— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 14, 2019A claim that can't be proved true or false, but opens animosities among groups who should pull together against the opponent (Trump), and yet, in what can only be called Trumpian fashion, prefers to divide and antagonize with what is nothing more than another conspiracy theory.
Maybe Sanders is the "front-runner," at least according to polls of voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. Then again, I'm old enough to remember GHWBush coming out of New Hampshire in 1979 with the "Big Mo." The only reason he got into the non-visitors section of the White House for the next 8 years was because he was Reagan's VP.
And who has ever won New Hampshire, or Iowa's straw poll, and gone on to sweep all before them, especially in a very crowded field? Quick history question: was Trump the front runner in the GOP primaries a year before they were even held?
Throwing out this kind of conspiracy crap is not a sign of seeking unity in the party. Like Trump, it's the act of someone who feels entitled to the victory and the office. You may say that's Sanders' supporters, not the candidate; but who seriously separates the most ardent supporters from the candidate whose message draws them? Like Trump, Sanders depends on his "base" to get anywhere at all.
As Yeats said: how can we know the dancer from the dance? As Molly Ivins observed about the rules of the Texas Legislature: "You gotta dance with them what brung ya."
Same as it ever was.
Iowa is a caucus with open registration which is more of an invitation to ratfucking by Greens, Republicans and who knows who else. New Hampshire has a "semi-closed" primary that means you can pretend to be a Democrat for the primary when you aren't, which is really the same thing. And Bernie Sanders would hope to, again, benefit from the neighboring-state effect that Massachusetts candidates have used to win the NH primary, and hasn't that not been a huge success since 1960. As I recall GHWB tried to use his Kennebunkport summer place to gain that effect. Muskie tired it and if he hadn't been sandbagged by the Union Leader and the Nixon ratfucking operation, it would probably have worked to give Nixon a real instead of a disastrously misguided lefty-wet dream as an opponent in 1972.
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