2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumDiane Feinstein is afraid of what her own voters are feeling
I'm sorry, I don't care what angle you look at it from, that is what it finally boils down to. It is unheard of, and verging on pathetic, for a sitting United States Senator to call for a primary election to be neutered in her own state (asking a candidate to suspend his campaign there), days before all of it's citizens actually get to cast their ballots. Interest in this primary is sky high and growing, and new registrations for it came in at a record pace. Maybe if Feinstein had called on Bernie to withdraw a month ago, one could give this a different (but still not positive) read, but the campaign in California is already in full swing and has been for weeks.You can count the days left to it's culmination on your fingers without needing to resort to any toes.
I lived in California for 27 years and I can tell you that Californians in general are not exactly thrilled that their votes generally aren't even noticed when it comes time to pick a Presidential nominee - the deed is generally done well before they get any chance to weigh in. Normally Democratic politicians jet into the Bay Area, or LA, for big ticket fundraisers, pocket the cash, and then fly off to South Carolina or Michigan to actually campaign Campaign rallies in California, in recent years, are about as rare as Democratic Governors in Texas. This year is different, this year interest in politics among young voters there too is at all time highs. That is exactly what a state wide elected Democrat is supposed to be praising and encouraging, not trying to shut down instead.
And for what? Does Feinstein really believe that anything Bernie Sanders will say or do in the next 8 or so days will mortally wound Hillary Clinton's candidacy now, after dozens of other states have voted, after a string of debates between them have already been held, and the one Feinstein should have been a booster for in her own state has been reneged on by Clinton? Feinstein's appeal to Sanders to suspend his campaign is the type of message that should have been assigned to someone like Claire McCaskill if the Clinton camp was so desperate that they thought they needed the primary season called off now with just a few days remaining in it. The fact that a California Senator made this appeal is, frankly, cringe worthy. "Don't let our people speak" Really?
Whatever negative press Clinton now is facing is not being driven by the Sanders campaign. It is being driven by the recent State Department Inspector General report. If anyone thinks Sanders commenting (in response to a direct question) that it is something Super Delegates will look at, that THAT is the kind of fierce attack on Hilary that will cripple her chances to win the Presidency unless Bernie goes away RIGHT NOW before California votes, stay away from the brown acid.
Diane Feinstein is afraid that the results of the California Primary may reveal how soft support for Hillary Clinton really is, that is the only explanation that makes any sense for her wanting Bernie to withdraw now, five yards from the finish line. The fact that she concedes that Bernie has the right to remain in the race if he wants to is about the same as some cop conceding that I can remain outside after dusk unless martial law is declared. It is not Bernie's fault if Californians don't want to vote for Hillary even though it is a diverse state with high numbers of minorities. I don't recall Feinstein wanting Hillary to call off her campaign in California in 2008 days before the primary, in the name of party unity, because Obama was then the certain nominee. I'll take back what I wrote above. This doesn't verge on being pathetic, it flat out is.
SmittynMo
(3,544 posts)She has pulled this shit many times over the past several months. I hope she eats her words. There is absolutely no reason for her to open her mouth. After Bernie wins, then they can vote her ass OUT!!!
still_one
(92,396 posts)Tom Rinaldo
(22,913 posts)And if he does I don't know how impressive he margin of victory will be. Hillary has real support in California. I just (obviously) feel that this was a bone headed call from Feinstein and she's not normally that flat footed, so it makes me think why?
Actually I lived in SF when she (tragically due to an assassination) became Mayor there. I moved east in 2002 so you probably have a much better feel on the pulse there now than I do.
still_one
(92,396 posts)now, but I was living in San Francisco, when unfortunately Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk were assassinated. It was an awful time in the city. The People's Temple mass suicide happened around that period also
The only feeling I have is that long time Democratic voters will probably go with Hillary, and newly registered voters will probably go with Bernie.
Do you have a coin?
Tom Rinaldo
(22,913 posts)I remember all of it vividly, yes those events were clustered close together. it all fell so hard on all of us. And the AIDS epidemic too. I don't hesitate in saying that Diane Feinstein was at her best that day, week, month, when tragedy made her our Mayor. I used to work with her office on homeless youth issues in the early 80's - they weren't always front leaning but they usually came around to supporting the best approaches. I was in a small meeting with her at City Hall. My impression at the time was that she wasn't a progressive leading light but she was relatively open minded with sincere motivations, though her mind set needed periodic nudging (which was best accomplished by winning support for our positions from people she respected). San Francisco's office of Catholic Charities was remarkably progressive at that time, I was hired by the Catholic Social Service Community Organizing division. We formed a strong coalition that included many churches, leading gay rights organizations, and strong backing in the Latino community. We discovered that a high percentage of the homeless youth in the city were gay and lesbian "throwaway" youth - rejected by their families. Added to that were kids who turned to punk attitudes and ran to SF after they couldn't fit in at home, plus large numbers of undocumented Latino youth fleeing strife in Central America. Catholic Social Services let me hire openly gay staff to work in the programs we set up - those were different days.
2banon
(7,321 posts)No Hillary Signage anywhere, tons of Bernie signage.
LiberalFighter
(51,085 posts)It is about the time and resources it takes away from the general election for Clinton that could be better spent. Some elections are not as critical but this one could be with too much at stake.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)grasswire
(50,130 posts)Actually, I would like to see the story from a source other than Glenn Beck. I do not trust his take to be accurate. The HRC people are hypocritically flocking to their post of his story, in the HRC group.
