[PREV - ELECTORAL_COUNTERFAC]    [TOP]

SAFE_BETS

                                        November 10, 2016

During the Democratic primary, we were told repeatedly by
Hillary supporters that she was the *safe* choice,
compared to that weirdo socialist Bernie.

The pre-election polls were telling us the precise opposite:
Bernie kept rating higher against Trump than Hillary.

The Hillary supporters shrugged this off as weak evidence:
Hillary had already faced Republican opposition and
survived, and they were withholding fire from Bernie
just to trick us.

  Now that Hillary somehow miraculously lost the
  election to Trump-- and this was something I
  never believed would happen, I always figured
  *anyone* could beat Trump, it would just be a
  tighter race against Hillary-- one of my first
  thoughts was to wonder if any of the anti-Bernie
  democrats might be willing to re-evaluate their
  position, if they might perhaps apologize for
  having stuck us with the candidate so bad she
  could lose even to Trump.

     I ducked around in a few places I haven't
     frequented since the primary (there are
     many I've "thrown under the bus", not so        KRUGMAN_BERNIE_WARS
     much for getting this issue wrong, but
     for getting it wrong in really stupid ways).

     Paul Krugman had a generic sententious somber
     statement up that didn't say very much
     (battle not with David Brooks, lest ye become       He closes with a
     David Brooks).                                      remark about needing
                                                         to rethink.
     Kos at the dailykos was not apologizing for       
     his horrible screw-ups, but he appeared to be          My bet is his
     making an effort to say positive things about          rethinking will
     Bernie-- this is better than I expected, I             not involve
     suppose...  from Kos one does not expect much.         changing his mind
                                                            about anything. 
                                                      
         I thought about it, and my guess was               (This is a fellow
         that rather than backtrack on                      who repeatedly
         anything, the pro-Hillary forces                   accused Bernie
         would double-down.  Maybe they'd go                of being a
         with: "it's all *Bernie's* fault for               "demagogue", and
         campaigning against her too hard."                 no better than
                                                            a Republican--
         I just took a look at the dailykos                 for not repudiating
         again today: there are indeed people               *someone else's*
         saying that.                                       economic analysis.)

         Bernie should've known better than                 (When he finished
         to attack St. Hillary the Inevitable.              his "rethink", he
                                                            blamed the media.
                                                            Not including
                                                            himself, apparently.)


--------
[NEXT - POLLS_AND_REALITY]