National Politics

Bernie Sanders endorses Hillary Clinton, unifying Democrats

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BernieHillaryThis morning Senator Bernie Sanders Endorsed Hillary Clinton | Video.

Here’s Bernie Sanders’s official endorsement of Hillary Clinton, in full.

The New York Times reports, Bernie Sanders Endorses Hillary Clinton, Cementing Democrats’ Unity:

Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday, clearing away the last major obstacle to a united Democratic front heading into the party’s convention this month and the general election this fall.

Entering the high school gymnasium together and waving and shaking hands along the rope line and from the stage, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders stood before a giant American flag image flanked by Mrs. Clinton’s motto, “Stronger Together.” They appeared to chat briefly before Mr. Sanders spoke, and he patted her on the back before Mr. Sanders stepped forward to cheers to “Unity!”

“Secretary Clinton has won the Democratic nominating process,” Mr. Sanders said, as cheers erupted and Mrs. Clinton broke into a wide smile. “And I congratulate her for that. She will be the Democratic nominee for president, and I intend to do everything I can to make certain that she will be the next president of the United States.”

“I have come here to make it as clear as possible why I am endorsing Hillary Clinton and why she must become our next president.”

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Sanders to endorse Clinton on Tuesday

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POLITICO Tiger Beat on The Potomac reports, Sanders to join Clinton for New Hampshire rally on Tuesday (spoiler alert: endorsement):

Screenshot from 2016-02-11 12:39:46Bernie Sanders will join Hillary Clinton on Tuesday for a rally in New Hampshire, Clinton’s campaign announced Monday.

Sanders will campaign with Clinton at a high school in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at 11 a.m. Tuesday, less than two weeks before the party’s convention begins in Philadelphia.

The Vermont senator’s campaign announced his participation minutes after the Clinton team’s email hit inboxes, with both announcements sharing the same language that the two former primary rivals will “discuss their commitment to building an America that is stronger together and an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.”

The joint appearance comes after the Vermont senator scored several victories on the Democratic platform over the weekend in Orlando, Florida.

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Will Cleveland be the GOP’s Jonestown?

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Cartoon_54One week from today, the Republican National Convention gets underway in Cleveland, Ohio.

Will convention delegates “drink the Kool-Aid” and commit mass political suicide by selecting the “Toxic Trump” as the GOP nominee? Will Cleveland be the GOP’s Jonestown?

The #NeverTrump delegate revolt has a plan to deny Donald Trump the nomination, but it has no challenger around whom to rally. The Washington Post’s conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin recently pleaded, GOP delegates shouldn’t pick the worst candidate available:

There are any number of pathetic voices trying to rationalize support for Donald Trump. He is better than Hillary Clinton! (Really, how exactly?) The Supreme Court! (What about it? Trump shows no commitment to any judicial philosophy and is just as likely to make a deal with Democrats to get something he cares about.) He could pick stellar advisers! (They wouldn’t work for him, and if they did, he’d ignore them.)

It seems one argument even Trump’s most strident defenders can make is: He’s the best candidate to beat Hillary Clinton. Actually, he’s the worst, and it would be politically suicidal to nominate him when other credible contenders are readily available.

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The Democratic Party platform comes together

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DNC-LogoIn case you missed it over the long 4th of July holiday weekend, the draft Democratic Party platform was posted in advance of the convention. 2016 Democratic Party Platform DRAFT (.pdf).

Steve Benen writes, Bernie Sanders scores big wins with Democratic platform:

[Bernie Sanders] and his aides turned their attention to the Democratic platform, launching a spirited fight to move the document to the left. As of late last week, there can be little doubt that Sanders has succeeded: as MSNBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald reported, Dems are moving forward with “what is almost certainly the most progressive platform in the party’s history.”

The draft platform states Americans should earn $15 per hour and have a right to join a union, and it supports a so-called “model employer executive order” to raise standards for federal government contractors. It calls for the complete abolishment of the death penalty, stating, “It has no place in the United States of America.”

On Wall Street, the platform lays out a number of reforms proposed by Clinton, Sanders and other Democrats, and states the party “will not hesitate to use and expand existing authorities as well as empower regulators to downsize or break apart financial institutions,” it states.

The document, which is available in its entirety, is surprising in its audacity on everything from free community college to expanding Social Security, overturning Citizens United to banning assault weapons, criminal justice reform to repealing the Hyde Amendment that prevents public funding of abortion.

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Democratic Party platform is coming together (Updated)

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The starry-eyed idealists who see themselves as revolutionaries and demand strict adherence to their ideological platform manifesto no doubt will see this compromise as selling out their cause, a betrayal of the glorious revolution.

In this respect, the left really is no better than the Tea Party on the ideological right. They reject the old axiom that “Politics is the art of compromise,” or as Otto Von Bismark framed it,“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best.” For them, “It’s my way or the highway.”

Nevertheless, more pragmatic and reasonable people are coming together on the Democratic Party platform. Bernie Sanders is getting much of what he wanted, but not all, as is the way of compromise.

David Weigel of the Washington Post reports, Here’s what Bernie Sanders has won in the Democratic platform (so far):

DNC-LogoOn Friday evening, Sen. Bernie Sanders told supporters in Syracuse, N.Y., that the Democratic Party was not yet embracing the progressive platform planks that he wanted — that the whole movement wanted. On Sunday, he repeated himself, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper that “we’re going to take that fight to Orlando, where the entire committee meets in two weeks, and if we don’t succeed there, we are certainly going to take it to the floor of the Democratic convention.”

In the meantime, four of Sanders’s five appointees to the platform drafting committee had signed off on their partially finished product. (Cornel West was the lone holdout.) Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who had starred in an America Rising video that aimed to show Democrats that they were getting sold out, voted for the platform and praised its “significant accomplishments that move our party firmly toward justice, fairness, and inclusion.”

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