Bernies Sanders pulls out of Southern States

[brooklynite]

As a result, the Sanders campaign has effectively conceded the South on Super Tuesday. The campaign is not airing advertisements there, according to NBC News data. It’s instead concentrating resources in five states with far fewer black voters and far fewer delegates: Oklahoma, Minnesota, Colorado, Massachusetts and Vermont. It is a strategy that aims to maximize Mr. Sanders’s chance of winning states, but it doesn’t necessarily prevent Mrs. Clinton from running up huge delegate leads from the South.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/upshot/hillary-clintons-winning-numbers-in-south-carolina-suggest-sweep-in-south.html?ref=topics&_r=0

[restorefreedom]

1. hahaha you mean the hillary times? lol nt

[brooklynite]

7. So you're saying that Sanders -IS- running ads in the South; the Times made the story up?

[restorefreedom]

11. ads are the only presence? okey dokey.

but yes, nyt is in for clinton

[Stuckinthebush]

12. Classic shoot-the-messenger trick

It's interesting when it happens because it is so obvious

[onehandle]

2. He should concentrate on Vermont.

I believe he has a shot there.

[oasis]

19. Should have accepted Super PAC money, but, oh no.

Now we are deprived of a genuine race down to the wire.

[pandr32]

25. One would hope so!

I think it's fair to say there is a reasonable chance for him to win there.

[HERVEPA]

31. You can take your sarcastic bullshit and .....

[wyldwolf]

3. in other words, he's essentially conceding the nomination

[kennetha]

4. He wants to raise issues for discussion

That's all he was really ever after.

But then a funny thing happen, some resonated to his message, money poured in, and suddenly he had the makings of a real campaign. Took him and his staffers by surprise, I think. They allowed themselves briefly to believe .... then got smacked down by reality in South Carolina.

[wyldwolf]

6. which is fine

[randome]

14. Sounds a little like Donald Trump, too.

I am not saying those 2 candidates are anything alike in any other way. I am suggesting that neither of them expected to go this far in the first place.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

[kennetha]

16. Well Donald ....

is a legend in his own mind.

I think the rest of the GOP thought Donald was just taking a break from being a robber baron and would self-destruct.

I think he always thought he would win.

He hasn't self-destructed, despite doing things that would destroy the career of any conventional politician.

[TTUBatfan2008]

46. Agree

I think Donald was relieved to not win Iowa. But then New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada gave him large victories. Now he finds himself at the point of no return. He will be the GOP nominee even though deep down I don't think he really wants it.

[Barack_America]

10. Hi, from, Michigan!

I haven't voted yet. Does my state and other states who won't vote on Tuesday have delegates too?

[wyldwolf]

15. sure they do

But when one team is ahead by 5 touchdowns with mere minutes left, any scoring the other team does won't change the outcome.

[Barack_America]

17. So the majority of Democratic states are "mere minutes".

Nice to be appreciated.

[randome]

20. Michigan is part of Super Tuesday with 148 Democratic delegates at stake.

http://www.uspresidentialelectionnews.com/2016-presidential-primary-schedule-calendar/

That's not a number to sneeze at.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

[Barack_America]

23. Our election is on March 8th.

Which would be a week after Super Tuesday.

[randome]

24. Whoops.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

[aaaaaa5a]

26. +1. From now on he is just a protest candidate.

He is no longer fighting to win the nomination, but is fighting to influence the party and move our nominee to the left.

[kstewart33]

5. A smart move by Bernie.

He has a fighting chance in those states. He must pick up some states to at least stem Hillary's momentum.

[72DejaVu]

28. The problem with that strategy

is that even if he wins all his targets, only Vermont will be a blowout for him. So his actual gain in delegate count will be small. (Let's say he wins Mass by 10 points- The delegate split will be something like 50 to 40) Meanwhile Hillary will be running up big delegate margins in the states he abandoned. There's no way he will catch up.

[global1]

41. Working Smarter Not Harder....

be frugal with our money and pick the states that you have the best chance of gaining delegates and winning.

[Gothmog]

8. Sanders is not trying to be the nominee but is trying to get sufficient delegates to be relevant

There is no way for Sanders to win the nomination based on this strategy. It is clear that Sanders know that he will not be the nominee and is now just trying to get sufficient delegates to get himself to the DNC National Convention

[Tom Rinaldo]

35. Disagree. This is his best way to win, and he does have a chance.

For the sake of argument: even if Bernie could win more delegates overall on Super Tuesday by keeping the margin of loss smaller in Southern states by campaigning there more, as opposed to pulling off a few narrow wins in non southern states by concentrating there instead, he will be better off with more wins than more delegates. Bernie needs to blunt Clinton's momentum in order to stay alive and he does that by showing he can still win state contests. The South will soon be in the rear view mirror this primary season - there are big delegate hauls out there still waiting to be won, like California, New York, Illinois, Florida, and Ohio, pus dozens of other contests. Bernie needs to show that he can win outside of New England, and that requires putting up some W's outside of New England. It's that simple.

Yes he's a clear underdog either way but concentrating on winning some races now is his first priority. That's what keeps him in this, and as long as you are in this any number of things can still happen. Every day is a new news cycle.

[DrDan]

48. he does not even have a campaign office in Florida

how will that work out for him

[DCBob]

9. He knows he cant win so he's going to regroup and focus on states he has better chance to win.

That will help him conserve his cash for the long haul to the convention.

[SidDithers]

13. Saw one comment that he's now basicly running for a good speaking slot at the convention...

I think there's some truth to that.

