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Houston       Let me start by saying, I have mixed feelings about Senator Bernie Sanders as a candidate for President, not on ideological grounds and not personal to him.  I’m just not sure that I’ve seen the candidate arise yet that I feel confident can beat President Trump.  I’m certainly not horrified at the Democratic Socialist tag, largely because I’m not sure what it means to him or anyone else, but I’m all in favor of de-fanging any and all relics of the Cold War, and that’s one of them.  In Europe or India, saying you are a socialist is a little like saying you brushed your teeth that morning.  Who cares?  Certainly, not worth a heart attack.

But, I’m mystified about the rash of heavy breathing headlines and pundit panic now about Sanders.  He came within a hair four years ago.  He won and did well in these same primaries four years ago.  He was old then.  He’s older now.  He was saying pretty much the same thing then that he’s saying today.  What’s new?  Why the shock and awe?

But, now they are all in a cold sweat trying to figure out how to stop Sanders.  Was this a news flash to them? Were they a lost tribe somewhere in the vast forests and plains of America and this was their first contact with news and politics?  Who among the liberal and moderate forces hasn’t seen this movie before?  Now, it’s a rerun, they should know the songs, dances, and lines by heart.

The problem is those damned pesky voters, isn’t it?  They don’t seem to be in love with the middle-of-the-road.  They seem to like driving on the left and right shoulders now, if they like anything at all, and that’s what confuses me.

It takes a horse to beat a horse, and the problem for the middies is that they don’t seem to be clear on their horse or how to ride ‘em.  They moan and groan about Joe Biden. They seem surprised that he is four years older than 2016, and that he hasn’t changed much.  Former Mayor Bloomberg had his past slap him upside of the head once again when his crazy, racist finger pointing away from his millionaire and billionaire banking and finance friends to blame redlining and the end of racially discriminatory lending for the financial crisis.  Amy, who?  Pete, what?

The two leftish candidates for a long time had a mutual nonaggression pact.  The mod-libs don’t seem to see the far horizon much but whine about the others while they elbow each other back and forth.

Is it really too much to ask for someone to actually be in charge of the Democratic Party who might exercise some leadership and wrangle a deal to beat Trump out of this stampede?  Somehow reading about resignations after the coming defeat will give no pleasure compared to actually getting everyone on the same page about beating Trump and making the deal that real voters will actually like.

Sanders, Warren and the like actually seem to have a plan.  The mod-libs seem clueless except for crying about the future while they piddle away the present and shove each other around.  Is it a wonder that promising nothing much at all just isn’t very exciting to most people?