2020 Scramble: Sanders is the Man to Beat After Victory in Nevada

If Democrats are going to stop the runaway socialist from Vermont, they’ve got less than two weeks to slam on the brakes. This is a movement that is within spitting distance of being absolutely unstoppable. After racking up three straight wins in Iowa (disputed), New Hampshire, and Nevada, Bernie Sanders is poised to run through Super Tuesday on March 3 and soar to the nomination.

“Don’t tell anybody, I don’t want them to get nervous,” Sanders said as he was declared the winner of the Nevada caucuses. “We’re going to win the Democratic primary in Texas. In Nevada we have just put together a multigenerational, multiracial coalition which is going to not only win in Nevada, it’s going to sweep this country.”

Sanders’ big win this weekend seems to have awakened his competitors to the dismal future they’re facing; it just remains to be seen if they can take advantage of the next ten days or so to actually turn things around.

“I’m a Democrat … and I’m proud of it,” Biden said Saturday, trying desperately to convince voters that his second-place finish in Nevada was a good thing. “I was proud to run with Barack Obama. I’m proud to still be his friend and, I tell you what, I promise you I wasn’t talking about running a Democratic primary against him in 2012.”

“Sen. Sanders believes in an inflexible, ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats, not to mention most Americans,” said Pete Buttigieg. “Senator Sanders believes in taking away that choice — kicking people off their private plans and replacing it with a public plan, whether they want it or not.”

Buttigieg went further, blasting Sanders for “ignoring, dismissing, or even attacking the very Democrats we absolutely must send to Capitol Hill in order to keep Nancy Pelosi as speaker, in order to support judges who respect privacy and democracy, and in order to send Mitch McConnell into retirement.”

Michael Bloomberg, who wasn’t on the ticket in Nevada, nonetheless sounded the alarm: The time to take Sanders out is now…or never.

“The Nevada results reinforce the reality that this fragmented field is putting Bernie Sanders on pace to amass an insurmountable delegate lead,” Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said. “This is a candidate who just declared war on the so-called ‘Democratic Establishment.’ We are going to need Independents AND Republicans to defeat Trump – attacking your own party is no way to get started. As Mike says, if we choose a candidate who appeals to a small base – like Senator Sanders – it will be a fatal error.”

Most of the Democratic establishment and the political-punditry class is convinced that nominating Sanders will secure Trump another four years in the White House. We don’t disagree, of course, but we think they might be missing something: At this point, it doesn’t really matter who you nominate.

Trump ain’t going anywhere.