The mantra of the mainstream media is "Sure Hillary and Obama ran nasty campaigns against each other but at the end of the day, they banded together to defeat McCain and Palin and the same result will happen this year." No it won't.
In 2008 social media was just another outlet for news and opinions. People still turned to the networks, CNN, MSNBC and FOX as their primary source to form their views on the candidates. The news organizations did their best to be fair to both candidates. That civil atmosphere no longer exits and we have Citizen's United to thank for our current discourse and candidates.
This year's campaign is being run on Facebook and other online outlets, which give a voice to the supporters and detractors of each candidate. The posts have become very personal which is just hardening the positions of each side. It's now it will be much harder for the eventual Democratic candidate to convince the other side for their votes.
There is no way the Democratic Party is going to give Bernie Sanders the nomination, even if he wins the rest of the primaries and goes over the magic delegate number. The Democrats are just not a Progressive or left leaning party anymore. Take Al Franken for example. I like Franken. He speaks for me. However, a few days after Bernie won the Minnesota primary in a landslide, Senator Franken was interviewed on one of the cable networks. As a superdelegate he was asked whom he was going to support. He said Hillary. When asked why he wouldn't support Bernie, especially since his own state had just voted loud and clear they wanted Sanders, Franken froze. He smiled weakly, hemmed and hawed and didn't answer the question. He looked extremely uncomfortable and rightly so. In this era where every syllable a candidate utters is videoed and archived, that answer and his vote against his constituents' preferences will come back to haunt him in his next election, as it will for every superdelegate who votes against the wishes of their state's voters, thus making most of the Democrats vulnerable. They would rather lose with Hillary than win with Bernie.
Hillary will not win. She basically has no positions except what the zeitgeist is trending for that day. Hillary supporters have no argument to support her based on issues and track record. The only real argument they have is the Supreme Court. So the DNC says that if you want a non-conservative court, you must vote for Hillary. That argument doesn't cut it. She is running as a Republican, values Jeb Bush's supporters and obviously believes that moderate Republicans will flock to her. Won't happen. Her only chance is the Bernie supporters that she and the democrats loathe. Her word that she will be 'progressive" means nothing. However I was going to vote for her to stop Trump. That was before the Nevada caucus.
It is now becoming clear that there was no violence, no chair throwing or any such behavior. Where are the video or cell phone pictures? Where are the eyewitnesses who can prove it happened? There are none. However mainstream media to this day is continuing to smear Sanders and all of his supporters with lies furthering the Clinton and Wasserman-Schultz narrative. Why? Did it have to do with the fact that the Kentucky primary was days away and manufactured bad publicity would sway some voters into Hillary's camp? Unfortunately, I can't rule that out based on previous dirty tricks like paying trolls to fight Sanders supporters online. I just don't believe anything she says and all republicans, almost all Sanders supporters and a lot of independent voters feel the same.
Remember what Les Moonves, President of CBS told his shareholders. "It (Trump) may not be good for America but it's damn good for CBS." I'm sure if we got CNN's Jeff Zucker and MSNBC's Andrew Lack to be honest, they'd echo the same sentiment. (That pesky Citizen United strikes again.) The media loves Trump and Hillary because they have deep pockets to give to the news outlets via commercials. A Trump-Hillary campaign will be a horrible, bloody dogfight, boosting the ratings for all the broadcasters who can charge a fortune for commercials. Think of Trump-Hillary as a six month long episode of "Survivor" without the civility. There's only one problem with the media's narrative.
Everyone is sick and tired of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Nobody except diehard supporters will be engaged in this campaign. And no candidate I can think of has ever won an election by urging voters to vote defensively against their opponent. That won't stop the mainstream media from going non-stop in their coverage of this calamity because there is too much money at stake for them. There is no way that Hillary is going to embrace the Bernie supporters, alienating the very people she desperately needs to win. So what to do?
Compromise on both sides. No more Hillary and no more Bernie. For the good of the country, the Democrats must nominate Joe Biden for President. He is the only person that can unite the Democrats, Independents, disgruntled Republicans and defeat Trump. Everybody likes Biden and nobody can argue with his qualifications. (Yes Biden also voted to go to war in Iraq but unlike Hillary he apologized for his vote early on in 2005. Hillary waited until 2014 when she kicked off her current campaign.) With Joe Biden will get the Supreme Court back. Sure a few of the diehard Hillary and Bernie supporters will be angry and not vote, but their numbers will be miniscule compared to the Independents and Progressives that Biden will bring to the party the Democrats so desperately need for victory.
The Republicans are starting to unite behind Trump. The same will not happen on the Democratic side no matter if the nominee is Hillary or Bernie. It's become way too personal.
If the Democrats decide to run Joe Biden, it will be like a breath of fresh air in a very toxic campaign. They'll have a united party, Trump will be defeated and the world and we will be a much better place.
I'm in with Biden.