Although the Democrats are still trying to count ballots in Nevada, it appears that Bernie Sanders is the hands-down winner there. Barring some never ending “ballot harvesting” that was typical of California’s last election cycle, Sanders is outpolling the nearest opponent by more than 2 to 1. This makes him the unambiguous frontrunner going into the South Carolina primary on Saturday.
While Joe Biden did a bit better here than in Iowa and New Hampshire, new questions about his cognitive decline arose Thursday when he referred to his dead son as the former Attorney General of the United States. This boosting of his late son Beau’s resume occurred during a CNN town hall event. Beau Biden had been a federal prosecutor in the DOJ’s Philadelphia office and was Attorney General of Delaware at one point.
Biden’s decline from frontrunner status appears to be the direct result of the Democrat’s impeachment drive. Although the Democrats tried to keep the apparent Biden family corruption out of the process, there was a direct correlation with the ebbing of his support to revelations during the impeachment process.
In the meantime Buttigieg seems to have been a flash in the pan as he heads into the South where his open support of special rights for the LGBT community will turn off large swaths of minority voters. Of course, Buttigieg and Warren are still in the race to siphon off support that would otherwise go to Bernie Sanders. The difference between Buttigieg and Warren versus Sanders is that Bernie actually believes all the crap he has been spewing about free this and free that. Warren and Buttigieg are just pandering for votes and the Democratic voters appear to be seeing through some of that nonsense.
Former 2020 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson has endorsed Bernie Sanders for president following his resounding victory in Nevada. Williamson made the announcement Sunday during a surprise appearance at a rally in Austin, Texas, for the Vermont senator.
The media has stepped in to play their role in trying to stop Sanders. Sanders stepped on a landmine in an interview with Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes.” Cooper played a video of Sanders from many years ago where Sanders gave his opinion why the Cuban people did not rise up to overthrow Castro. Sanders actually told the truth as he sees it when asked about Fidel Castro. Of course, this is a no-no in Democratic politics. Never tell the voters what you really think.
Bernie said that when Fidel Castro came into office one of the first things he did was to educate all the people. Of course, this was all the people Castro hadn’t already killed or imprisoned.
While this might play well with his socialist/communist base, it will not play well at all in Florida. In southern Florida where so many of those live who fled Cuba by making the treacherous 90 mile crossing on whatever boat they could find, you can’t throw a rock without finding a family with a first-hand victim account from Castro’s brutality.
Sanders does not see the correlation between Cuba’s absolute-in-control government that has taken everyone’s weapons and controls their food, their movements and their everyday lives and the Nazis who conducted the Holocaust in which he lost members of his family.
The tweet below is one of the milder reactions to his comment.
I'm hoping that in the future, Senator Sanders will take time to speak to some of my constituents before he decides to sing the praises of a murderous tyrant like Fidel Castro. https://t.co/Iwvmay9LOH pic.twitter.com/KT9sQ0pfkh
— Donna E. Shalala (@DonnaShalala) February 24, 2020
This will certainly hurt him on Super Tuesday (March 3rd) in Florida and may also have significant effects in California with its Latin population.
The big question now is “Does this open the door for Bloomberg?” Bloomberg, who has now spent over $400 million on ads trying to buy his way into the race, will be on the ballot on Super Tuesday.