Dear Bernie Sanders, when you hire people like this expect to lose black voters..

[Galraedia]

Bernie Sanders first hired his new speechwriter, David Sirota, 20 years ago, shortly after Sirota was fired from a mayoral campaign for his connection to a bogus website that promoted a racially charged quotation, taken out of context, of a black opponent.

In 1999, in Philadelphia, there was a crowded Democratic primary for mayor. Three of the candidates were African American: John White, Dwight Evans, and John Street, all of them friends going back years. But the race got intense early, and David Sirota, then working as the deputy campaign manager for Evans, was part of an effort to cut down White’s support: creating a bogus website, purporting to be the official home page of the White campaign, and using it to promote a racially charged quotation, deliberately taken out of context.

The ruse was soon discovered. Evans, who is now a Democratic member of Congress, fired Sirota. He called Sirota “overzealous” at the time. “I do not want this race to be about race,” Evans said in 1999, calling the site in question an example of “dirty tricks.” The website took a comment that White had made in a broader interview with a Spanish-language weekly, Al Día, and presented the line as if it were an anti-white slogan: “The black and the brown, if we unite, we’re going to control this city.” Local reporters in Philadelphia received emails directing them to the site as though it were part of John White’s campaign.

Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/bernie-sanderss-new-speechwriter-has-controversial-past/585547/

[Walleye]

1. Republican dirty tricks, AKA Russian active measures.

[The Magistrate]

2. It's A Fair Cop, Ma'am....

The sooner people, especially Sanders' well-meaning supporters, get it through their heads "Bernie' is not running to secure our Party's nomination for President, the better it will be for our people and our country.

The fact is Sanders campaigns not to gain the Democratic Party's nomination for President, but to weaken if not wreck the 'Democratic Establishment'. For 'Bernie', ousting Trump and ending the Republican majority in the Senate is barely an afterthought to this long-standing purpose. Once Sanders' supporters face this fact squarely, they may be able to decide honestly what their best course in this election is: voting against 'Bernie' in any future primary, and for Mr. Biden and Democrats all down the ticket to the lowest office on the ballot come November.

It is probably true that Sanders sees destroying the 'Democratic Establishment' as an essential precondition to defeating Trump et al, and so by his own lights he means it when he says he will do all he can to defeat Trump. But that belief is so self-serving and delusional it deserves not just scorn but contempt.

As with Trump, the only real cure is to deprive the man of the oxygen of worshipful attention. The effect would be that of a bucket of water on the wicked witch of Oz....





"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[George II]

3. "Only the best people"! "Extreme vetting"! Sirota is a closet racist well versed....

....in the typical racist dog whistles.

No wonder he deleted all of his tweets (more than 20,000) an hour or two before his hiring was announced.

[Eyeball_Kid]

4. Sorry, won't go there.

Sirota long ago apologized for his horrid political campaign work. That he now works for Sanders isn't an additional black mark on him. That Sanders hasn't closed down his campaign yet isn't Sirota's doing.

We have enough villains in this dark and chilling political atmosphere to be concerned about. That Sirota played a Machiavellian role in a past campaign, IMO, doesn't make him another villain.

[The Magistrate]

7. He Remains A Foul Odor, Sir

His current activities establish him as a liar and a cheat, and a gutless cheat as well.

"The troops are the mirror of their officer."






"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[George II]

8. No he did't apologize "long ago". He apologized right around the time Sanders hired him....

...in early 2019, which was TWENTY YEARS after his disgusting, racist activity in Philadelphia. And he only did so after deleting more than 20,000 disgusting tweets.

[Cha]

5. That could very well have been part of

the reasons.

[gibraltar72]

6. Some of his supporters are despicable people.