2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Did Bernie's wife commit a felony when she secured a loan for Burlington College? [View all]MADem
(135,425 posts)quite RECENTLY:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/bernie-sanders-vermont-119927
A 46 year old who was a full-grown 22 year old adult when his father settled into the House (by now, he surely knows who his mama is, don't you think?) doesn't need "protecting." But no one brought that up, then--so that whole "protecting" argument is a canard.
That discussion--and Sanders' aggressive response-- about his history happened very RECENTLY--in the context of his POTUS candidacy--and I doubt Sanders was protecting his kid. He was more likely protecting himself from any disussion of his draft status, which improved markedly (from IA to 3C) with parenthood. This was not uncommon back then--Dick Cheney did it, certainly.
It will be discussed, though, if he breaks through to the nomination--it's something he should be prepared for...that whole "I don't want to talk about that, I want to talk about this" schtick doesn't work on a national level. The response to that is that people can walk and chew gum at the same time.
FWIW, he wasn't passing off the child as Jane's--it was the first wife who got 'credited' for the child, even though it was the girlfriend who actually is the mother. All that is in the piece.
There was no need to lie on his OWN biography about whose kid that was. There was no need to go into any detail at all. If they wanted to be cute, they could say they have a "blended" family of four adult children, or something. Or they could have just said he had one son, and she had one son and two daughters. Or he had one son and three stepchildren. No one would care. It's embellishment that turns out to be inaccurate that is problematic, it always is.
Had he just not mis-stated in the first place, in this day and age, the circumstances of Levi's birth would have been a total ho-hum not even worthy of a POLITICO article. After all, Ronald Reagan was divorced--didn't hurt him one bit. Gerald Ford's wife was a divorcee, and she was beloved. Grover Cleveland overcame a much greater scandal, and that was many years ago.
It's never the crime, it's the cover-up...!