DES MOINES, Iowa — Not far from where Hillary Clinton on Sunday returned to Iowa and dropped hints about running for president, another potential candidate was testing the waters for a bid.
At least, that’s what everyone assumed who convened to watch Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speak Sunday evening.
Deborah Bunka, a volunteer with Iowa Citizens For Community Improvement, introduced Sanders with a teaser: She quoted him saying in a recent interview that he is prepared to run for president.
“Not to put pressure on you,” she said, “but we’ll find out tonight perhaps.”
A few months ago, Bunka had been at a small dinner with Sanders, and she asked him directly whether he would run for president. “He said, if the support is there, he’ll run,” Bunka told the Washington Examiner later in an interview.
There was enthusiastic support for Sanders on Sunday evening among the crowd that packed a church basement in Des Moines to hear him speak.
But if supporters were hoping Sanders would talk about a potential presidential bid, he didn’t bite. Instead, true to his classic form that has made him a progressive hero, Sanders riffed for one hour on every inch of the progressive dogma: poverty in America, income inequality, universal healthcare, publicly financed campaigns, preserving entitlement programs and much more.
That is to say, it was not your average stump speech.
“The Affordable Care Act has made some modest improvements,” Sanders said at one juncture, as he spoke about healthcare. “But it did not go anywhere near far enough.”
At another point, Sanders spoke at length about the billionaire David Koch’s bid for vice president in 1980 as a libertarian and presented the tenets of his platform, which Sanders features on his official Senate website.
“That is their vision for America,” Sanders said of the Koch brothers, David and his brother Charles. “All power to the billionaire class.”
It was a very different tableau than that which unfolded a few hours earlier just outside of Des Moines, in Indianola, Iowa. There Hillary Clinton had marked her return to Iowa by hinting, to a crowd of roughly 10,000 supporters, that she might run for president again.
That event did not receive mention by Sanders or any of the other speakers in Des Moines on Sunday evening, although Clinton did come up as Sanders criticized the press for its extensive coverage of her every move.
“This is not a criticism of Hillary Clinton,” Sanders said. “I feel sorry for her.”
And when Sanders spoke about the presidency in general, it was only to joke about the lack of power in that office.
“I always say, anyone who really wants to be president, who works up a burning desire, is a little bit crazy,” Sanders said.
Ultimately, it hardly matters who the president is, even if he or she is exceptional, Sanders said. “The only way we address these issues is when millions of people come together.”
After Sanders’ remarks, which ended with a standing ovation, the lobby filled up with people wearing colorful “Bernie Sanders for President 2016” pins. One group, Progressive Democrats of America, distributed flyers urging Sanders, and Independent, to run for president as a Democrat in 2016.
A few people discussed an upcoming event with Vice President Joe Biden, who will travel to Iowa on Wednesday.
One man told his group of friends, “I think Bernie could put a chink in Hillary’s armor in Iowa.”
And, although Sanders hadn’t acknowledged running for president in his remarks, Bunka left hoping that he will run — maybe, even, with another progressive senator hero of the moment.
“I want him and Elizabeth Warren, that’s my dream ticket,” Bunka said. “I think that goes for most people here.”
