Sanders as a third-party candidate.....might it work?

[Lauren Johnson]

Bernie would beat Trump -- minus electronic voting machines and random plane crashes sadly killing the candidate.

[Peter Lemkin]

Perfect End to Democratic Primary: Anonymous Superdelegates Declare Winner Through Media

Glenn Greenwald
June 7 2016, 1:41 p.m.






Last night, the Associated Press on a day when nobody voted surprised everyone by abruptly declaring the Democratic Party primary over and Hillary Clinton the victor. The decree, issued the night before the California primary in which polls show Clinton and Bernie Sanders in a very close race, was based on the media organization's survey of "superdelegates": the Democratic Party's 720 insiders, corporate donors, and officials whose votes for the presidential nominee count the same as the actually elected delegates. AP claims that superdelegates who had not previously announced their intentions privately told AP reporters that they intend to vote for Clinton, bringing her over the threshold. AP is concealing the identity of the decisive superdelegates who said this.
Although the Sanders campaign rejected the validity of AP's declaration on the ground that the superdelegates do not vote until the convention and he intends to try to persuade them to vote for him most major media outlets followed the projection and declared Clinton the winner.

This is the perfect symbolic ending to the Democratic Party primary: The nomination is consecrated by a media organization, on a day when nobody voted, based on secret discussions with anonymous establishment insiders and donors whose identities the media organization incredibly conceals. The decisive edifice of superdelegates is itself anti-democratic and inherently corrupt: designed to prevent actual voters from making choices that the party establishment dislikes. But for a party run by insiders and funded by corporate interests, it's only fitting that its nomination process ends with such an ignominious, awkward, and undemocratic sputter.
None of this is to deny that Hillary Clinton as was always the case from the start is highly likely to be the legitimately chosen winner of this process. It's true that the party's governing rules are deliberately undemocratic; unfair and even corrupt decisions were repeatedly made by party officials to benefit Clinton; and the ostensibly neutral Democratic National Committee (led by the incomparably heinous Debbie Wasserman Schultz) constantly put not just its thumb but its entire body on the scale to ensure she won. But it's also true that under the long-standing rules of the party, more people who voted preferred Clinton as their nominee over Sanders. Independent of superdelegates, she just got more votes. There's no denying that.
And just as was true in 2008 with Obama's nomination, it should be noted that standing alone i.e., without regard to the merits of the candidate Clinton's nomination is an important and positive milestone. Americans, being Americans, will almost certainly overstate its world significance and wallow in excessive self-congratulations: Many countries on the planet have elected women as their leaders, including many whose close family member had not previously served as president. Nonetheless, the U.S. presidency still occupies an extremely influential political and cultural position in the world. Particularly for a country with such an oppressive history on race and gender, the election of the first African-American president and nomination of the first female presidential candidate of a major party is significant in shaping how people all over the world, especially children, view their own and other people's potential and possibilities. But that's all the more reason to lament this dreary conclusion.
That the Democratic Party nominating process is declared to be over in such an uninspiring, secretive, and elite-driven manner is perfectly symbolic of what the party, and its likely nominee, actually is. The one positive aspect, though significant, is symbolic, while the actual substance rallying behind a Wall Street-funded, status quo-perpetuating, multimillionaire militarist is grim in the extreme. The Democratic Party got exactly the ending it deserved.

[David Guyatt]

It's time to bust open the two party system.

[Drew Phipps]

The Republican delegates are all pledged to follow the popular vote, at least on the first ballot. The purpose of the superdelegate, while "undemocratic," is to prevent the Democratic Party winding up nominating a (ahem) "unelectable" candidate like Trump (examples McGovern and Carter). Unfortunately, it also means that they won't wind up with a candidate like Sanders.

I certainly hope that someone does a study of how the premature announcement affected voters in those late primaries.

[Dawn Meredith]

The Republican delegates are all pledged to follow the popular vote, at least on the first ballot. The purpose of the superdelegate, while "undemocratic," is to prevent the Democratic Party winding up nominating a (ahem) "unelectable" candidate like Trump (examples McGovern and Carter). Unfortunately, it also means that they won't wind up with a candidate like Sanders.

