Earlier today, Ed Morrissey wrote about that hot new story claiming that John Kerry was overheard suggesting that he might have to ride to the rescue and save his party from a Bernie Sanders nomination. Disappointingly, my friend Ed seems to be poo-pooing the entire idea out of hand without considering the possible upside for the Democrats in such a plan. In case you missed it earlier, here’s a bit of his reasoning on the proposal.
Kerry is very clearly “f*****g deluding myself here” if he thinks he’s the candidate to rescue the party. Kerry couldn’t beat an unpopular George W. Bush in 2004 despite having lots of time to ramp up and organize a campaign, and he only got through the primary because Howard Dean imploded. He’s precisely the kind of Beltway barnacle that voters love to despise these days; he’s much more establishment than Sanders, and a late entry will be seen as a desperation establishment move as well. Besides, few politicians are as demonstrably in love with their own voice as Kerry is, and with less justification.
Let’s not sell John Kerry short here. First of all, people are already expressing concerns over Joe Biden’s age and durability, while Democrats hurl similar suggestions about Donald Trump. Kerry is younger than both of them, so that’s a plus, right? (Okay… only by a few months, but still…) Also, unlike Biden, nobody has seen Kerry out on the stump giving speeches under pressure for quite a while. For all we know, he could still be playing with a full deck of cards.
Also, John Kerry has general election experience, unlike Biden or Sanders. Granted, it’s experience in how to lose a general election… badly. But surely he learned a thing or two from the beating George W. Bush handed him. That’s got to count for something, right?
All kidding aside (and in case you didn’t realize it, I was absolutely being sarcastic), the real reason I wanted to check in on this story has more to do with the DNC and Bernie Sanders than it does with John Kerry. One thing that the overheard cellphone call should drive home is the fact that the Democrats are not only in a panic about a surging Sanders campaign but are actively discussing what, if anything, can be done about it.
These aren’t just a collection of paranoid fever swamp dreams being imagined by the Bernie Bros. These conversations are taking place among party leaders and prominent former officials from the Democratic Party even as we speak. Most of them see the light at the end of the tunnel if Sanders is the nominee and they realize it’s the headlamp of an oncoming train. We learned only last week that some members of the DNC are already quietly talking about bringing back the Superdelegates to vote in the first round of the convention. The only reason to do that (and enrage their hard-left base even further) would be to thwart Sanders if he comes in with enough earned delegates to narrowly nab the nomination after the first vote.
Trump’s team has to be secretly praying that they draw Sanders as an opponent in the general election. I can assure you that there are already ad campaigns being developed with the word “socialist” splashed prominently across them. The people who pay scant attention to politics most of the time and really only start tuning in during the last few months of the race will be getting their first introduction to Sanders as a candidate. And that introduction will be festooned with images of Venezuela going up in flames and other infamous examples of socialist societies collapsing under the weight of that theory of governance.
Also, a potential Sanders campaign would be starting from a rough launching point anyway. While it’s surged in popularity among younger Democrats of late, people generally don’t like socialism. Gallup has been polling on this question for decades, offering voters one dozen potential categories of generic candidates and asking if respondents would at least consider voting for them. Majorities of Americans (in varying degrees) are willing to consider candidates of either gender and any race or religion. Or even no religion. But the one and only generic candidate that couldn’t muster even 50% support was… a socialist.
With all that in mind, it’s not at all shocking the John Kerry would find himself talking to someone and having the “what do we do about Bernie” conversation. I’m also not terribly shocked that he would propose himself as a solution, whether he was joking or not. But like Ed, I think the Democrats would be foolish to take him up on the offer.
