of the population. Instead he keeps relying
upon an expanded turn-out model, with no evidence that such a thing will happen.
2) He did not learn the lessons of 2018.
In short, center-left candidates won. Further left candidates less so. To me, that suggests our path to victory is closer to the middle. But Bernie has not taken that to heart at all.
3) He doesn't seen to be particularly good at relating to individuals. We've all heard it. But his relationship with Liz Warren highlights that. When you are trying to build a coalition, interpersonal skills are important. Bernie has them not, IMO.
4) He misinterpreted IA, NH, and NV. He interpreted his relatively strong plurality as a path to a majority. Or perhaps he never intended to pursue a majority and sought a plurality nomination. Of course, the problem with this plan is that if the opposition candidates consolidate, then suddenly your plurality becomes a minority. And so here we are.
In short, some pretty crappy political strategy. At least with 20/20 hindsight.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden