{"id":13102,"date":"2019-10-18T14:13:03","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T21:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=13102"},"modified":"2019-10-18T14:13:53","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T21:13:53","slug":"bernie-sanders-campaign-is-alive-and-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2019\/10\/18\/bernie-sanders-campaign-is-alive-and-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernie Sanders\u2019 Campaign Is Alive and Well"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

October 16, 2019 by NY Mag<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders was better, crisper, and funnier than ever before.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

by Eric Levitz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bernie<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bernie 2020 has more than a pulse. (Photo: Win McNamee\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks ago, Bernie Sanders\u2019s 2020 campaign looked seriously unwell \u2014 and then, so did Bernie Sanders. As of October 1, the Vermont senator\u2019s support in national polls had been stagnating for months,<\/a> while his standing in surveys of early states had been declining<\/a>. For a newcomer to presidential politics, boasting a lock on third place four months before Iowa would be auspicious. But for a candidate who already enjoyed near 100 percent name recognition among the party faithful, it seemed the opposite; especially as Elizabeth Warren moved steadily further ahead <\/a>of her fellow left-wing New Englander in the polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then the 78-year-old socialist had a heart attack.<\/a> And in one of his first interviews after the health scare, an understandably fatigued-looking Bernie suggested he would have to \u201cchange the nature of the campaign<\/a>.\u201d A thousand obituaries for \u201cthe political revolution\u201d were prewritten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Sanders\u2019s showing Tuesday night will keep them unpublished. At the Democratic debate in Westerville, Ohio \u2014 his first major campaign event since taking ill \u2014 Bernie wasn\u2019t just his old, bizarrely sharp and energetic-for-a-septuagenarian self. He was better, crisper, and funnier than before. The hoarse voice<\/a> that plagued Sanders on the last episode of this (wretched) TV show was gone. A new perspective on the fragility of this life \u2014 and the preciousness of every opportunity to mitigate the suffering of other human beings \u2014 had, presumably, taken its place. Or maybe Bernie just got a good night\u2019s sleep Monday. Either way, he turned in his finest debate performance of the cycle thus far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the (apparently, legally mandatory<\/a>) early back-and-forth on the horrors of replacing private-insurance premiums with payroll taxes, Sanders benefited from the greater clarity of his position relative to Warren\u2019s (he is comfortable copping to the necessity of tax hikes, she prefers to avoid the T-word), and his rivals\u2019 greater interest in damaging the race\u2019s new front-runner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, he delivered a rousing defense<\/a> of his desire to expropriate Tom Steyer\u2019s wealth; interrupted Joe Biden to crack a joke<\/a> amusing enough to earn him an impromptu embrace from the former vice-president; and still managed to stick a shiv between Uncle Joe\u2019s ribs when the time was ripe:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Sanders closed out the night by demonstrating that he isn\u2019t actually incapable of indulging the press\u2019 bottomless appetite for pleasing pablum about bipartisan cooperation, and the evils of divisiveness. Asked to describe a friendship that transcended partisan lines, the senator reminded America of a fact some of his loudest online supporters often elide \u2014 Bernie is capable of playing nice with Republican colleagues, and pursuing incremental progress over ideological purity, as he did when partnering with John McCain on reforms to veterans\u2019 health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, in the face of heavy incoming fire, Warren\u2019s answers often came off as less crisp and self-assured versions of Sanders\u2019s (which had not, in my infinitely objective view, been the case at previous debates). The Massachusetts senator put up a solid performance. But the combination of Sanders\u2019s vitality, and Warren\u2019s incessant obligation to play defense, made Bernie look like the more effective messenger for the party\u2019s left flank (at least, for this evening).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then, minutes after the debate was done, the Sanders campaign won the endorsement <\/a>of the most charismatic congresswoman in the United States: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed that she will be lending Bernie 2020 her considerable star power at a rally in Queens on Saturday. AOC\u2019s fellow \u201csquad\u201d members, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, will also reportedly be joining the political revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether any of this will actually matter is unknowable. There isn\u2019t much evidence that any of the previous Democratic debates made a durable impact on the polls. To the extent that Sanders needs to improve his standing with older voters, and Democrats who subscribe to conventional notions about \u201celectability,\u201d AOC\u2019s rubber stamp isn\u2019t going to help. But the senator\u2019s mission Tuesday night was to keep the political obituarists at bay. There\u2019s no question he accomplished that much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 2019 NY Mag<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eric Levitz is a New York-based journalist and contributor for the New York Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 16, 2019 by NY Mag Sanders was better, crisper, and funnier than ever before. by Eric Levitz Bernie 2020 has more than a pulse. (Photo: Win McNamee\/Getty Images) Two weeks ago, Bernie Sanders\u2019s 2020 campaign looked seriously unwell \u2014 and then, so did Bernie Sanders. As of October 1,… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13102"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13104,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13102\/revisions\/13104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}