Dialing it up to 11
A few weeks ago, while Bernie Sanders was recuperating, I posted a diary in which I wrote about the stents placed in one of his arteries via a catheter, and I kidded that he could be our first “bionic president” except that the stents would only allow normal blood flow to his heart, restoring the energy level he was accustomed to — they wouldn’t give him superpowers like Steve Austin’s bionic parts did!
A number of commenters, including Meteor Blades, attested that after getting a stent they felt more energy than they had in years, since that’s how long a blockage can accumulate before it causes a heart attack (the death of blood-deprived heart cells).
In that diary I also contrasted Sanders’s health scare to President Ronald Reagan’s much scarier one. Just months after he was elected to his first term, Reagan was shot and was close to death in the emergency room, requiring 5 pints of blood just to be stabilized for surgery. I wrote:
Sanders didn’t require surgery, was up and about quickly, and while obviously his condition needs to be routinely monitored, with his energy renewed his health scare may make little difference in his ability to wage a spirited campaign and, if elected, to perform the duties of the presidency.
With Bernie back on the campaign trail, the renewal, and indeed the increase, of his energy that was predicted is now very apparent.
If you haven’t had a chance yet to witness what I’m talking about, I encourage you to jump to time mark 1:10 in the video below of his campaign rally last Sunday in Detroit. At 1:10, we’re about 20 minutes into his speech, and Sanders has already reminded the crowd of Nelson Mandela’s line, “It always seems impossible until it is done.”
Now watch him dial it up to 11. It’s quite remarkable. His speech lasts another half hour, but you only have to watch a bit to appreciate what I’m saying.
His energy and passion appear stronger than ever.
Speaking the next day to a very enthusiastic audience at a J Street conference in Washington, D.C., Sanders felt like standing while his younger host felt like sitting:
U.S. News & World Report
You don’t have to be the only Jewish candidate for president to get a wildly enthusiastic reception from the nation's leading liberal pro-Israel group. But it helps.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont had barely walked onto the stage at the national conference of J Street, a group dedicated to a Middle East peace that includes justice for both Jews and Palestinians, when thousands of people in the packed ballroom leapt to their feet and cheered.
And Sanders said he wasn't going to take a seat either, though that was the format for the q-and-a sessions with Democratic presidential candidates. With a heart attack, schmart attack wave of his hands, Sanders said "it's hard to talk when you're sitting”…
...
When one of the moderators – the younger Ben Rhodes, who was deputy national security adviser to former President Barack Obama – said he didn't think he could stand for the entire session, the 78-year-old Sanders responded, "I don't want to raise the age issue!"
Bernie is clearly back in campaign mode. The week before, at a huge rally in New York City — 26,000 strong, the biggest of any candidate so far this cycle — where he was endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, he declared:
“To put it bluntly, I’m back!”
Bernie has now received the endorsements of three of the most prominent new members of Congress — Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
The symbolism of a Jewish male senior receiving the support of young Muslim women and a young Latina helps illustrate what Sanders is always emphasizing in his stump speech about how when Americans come together — young, old, gay, straight, native-born, immigrant, all colors, all faiths — and stand united, there is nothing we can’t accomplish.
Rashida Tlaib explains her endorsement in this heartfelt video where she refers to Sanders as “Amo Bernie” — Arabic for “Uncle Bernie”:
In this ad, AOC recalls first hearing about an inspiring politician named Bernie Sanders when she was a waitress.
Campaign and candidate are back in high gear
As I’ve written before, I think polls at this early stage are no better than astrology charts at predicting which of our top-tier candidates will become the nominee. If the polling methodology is sound, a poll may at best give us a rough approximation of current opinion. With that in mind, two early-state polls by reputable researchers released this week suggest that Sanders’s early-October health scare hasn’t had dramatic repercussions in the primary race, which seems reasonable given his rapid recovery and his campaign’s quick return to high gear:
- New Hampshire: Sanders (21%), Warren (18%), Biden (15%), Buttigieg (10%) with margin of error 4.1%. (Poll conducted by University of New Hampshire for CNN, October 21-27, of 574 likely voters in the Democratic primary.)
- Iowa: Warren (22%), Sanders (19%), Buttigieg (18%), Biden (17%) with margin of error 4.7%. (Poll conducted by Siena College for The New York Times, October 25-30, of 439 likely Democratic caucus-goers.)
This week we also had signs of healthy enthusiasm for Bernie in Minnesota: his Minneapolis rally had to be moved from an auditorium that seats 2700 to a sports arena with a capacity of over 14,000.
Finally, big props this week go to Bernie’s friend, colleague, and fellow nomination contestant Elizabeth Warren for advancing Medicare for All by drafting a detailed financing proposal. Her plan, built around the idea of “not one penny” in increased taxes for the middle class, takes a different tack from Sanders’s. He has proposed (among other ideas) a 4% payroll-based income tax which would exempt the first $29,000 for a family of four. While the pundits — and perhaps Sanders and Warren too! — will enjoy the opportunity for the two candidates to finally have something to argue about on the debate stage — in the bigger picture, having competing models for how to achieve the same level of health care coverage helps to move the debate to a place where the question isn’t whether or not America should have a Medicare for All system, but rather what’s the most desirable way to finance it.
Friends, colleagues, leaders!