In Democratic circles, one question is being asked more than any other these days: What exactly does Bernie Sanders want, and when does he plan to concede the Democratic race to Hillary Clinton?
Most urgently, some Democratic lawmakers are now wondering if Sanders indeed has an endgame, or if he merely cannot figure out how to gracefully bow out without devastating his most ardent supporters.
Just the other day, former Democratic Senator Kent Conrad, who served with both Clinton and Sanders in the Senate and now supports Clinton, remarked:
“So far [Sanders] has been riding a wave of good feelings in the sense he ran an incredible campaign. But that has a pretty short shelf life and then people start looking at you through a different lens, and that lens is: Are you a team player and do you have the larger picture in mind or are you just focused on yourself? At some point, pretty soon, he crosses the threshold. He may have already crossed it.”
When the Sanders camp is asked directly for comment on what the final act of the Sanders for President run will be, they have repeatedly declined to comment. This has led to speculation on social media that Sanders wants to wait and see if Clinton is indicted for anything related to her use of a private email server. FBI insiders have said they have uncovered no evidence which would suggest any criminal wrongdoing by the former Secretary of State.
Delaware Senator Ted Kaufman says that what Sanders wants is very simple:
“Bernie is trying to do exactly what he says he is trying to do. It’s in every one of his statements. He is making sure the concerns he has raised are taken into account for the future of the Democratic Party.
“The easiest answer with Bernie is to listen what he says because what he says is what he means. It is remarkable working with him. You didn’t have to spend a lot of time figuring out what he was saying or what he meant. It was a pleasure being around him.”
Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell says the fact that Sanders hasn’t bowed out of the race is more than a bit odd to him:
“I’m confused by it. If he wants to speak in primetime at the convention, then he has to suspend his campaign. If I was leading the movement and I wanted to convince the American people that the movement was correct, then I’d want to speak in primetime. But apparently he must not want to because he hasn’t thrown in the towel.”
Perhaps, as Senator Kaufman suggested, we should merely listen to what Sanders has said on the matter:
“Politics is not a baseball game with winners or losers. What politics is about is whether we protect the needs of millions of people in this country who are hurting.”
That has always been the message from Bernie Sanders, and he has never deviated from it for a second. So it appears we will all just have to wait until he’s ready to show us his final move.
Featured Image Via Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License
