Since the senator from Vermont and avowed democratic socialist announced his campaign for the Democratic nomination last May, he has drawn crowds ten times the size of Hillary Clinton’s. He’s received a record number of small-dollar donations—more than Barack Obama in 2011. As I write, in mid-January, a poll has him tied with Clinton in Iowa. He’s ahead of her in New Hampshire.
And yet, as far as the traditional media are concerned, Sanders is a nonentity. Zaid Jilani of The Intercept searched the Lexis-Nexis database for mentions of Sanders on news shows during a 30-day period. Sanders, he discovered, had been discussed 20 times. Donald Trump was discussed 690 times over the same period.
What, and risk quoting Bernie on how awful the economy is under Obama’s watch, thus (a) making the media look like fools for being such throne-sniffing cheerleaders since the middle of 2007 and (b) making it that much more difficult for Hillary to run as his designated successor?