Disclaimer: This is a Hillary Clinton appreciation thread, which means that most people who come here really like Hillary Clinton. If you have criticisms, please be respectful.
If you haven’t had the chance, check out the daily News & Views and the Hillary Writers Circle, as well as the afternoon Hillary Hangouts and the #ImWithHer evening open threads. In addition, here are some new diaries:
kck: Hillary Clinton GOTV — Action Diary
BWilson: Damn That Hillary Victory Fund!
InfiniteThoughts: Hillary uses ‘laundered’ money and hires fired Bernie field staffers.
wbkook: LA Times: Money becoming a Challenge
Magnifico: NYT/CBS News Poll finds Democrats more unified in May 2016 than May 2008
THirt: Bernie burning through cash, will face some tough choices going forward
Hard to believe, but the next primary isn’t until next month, when the Virgin Islands holds its primary on June 4. Regardless of what happens, the “Bern-mentum” stories seem to finally be ceasing, and the end is near.
Depending upon what you’ve read, Bernie is either plotting a wave of destruction through to the general election, or quietly making peace overtures to the Democratic Party. He apparently reached out to California’s junior Senator Barbara Boxer about the shameful treatment she received at the Nevada convention.
Sanders has reached out to multiple Senate colleagues in an attempt to assuage them. Among them is Senator Barbara Boxer of California, whose keynote speech at the Nevada state Democratic convention last weekend was disrupted by rowdy Sanders supporters in a situation she described as frightening and out of control.
Boxer said she conveyed her concerns to Sanders in "a really nice talk" with him Tuesday. "I told him how bad it was in Nevada. He said he was distressed about it, and he expressed chagrin about it. I told him 'Bernie, you need to get a hold of it,' and he said he would.''
"He said, 'I can't believe my people would do this,'" said Boxer, who is stepping down from the Senate in January. "He got the point."
Then again, this wouldn’t be the first time Bernie Sanders said one thing and did another. We’ll see if the more conciliatory tone sticks. I haven’t been following the local news very closely, but last I saw (less than a week ago), they didn’t mention Nevada, instead focusing on Bernie’s various rallies. In response to one question about whether he would be Hillary Clinton’s VP, he reportedly said, “Maybe we should be talking the Sanders/Clinton ticket instead.” Yeah, maybe we shouldn’t. Because that’s even less likely to occur than a Clinton/Sanders ticket.
The signs are growing that Bernie will not be able to wage the same full-throttle campaign in California that he waged in past states, especially with less than $6 million in cash on hand. Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign’s management of campaign funds continues to pay dividends:
That is one reason why Bernie appears to be desperately pushing for a Los Angeles debate. Hillary shouldn’t accept — we already know what they believe, and who the Democratic nominee will be. It remains to be seen if any other platforms besides the Washington Times and Reddit take the tack that Hillary Clinton is “afraid” to debate Bernie.
While Hillary does not need to win California, it would put a stake in Bernie’s tenuous electability argument once and for all if she did. After all, articles suggesting that Hillary should step down if Bernie wins California are an actual thing. At least this one wasn’t written by H.A. Goodman.
We here in the Golden State aren’t taking anything for granted and have been working to get out the vote.
As kck noted in the above diary, it’s not just about Hillary v. Bernie, but our strange Top Two system where whichever two people get the most primary votes down ballot end up on the general election ballot. Which means that the two people on the ballot could both be Democrats, or Republicans. We definitely don’t want the latter, so we want to turn out as many Democratic votes as possible.
On that note, higher numbers of newly registered voters in California should be good news for Democrats regardless of who prevails.
The registration figures are bad news for the state’s Republicans, who already have seen their numbers falling in California. Nearly half the new voters, 48.5 percent, registered as Democrats, compared with the 16.7 percent who registered as Republicans and the 34.8 percent who either declined to state a party preference or registered with a minor party.
The Democratic number is slightly above the current statewide 43.7 percent registration figure, but the percentage of new Republicans is far below the party’s 27.5 percent statewide registration, which could hurt GOP candidates both in the fall and in the future.
Over the next week, both Hillary Clinton and Bill will be criss-crossing the state, with stops in Los Angeles, Chula Vista, Pomona, Delano, Sacramento, Fresno, and Stockton. Whew!
Meanwhile, I’ll be organizing my very first canvassing event — wish me luck! I’ll confess, I didn’t exactly plan to do it. I attended a Hillary Clinton event nearby and said that I was interested in canvassing and, well, it turned out I was the only one available to canvass this weekend, which also meant that I would organize the canvassing. I’m supposed to get the packets tomorrow, and hopefully everything will go okay, and I’ll have some fun stories to report. Oh yes: tomorrow also looks like rain.
If you have any money to spare, please consider
**CONTRIBUTING TO THE CAMPAIGN**
This is your open thread.