The Knives Are Still Out for Bernie

We hear more fretting about Elizabeth Warren* from establishment types, but make no mistake, Bernie Sanders is the person corporate-loving Democrats most fear and loathe. Politico provides two examples today.

First, in Ryan Lizza’s worth-a-read feature about the shadow Barack Obama casts over the Democratic primary field, he includes the nugget that Obama stood ready to somehow step in if Bernie appeared to be in line for the nomination.

Publicly, he has been clear that he won’t intervene in the primary for or against a candidate, unless he believed there was some egregious attack. “I can’t even imagine with this field how bad it would have to be for him to say something,” said a close adviser. Instead, he sees his role as providing guardrails to keep the process from getting too ugly and to unite the party when the nominee is clear. There is one potential exception: Back when Sanders seemed like more of a threat than he does now, Obama said privately that if Bernie were running away with the nomination, Obama would speak up to stop him. …

I asked one close adviser whether Obama would really lay himself on the line to prevent a Sanders nomination. “I can’t really confirm that,” the adviser said. “He hasn’t said that directly to me. The only reason I’m hesitating at all is because, yeah, if Bernie were running away with it, I think maybe we would all have to say something. But I don’t think that’s likely. It’s not happening.”

Second, the Beltway Bible** also ran a concern-trolling story explaining that, by making repeated small donations to their candidate, Bernie supporters were actually GIVING MORE PROFITS TO THE BIG BANKS THEY SUPPOSEDLY HATE!!! Next thing we’ll find out is that both of them also HAVE BANK ACCOUNTS!!! Note to Politico: Advocating for a public policy does not imply the necessity of performative displays of sincerity.

OTOH, Matthew Rozsa of the less-influential Salon web site argues that Bernie can make a legitimate case that he’s the most electable candidate in the Democratic primary field. So there’s that.

*Commenter xyz referred to Warren the other day as Lieawatha, which shows the laughable strategy Trumpists hope to employ: She’s a liar. If hypocrisy were acid, the only trace you’d find of these people would be the packs of rubbers from their wallets.

**Politico supplanted Roll Call and The Hill as the preferred news source of Beltway insiders, which is a big reason The Hill turned itself into a parody of journalism.