Monday, March 28, 2016

"What the Ex-Pat Primary Tells Us About the Bernie Blackout"

"...Tuesday began with an email from the Sanders campaign telling me he’d won the ex-pat primary by a huge margin.  Good enough, but the corporate media barely covered it...

...After the email, I got some coffee and waded through what passes for news here in the land of the free. First up was a piece in Huffington Post explaining how I was a sexist if I didn’t support Hillary.  The New York Times had an article on why Sanders should get out of the race.  Apparently with less than half the state delegates in – and with many of those that have been awarded coming from states that are essentially irrelevant for Democratic Presidential candidates

...Then it was off the the Sanders Rally in San Diego, where my wife and I stood in the longest line I’ve ever seen – nearly two miles long at four and five abreast – and waited while the completely overwhelmed staff of the SD Convention Center attempted to cope.

We showed up at 4 PM, and got into the second overflow room at around 9 PM.  Some had waited in line since early morning.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  Not Beatles concerts, not Disneyland, not any of the massive protests on the National Mall (including Viet Nam, Civil Rights, Iraq) -- nothing compared. Sure those events attract more than 20,000, but none of them require people to stand in a two-mile long line. Some folks stood for 12 hours waiting to get in.

...So How did the press cover this virtually unprecedented event?  When we checked the local news that night they reported that several hundred Bernie fans had showed up for a rally.  The next morning there were a few reports that put the crowd at 10,000 or so.  Fact is, the original hall the Sanders campaign reserved held 10,000, and they ended up with two overflow rooms where his speech appeared on a large screen, and each of those held five or ten thousand.  So at a minimum, 15,000 to 20,000 attended, and more were turned away.

...Including delegates form the ex pat primary, as of Wednesday evening Hillary got 66 delegates, while Bernie got 83.  Seems to me, that means he gained ground.  You wouldn’t know it from the Corporate Media, though.

Mostly they talked about Hillary’s big win in Arizona, and while a few mentioned Sanders’ victories, they almost universally discounted them, and talked about Clinton’s insurmountable lead.  For example, here’s a headline from CNN: Primary Results: Front runners score key Western victories. Or take the The Washington Post, which called Clinton a “big winner” on Tuesday and declared the race all but over.

...about that ex pat primary.

It included Americans living abroad all over the world.  They voted overwhelmingly for Sanders – 69% for him, 31% for Clinton.  This may well tell us something about the effect of the Bernieblackout."

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/25/what-ex-pat-primary-tells-us-about-bernie-blackout



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