I wasn’t surprised to see the video clip of Bernie praising Castro in the debate, but I was very surprised that Bernie wasn’t prepared to answer for it. Hillary was ready to double down and she didn’t waste the opportunity.
This is why, as much as I admire him, I have not been able to shake off my doubts about Bernie as our nominee. And this is why I haven’t given any credence to polls showing how strong he is against Trump or any of the others on the right. Bernie hasn’t been tested. He was just given his first real test tonight and he just stood there like a deer caught in the headlights.
I remember in 2008 when the Rev Wright tapes surfaced and Obama had to think on his feet to answer for them. What followed was arguably the best modern speech on race. Obama knocked it out of the ballpark. He turned a completely unfair potentially fatal attack into an opportunity to introduce himself to the American people.
Bernie did very well in many ways in the debate tonight, but his failure to answer for his past praise for a communist dictator almost certainly cost him an opportunity for an upset in Florida. But far worse than that, it has left him wide open to attacks from Trump and the rest of the right who are going to make Hillary’s double down seem like she came to Bernie’s defense.
Bernie has a weakness. It isn’t that he’s a Democratic Socialist or that the right is going to red bait until they turn blue in the face if he’s the nominee. It’s that he has 40 years of a public career and he hasn’t been tested for almost any of it. As an independent from a small blue state in New England, Bernie has been protected from having to be tested.
That all changes now. His entire 40 year record is about to be put on public trial and so far, he doesn’t look at all prepared for it. Instead of prepared, he looks like he honestly believes that he has been right on everything, so he has nothing to worry about. It’s the same problem he had early on with the debates. He wouldn’t prepare. He believed he already knew the answers and he could wing it. He was wrong then and he is wrong now.
This is why, in my judgement, I would rather have Hillary, with all of her negatives, as the nominee, because she is a known quantity. None of us know what is going to happen when Bernie has to answer for his 40 year political career. If tonight is any indication, it’s not going to go well.