I certainly hope that someone does a study of how the premature announcement affected voters in those late primaries.

Sadly I do not think Trump is unelectable. The number of Democrats voting this year was way down. While the number of Republicans voting for Trump was off the charts. That does not portend well for November. We are voting Green.

[Albert Doyle]

Never underestimate Americans.


They elected Bush into a second term.

[Tracy Riddle]

The Republican delegates are all pledged to follow the popular vote, at least on the first ballot. The purpose of the superdelegate, while "undemocratic," is to prevent the Democratic Party winding up nominating a (ahem) "unelectable" candidate like Trump (examples McGovern and Carter). Unfortunately, it also means that they won't wind up with a candidate like Sanders.

I certainly hope that someone does a study of how the premature announcement affected voters in those late primaries.

Sadly I do not think Trump is unelectable. The number of Democrats voting this year was way down. While the number of Republicans voting for Trump was off the charts. That does not portend well for November. We are voting Green.

If it's close in November, I'm going to hold my nose and vote for Hillary. If it's not, I'll vote Green.
It's like the 1932 presidential election in Germany - a lot of people on the left voted for the conservative Hindenburg over Hitler, and Hitler lost. Fortunately we don't have a Chancellor's position that Trump can get appointed to.

[Peter Lemkin]

The Republican delegates are all pledged to follow the popular vote, at least on the first ballot. The purpose of the superdelegate, while "undemocratic," is to prevent the Democratic Party winding up nominating a (ahem) "unelectable" candidate like Trump (examples McGovern and Carter). Unfortunately, it also means that they won't wind up with a candidate like Sanders.

I certainly hope that someone does a study of how the premature announcement affected voters in those late primaries.

Sadly I do not think Trump is unelectable. The number of Democrats voting this year was way down. While the number of Republicans voting for Trump was off the charts. That does not portend well for November. We are voting Green.

There are rumors that Jill Stein will run with Sanders...but my guess is Sanders will run on his own ticket.... I still think the Republicans will pull a rabbit out of their hat and somehow unknown replace Trump. EVEN the MSM admit that Trump and Clinton are the most unpopular picks in memory......show what a good job the boys in the back room can do when they want to...and to hell with the what the public wants or needs. Any Oligarchy is a terrible thing to waste.....::bowtie::

[Tracy Riddle]

The Republican delegates are all pledged to follow the popular vote, at least on the first ballot. The purpose of the superdelegate, while "undemocratic," is to prevent the Democratic Party winding up nominating a (ahem) "unelectable" candidate like Trump (examples McGovern and Carter). Unfortunately, it also means that they won't wind up with a candidate like Sanders.

I certainly hope that someone does a study of how the premature announcement affected voters in those late primaries.

Sadly I do not think Trump is unelectable. The number of Democrats voting this year was way down. While the number of Republicans voting for Trump was off the charts. That does not portend well for November. We are voting Green.

There are rumors that Jill Stein will run with Sanders...but my guess is Sanders will run on his own ticket.... I still think the Republicans will pull a rabbit out of their hat and somehow unknown replace Trump. EVEN the MSM admit that Trump and Clinton are the most unpopular picks in memory......show what a good job the boys in the back room can do when they want to...and to hell with the what the public wants or needs. Any Oligarchy is a terrible thing to waste.....::bowtie::

It's impossible at this point for any new third party candidate to get on the state ballots in time. They've gradually made it harder over the years to get the necessary signatures, filing deadlines, etc.

[Tracy Riddle]

It would not surprise me at all if Trump dropped out of the race in the next several weeks before the convention. He's getting hammered harder than ever by GOP leaders, the media, and recent national polls show Hillary opening a lead on him. His campaign hardly has any money, the RNC hardly has any money (Hillary has been raising money for years). The RNC thought Trump would be writing a check because they actually believed his crap that he's so rich. It's believed that little of his wealth is liquid. So now it's almost too late for the RNC to raise $1 billion, which is how much a general election campaign will cost.

It would be just like him to decide that it's not fun anymore, and pick up his toys and go home. Because everyone has been SO UNFAIR TO ME!

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arch...gn/486380/
https://heatst.com/politics/donald-trump...e-rnc-too/
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-...le/2592501