Hillary Clinton’s bitter remarks about Sen. Bernie Sanders take me back to the good old days — to 2016 and the worst presidential campaign in modern U.S. history.
Clinton had two main problems when she ran in 2016. The first is that she might be the least sincere person ever to run for office. The second is that she also comes across as the least sincere person ever to run for office. Her personal flaws, combined with her campaign’s disastrous strategic miscalculations, caused her to lose an unlosable presidential race against a candidate whose approval rating was under 40% on the day of the election.
Some days I still laugh when I think about the fact that Donald Trump actually won and became president. But Clinton’s inability to take responsibility for her own role in making this happen only compounds the hilarity. She keeps leaving the impression that it was Vladimir Putin who prevented her from visiting Wisconsin even once during the general election campaign; who caused her to lose formerly competitive Iowa and Ohio by near-landslide margins; and who took her campaign by surprise in Florida, such that the early evening’s talk of a surge in Hispanic voters there gave way to a disastrous defeat.
Not satisfied, Clinton is now back for more. Still unable to own up to her faults, she is now savaging Bernie Sanders for the sin of running an actual campaign — you know, the kind where you make the case that you are the better candidate and your opponents are worse. Yes, even if they are women, by gosh!
“We’re still in a very vigorous primary season,” she said. “I will say, however, that it’s not only him, it’s the culture around him. It’s his leadership team. It’s his prominent supporters. It’s his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women.”
Of Sanders, Clinton added that “nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done.” She also refused to say whether she would support him if he were nominated.
Sanders delivered the only appropriate rebuttal — he ridiculed her with a bit of humor: “On a good day, my wife likes me,” he said. “So let’s clear the air on that one.”
I believe that Sanders is a utopian ideologue with lots of terrible, dangerous ideas for the country and very little practical knowledge of anything. But if you think he’s a sexist just for being a man and trying to win, then you’re just not a serious person. Among Democratic primary voters, he can only benefit from the poisonous whining of the entitled Clinton, who had the presidency in her hand and gave it over to Trump.
