Hey Bernie Sanders, now’s your big chance to do the right thing and be a hero to everyone
Everyone knows Bernie Sanders was never my candidate. If he’d have been the nominee, I’d have rather loudly supported him over Donald Trump, of course. But as of Joe Biden’s big wins tonight in Michigan, Mississippi, and Missouri, it’s over for Sanders. The big question now is what he’s about to do next.
This isn’t like 2016, where Bernie’s surprise Michigan win gave him the perceived momentum to remain in the race all the way to the end, even though in reality Bernie was falling behind by millions of votes the entire time. In 2020, that’s not happening. He’s finished in this race, and even if he remains in it, the media and much of the public will start ignoring what’s left of his campaign.
This time around, Bernie’s leverage is going to play out entirely differently. If he keeps running a zombie campaign and waits all the way until the convention before endorsing Joe Biden, at that point he’ll have very little leverage left. But if Bernie drops out and endorses Biden within the next week, while anyone of Bernie’s base is still paying attention to him, he’ll gain significant influence over a potential Biden administration.
Bernie Sanders has already publicly stated that he’s not looking to be Joe Biden’s running mate. But if Bernie uses his endorsement leverage now while he still has any leverage, he can nudge Biden toward making public commitments on some of Bernie’s biggest campaign priorities. Bernie can get a win out of this in terms of perception, influence, and credit, if he does it right now instead of waiting. Bernie will also become beloved by Democrats everywhere, for doing the right thing. Or he can drag this out and make himself a widely resented afterthought.
