The Iowa caucuses are in just a few days, and in this final week, a handful of polls have come out suggesting a slight “Bernie Bounce,” putting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in a reasonably good position to win or at least have a strong showing on Monday night. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s last-minute gambit to paint Sanders as a latent sexist seems to have sputtered, and as Pete Buttigieg continues to struggle to gain traction beyond Iowa and New Hampshire, chatter about this being a two-way race (with a strange X-factor lurking out there in the form of New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s spending bonanza) has risen.

The Bernie Bounce has been paired with a rapid ramping up of commentary from Democrats that sounds eerily similar to Republican talking points in spring 2016. They say Bernie can woo the base but will alienate the middle. They say he’s too “out there” for your average voter. They say he’s not been really, fully vetted and will wither when he is under fire. They say Bernie is the candidate President Trump would most like to run against. (Flashback: Hillary Clinton’s team in 2016 “always wanted Trump.” Oops.)