Today the Sanders campaign releases news that the Pope spoke for “five minutes” at 6 am with Sanders before leaving on his scheduled trip. It’s a proud moment of symbolism. I’m happy that they were able to do that.
Since the entire purpose of the meeting was symbolic, it might not be too wise to read too much into it, though. As far as we know, neither converted the other, either on matters of faith or any substantive political point. There simply isn’t much you can get done in five minutes, which as you’ll remember is roughly the maximum amount of time you might have gotten on Santa Claus’ lap when you were a child.
Logistics-wise, we are hearing reports that the cost of the trip ranged from $300,000-500,000, and this was considered a priority over Sanders releasing any of his back tax filings prior to 2014 in time for tax day, April 18th. These two facts might raise questions for some over Sanders’ sense of priorities:
— the funds from 10,000-20,000 “average” contributors, for a five minute photo op meeting (where it appears no photos were taken?), and
— a very serious AND CONTINUING delinquency on the issue of transparency: why weren’t the tax filings published months ago? Are they concerned about the unseemly appearance of Mrs. Sanders’ income from that college, including her severance?
Nevertheless, we are happy that the spiritual leader chose to balance his meeting with Kim Davis with someone from our side of the political spectrum. Kudos!