Sid

[Nye Bevan]

29. If Hillary has to withdraw for health reasons,

the more delegates that Bernie has, the greater will be his claim on being the replacement nominee.

[Zynx]

36. Why would she have to withdraw for health reasons?

He's an almost 75 year old man and sometimes doesn't look so good.

[Human101948]

39. yes, and Hillary had a stroke...

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/hillary-clinton-blood-clot-life-threatening-medical-experts/story?id=18101213

[Zynx]

40. You clearly don't know what a stroke is.

It could have caused one, but didn't. It's been treated. Moving on.

[Satch59]

18. It's about optics...

Hillary had no shot at NH yet was there fighting there up until the end and then gave one of her best speeches in concession... Both of Bernie's NV and SC concession speeches were more of an angry/negative tone. He would benefit more from just being in all the states and shown fighting for every vote...

[kennetha]

21. That's who he is

[Nye Bevan]

30. This is becoming a pattern, like his angry and hostile reaction to not getting the endorsement

of Planned Parenthood.

Some anger is fine, but anger in itself tends not to win elections.

[NurseJackie]

47. I guess for folks who are *already* in his corner it looks "good" and motivates them, BUT ...

... in my opinion, it doesn't seem to be a good strategy for attracting enough additional voters.

From some appearances, it could be argued that this strategy may end up LOSING voters. (Frankly, in the beginning as I was flirting with the idea of Sanders and trying to learn more about him, that was one of the aspects about him that really turned me away from him. I'll bet I'm not the only one.)

[BlueMTexpat]

33. This is one of the many, many

reasons that I prefer Hillary. She does not dismiss ANY states or ANY voters in those states, whether she leads or trails in the polls.

She fighting hard for EVERY vote that she can get. Whether she wins a "state" or not, there will be many voters in that state who will remember how hard she fought to get her message out and the class she showed, both in winning and in losing.

We are a nation of 50 states. We need a President for us ALL, not simply for the states that have demographics that are seemingly more susceptible to that person's message.

Bernie's had massive rallies everywhere. But he does not seem to translate those crowds into voters. That takes LOTS of time and effort with small groups, building bridges over years and actually making things happen to improve peoples' lives over the long-term, as Hillary has done.

[artislife]

34. Her best speech? Mediocre.

[Red Knight]

22. I'm sure Bernie would love to compete in all the states

but the reality is that he doesn't have endless corporate cash flow to do that.

He's a poor man's candidate.

He's running a campaign the way it should be run--not beholden to corporate donors later. But that isn't easy. He's up against a machine. So hard choices have to be made. The presidency should not have to be bought...but the current system and unlimited funds that flow in from billionaires make it tough.

Meanwhile, Bernie gets taken to task for getting too much money form individual donors.

It's tough. It will be spun that he doesn't care about black states. It's not true of course--but if you can't have a voice everywhere to answer these charges they can stick.

If he gets nothing but a voice at the convention I'll be happy with that--knowing that he didn't sell out.

[book_worm]

27. At least win or lose Hillary is running a national campaign.

Not a pick and choose strategy like Bernie.

[Barack_America]

32. Hillary is, or her SuperPACs are?

[brooklynite]

37. Well, Hillary is campaigning everywhere...

...and her campaign is running ads everywhere...

I honestly have no idea what pro-Clinton SuperPACs are doing.

[lunamagica]

38. He is advertising in Vermont? Really?

[EndElectoral]

42. It's a smart strategy. Those states are super conservative and will vote Republican in the GE anyway

[Kaleva]

50. It'd be a smart strategy in the GE.

As there is no proportionally distribution of electoral college votes, there is no point in spending valuable resources in such states where one has no chance of winning. But the primaries are different in that a candidate can still pick up delegates even if one loses badly.

[Live and Learn]

43. We've lost the South anyways due to DWS stupid policies.

Too bad she did away with Dean's 50 state policy.

[brooklynite]

45. Funny thing; Dean also supported Super Delegates.

[Live and Learn]

53. At least he does now. He supports a lot of weird things now. I'd follow the money. nt

[brooklynite]

54. When he was DNC Chair, he set up the rules for 2008...including Super Delegates

[Live and Learn]

55. So what is your point? He's wrong about the supers but he was right about the 50 state stratedgy.

I am not about to go searching but I would bet you never supported him anyway before he became establishment.

And, DWS is wrong on every account. Nobody could claim she has done a good job.

[NurseJackie]

44. Winning small "skirmishes" but losing the "war" seems to be a poor plan ...

... that's not very well thought out. (Not that I'm complaining, mind you.)

[Cheese Sandwich]

49. Today I learned Oklahoma is not in the south.

[TM99]

51. There is more to campaigning that just an add slot.

There were large Sanders supporters marches all through out Tennessee over the weekend.

This is a people's campaign. He is choosing his battles wisely. He can't, on the funds he has, do it all like Clinton.

I think this is a wise strategy and we will see the results Tuesday night won't we.

[Nanjeanne]

52. I thought Clinton supporters have told us that the South is All Hill. So why not focus

on other states? I mean Hill has the whole thing sewn up down South right? Why do Clintonites want Bernie to spend dollars there? And I don't think Bernie is giving up on Texas or Virginia. But to put money into Arkansas and Tennessee seems like a silly strategy for Bernie.

[brooklynite]

56. I'm not saying "how dare he..."

I'm observing that his campaign strategy (perhaps necessarily) is severely limiting his options to get the nomination.