Right at this very moment, Bernie Bro extraordinaire Chris Hayes is hosting his MSNBC show, and he seems very crabby. He's trying to hint that evil swaths of the Democratic Party were clearly determined to stop Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday. Former Senator Barbara Boxer keeps trying to tell him no, it was the voters, stupid. Although we found the exchange mildly entertaining, we turned it off. (No need to stick around for Rachel Maddow since Bernie himself will be her guest.)
Let's be honest: After last night's Biden blowout, and with an additional state (Maine) piling on, we're not in the mood for crankiness and finger-wagging. We're doing some slow, satisfied exhaling instead. And here are a few thoughts that have bounced around our furry heads.
First, shall we state the obvious — that the massive turnout in Virginia, North Carolina and elsewhere was not just a warning to Bernie (who cannot grow his base) but to Benedict Donald and Vladimir Putin? If the Trumpsters and #MoscowMitch McConnell refuse to secure our elections, the only thing we can do is vote in such massive numbers that even the Russians can't skew the result.
Virginia stood out, numbers-wise, and we have a few theories why. It's home to many federal workers, the intelligence community (the CIA is in Langley), and Norfolk, which is — no kidding — the world's largest naval station. Trump has gutted and disparaged the federal government, fired James Comey, demonized Andrew McCabe and other FBI careerists, disrespected his National Security staff, believed Putin over his own intelligence officers, insulted deceased Annapolis graduate John McCain, and undermined the chain of command by pardoning a Navy SEAL for war crimes. Yesterday helped prove that thanks to all that, he's lost votes he's never going to get back.
On another note, think of the millions of dollars that endangered GOP Senate incumbents like Martha McSally wasted on ridiculous TV ads, trying to tie their Democratic opponents to Bernie Sanders. Even if you're not a particular fan of Joe Biden, you can at least love it that Republican idiots frittered away money they'll wish they had later.
Meanwhile, it sounds like Michael Bloomberg will continue to bankroll his anti-Trump efforts through November. You can tell that Trump is panicked because he's frantically trying to stoke the Bernie-was-robbed narrative. Bloomberg, meanwhile, went up in our estimation by staying true to his reputation as a data guy: He looked at the numbers and faced the music, quickly and cleanly. Would Bernie Sanders have done — will do — the same?
We doubt it. He'll probably grouse to Rachel tonight about "corporate interests" and the "establishment." Gee — for some reason, we didn't look at the photo of that exhausted voter who waited in line for seven hours at the polls in Houston and thought, "Now, that's a member of the corporate-cum-establishment elite." Sanders's argument rings false about Joe Biden, too. The Biden campaign was so broke it was practically hand-drawing its own campaign signs and flying Rubber-Band Airlines before the Democrats of South Carolina lifted Joe on their shoulders. But whatever, Bern. We cats HISS.
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