Has the Bernie Sanders phenomenon reached the point where the media have to take it more seriously?
It’s not that Bernie-mentum has exactly gone unnoticed. The man has landed on the cover of Time magazine. The huge crowds he is drawing—20,000 in Boston the other day—continue to amaze the political world. And with Hillary Clinton still on the defensive over the email mess (NBC’s Savannah Guthrie told her yesterday, “Do you get how bad it looks?…If you’re blaming the Republicans, some might wonder how genuine is that apology?”), the contrast in coverage could hardly be starker.
But every positive Sanders development is followed by a media qualifier:
“Yes but, he can’t beat Hillary after Iowa and New Hampshire.”
“Yes but, the Democratic Party is not going to nominate an avowed socialist.”
“Yes but, he’d get clobbered in a general election.”
Now two developments are giving the pundits pause. One is Sanders’ fundraising haul--$26 million in the third quarter, just a couple of million behind Clinton. And virtually all of that money from 650,000 small donors, giving his campaign the feel of a grass-roots rebellion, and the fuel to compete in big states once the first two contests are over.
Nothing gets the media’s attention more than money.
The second development came yesterday with some hypothetical general election matchups by NBC and the Wall Street Journal.
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