Good to know that they will partner up with Glenn Beck when it suits their purposes!
Have you seen another source?
vintx
(1,748 posts)And she doesn't even care. She's still willing to spew it out there.
Yet more evidence of how desperate camp weathervane is.
Howler
(4,225 posts)Goverment should be afraid of their people. It keeps them on the correct course.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)I had some hopes for her when the NSA spied on her committee, but all flash and no boom. Establishment apparently pays well.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Unacceptable! Senator Profits from War and Post Office
Shortly after San Francisco's then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein married private equity financier Richard C. Blum in 1980, those who knew them called theirs "a marriage of the public and private sectors."
Although Feinstein lost a gubernatorial bid to Republican Pete Wilson, she soon took his seat in the U.S. Senate. Working across the aisle, her power rapidly grew along with her husband's diversified investments and their mutual wealth.1
As Chair and ranking member of the Military Construction and Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Feinstein appears to have steered contracts to companies controlled by her husband.2 Blum has profited handsomely from military contracts.3
In 2009, Senator Feinstein introduced legislation to provide $25 billion in taxpayer money to the FDIC after it gave Blum's CBRE real estate company a contract to sell foreclosed properties at unusually high rates.4
As a Regent of the University of California, Blum appears to have profited from contracts with the UC-run nuclear weapons laboratory at Los Alamos.5
In the summer of 2012, the U.S. Postal Service awarded Blum's CBRE company the exclusive contract to sell its portfolio of public properties. Feinstein's office denies any influence in the awarding of the contract.6
SOURCE: http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7309
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)The decision of Sanders to get out is up to him. Just this morning he was still saying he was going to get enough delegates, that is going to be very hard to do since Hillary will get more than half of the pledged delegates, she only needs 248 more pledged delegates to have over half of the pledged delegates. She has over 500 super delegates, there are only 719 with 8 counting half votes. This makes a problem for Sanders. A majority of the delegates on the first vote at the convention and with this being a two candidate race the one with less votes loses.
I want to see as many voters in California as possible. I understand many have already voted, this is good.
BootinUp
(47,187 posts)gets a massive from me.
The only thing he is showing, is that he would make a terrible President with terrible judgement. Its sad because he is hurting the image he had built of a truth teller, which will undoubtedly prevent his movement from being a force in the future. No, the people who backed him will be left mostly where they were before his candidacy. Without a strong leader.
pmorlan1
(2,096 posts)I haven't had any respect for DiFi since she supported the NSA spying on the American people and her support for the Patriot Act. This is just one more position of hers that I reject.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)down our throats.
highprincipleswork
(3,111 posts)2banon
(7,321 posts)When did she say that?!
Tom Rinaldo
(22,913 posts)Feinstein: All but over for Sanders
By Jon Prior
05/29/16 09:59 AM EDT
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Sunday called on Bernie Sanders to consider suspending his campaign in an attempt to unify the party around front-runner Hillary Clinton.
http://www.850wftl.com/syndicated-article/?id=170011
It would be, I think, a very positive gesture for reconciliation if Senator Sanders were to consider putting his campaign in the very real perspective that its in, and doing those things that can bring the party together, Feinstein said. I think the nation is better off if that were to happen.
Yes she avoided literally saying "drop out before California votes" but she is a Senator from California who knows that California is at the center of the Sanders campaign and that it votes next, and she pointedly never said "let the voters vote, but the primaries are almost over, and Bernie should consider suspending his campaign when those results are all in."
2banon
(7,321 posts)Thanks Tom, I had gone ahead and googled the story and read through the transcript after I posted "WTF"..
excerpt of another of the statements she made ABC rush transcript :
"all this great wide, broad-based party can say, "This is my platform. I am proud of it."
Someone needs to clue Dianne Feinstein in and pretty damn quick, I'd say.
Talk about completely, utterly, mindlessly clueless. Wow.
Merryland
(1,134 posts)Jester Messiah
(4,711 posts)The voters must not be given a chance to vote for someone who could actually change things!
Tarc
(10,476 posts)That Bernie has no realistic or honest chance at the nomination. But he's as free to keep running as she as free to suggest he should knock it off.
You don't get your freedom to say you piece and deny others theirs, bro.
Tom Rinaldo
(22,913 posts)Not when you are talking on GD-P with someone who isn't supporting your candidate anyway. It's been used too much and for too long here as a dog whistle slur against Sanders supporters. That might not be your mind set and I'm not saying it is, but the truth is I can't tell in print what you mean by it.
Sure Feinstein is as free to express her opinion as Bernie is to stay in the race, as I am to comment on it, and you are to comment on my comment, and me to reply to that etc. etc. etc. But I didn't question her right to that opinion, I questioned the implications of the timing of her going public with that this weekend. No doubt you see it differently than I do and have the right to say so on this thread or to start your own about it if you wish.
But to use your own words - if she "knew" that a month ago, she could have said that then, and not waited until the residents of her own state were finally getting their chance to vote.
Tarc
(10,476 posts)The primary is over. It is time to move on.
marlakay
(11,493 posts)I actually thought I would find people who didnt want to vote since its almost over, not true. In my area of northern ca all i found home were either for Bernie or a couple undecided, no one said Hillary.
Most were upset by the thought of it being Hillary and Trump because they liked neither.
Quite a few had already voted, we have been spreading early voting around in our area. And all who had voted for Bernie.
I am in a very liberal area but glad to see people haven't given up!