If Bernie Sanders runs, personally, I'll be behind him 100 percent. And that decision is coming soon.
Per the AP:
Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders says he'll decide by March whether to launch a 2016 presidential campaign and, if so, whether he'll seek the Democratic nomination. Either way, Sanders says he wouldn't run just to nudge the debate to the left.
"I don't want to do it unless I can do it well," he told The Associated Press. "I don't want to do it unless we can win this thing."
And:
Sanders said the issues about which he's been railing all these years are only becoming more dire. The wealth gap has grown, and the middle class, he says, is "collapsing."
"You have one family, the Walton family of Walmart, owning more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of the American people," he said. "We have 95 percent of all new income going to the top 1 percent. You have millions of families unable to afford to send their kids to college. People are desperately worried about whether or not they are going to retire with dignity."
Sanders has a 12-step plan that he says will restore the economy and especially the middle class, most of it dependent on higher taxes on the rich and corporations. Among the proposals: A $1 trillion infrastructure building program that would "create 13 million decent-paying jobs," more worker-friendly international trade deals and legislation to strengthen unions, and transforming the U.S. energy system "away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy."
He says he'll make a "gut decision" about running for the presidency - and, perhaps, challenging Democratic favorite Hillary Rodham Clinton.
He would be 75 in 2016, but "my health is good," he said, knocking on a wooden conference room table. He said he couldn't remember the last time he'd called in sick to work.[emphasis added]
Finally:
Sanders said he is weighing whether to run as an independent, as he has done in Vermont, or as a Democrat. He has been critical of both major parties over the years, though he has aligned with liberal Democrats on many issues.
On the last point, I respect both views: that he should run as an independent party because the country is disgusted with the two parties AND that his greatest impact would be in the Democratic Party.
I would support him either way.
And I'll end by saying something I know is controversial: he can defeat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries.
If you analyze politics in the mainstream, traditional way, no one will give him much of a chance. But, if you look at what the mood is in the country and that people want someone genuine (a box Hillary Clinton will never be able to check), he could blow up the campaign.
This assumes a variety of factors and that no one else significant enters the race--I'll write more about this soon.
But, in the meantime, "Run, Bernie, Run".