NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Bernie Sanders acknowledged on Saturday that he’d lose the Democratic primary to Hillary Rodham Clinton if the election were held now.
“We started way, way, way down,” the Vermont senator told reporters while campaigning in North Charleston, South Carolina. “I think you’re going to see us picking up a lot of steam here in South Carolina. … I will not deny, if the election were held today, we would lose.”
Sanders said that he started his campaign with much lower name-recognition than front-runner Clinton and is still working to introduce himself to voters.
Sanders met with reporters before speaking at a rally organized by the South Carolina Democratic Party and afterward filed his paperwork as a candidate in the state’s primary. Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley also addressed the crowd separately.
Later Saturday, Sanders and O’Malley were to participate in a criminal justice forum in Columbia. One Republican hopeful, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, was also scheduled to attend.
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Sen Sanders, though I’m leaning toward HRC with a good tilt at present–
your presence in this campaign-- win or lose-- has a value to us all.
Fight the good fight sir.
Hopefully there will be some video of this event.
jw1
I’m not sure why this is a news story other than that most politicians wouldn’t have the courage to say this regardless of how obvious it may be.
In any case, I agree that Senator Sanders has been a ray of sunshine in an otherwise dreary, miserable primary season (by which I’m referring to the other side).
It’s refreshing to hear a candidate be candid about his or her own campaign. I think Sanders is a realist, and knows that his election is a long, long shot, but hopes that he can change the needle on what’s possible in American political discourse. And I think he’s succeeding, especially as his emphasis on bread and butter issues, and on issues of fairness, stands in sharp contrast to the not-so-crypto-fascist spew coming from the Republican side.
There he goes speaking the unvarnished truth again. I hope he picks up a lot of “steam” and rolls over HRC. She’s just another in a long line of corporatists.
Of course he would lose the primary in South Carolina – and for that matter the primaries and caucuses in most of the country – if those elections were held today. We all know that already, and I would have thought it would go without saying that Bernie knows that too, given that he’s neither illiterate nor insane, nor living in a bunker. So, what is the point of this story? That when you ask Bernie a question he tends to tell you what he actually thinks? Didn’t we already know that too?
Can’t help but note that TPM for some reason found this “story” newsworthy, but didn’t bother covering Bernie’s remarkable speech the other day in Georgetown, not even with a wire story.