WOULD BERNIE TURN GREEN ON HILLARY?

Is Bernie Sanders about to jump ship and become the Green Party presidential candidate?

Personally, I would put this at long odds.  But I wouldn’t rule it out either.

Excerpted from Oliver Milman’s article for London’s Daily Guardian:

Bernie Sanders has been invited to continue his underdog bid for the White House by the Green party’s probable presidential candidate, who has offered to step aside to let him run.

Jill Stein, who is expected to be endorsed at the party’s August convention in Houston, told Guardian US that “overwhelming” numbers of Sanders supporters are flocking to the Greens rather than Hillary Clinton.

Stein insisted that her presidential bid has a viable “near term goal” of reaching 15% in national polling, which would enable her to stand alongside presumptive nominees Clinton and Donald Trump in televised election debates.

But in a potentially destabilising move for the Democratic party, and an exciting one for Sanders’ supporters, the Green party candidate said she was willing to stand aside for Sanders.

“I’ve invited Bernie to sit down explore collaboration – everything is on the table,” she said. “If he saw that you can’t have a revolutionary campaign in a counter-revolutionary party, he’d be welcomed to the Green party. He could lead the ticket and build a political movement,” she said.

Hmmmmmm.  Would Bernie do it?

I’m betting he would respectfully decline.

Bernie Sanders is nobody’s fool.  He knows the enormous leverage that Jill Stein is handing him on a silver platter.

Now he can make demands, both personally (cabinet position?) and legislatively, while holding the prospect of a Green candidacy that would unquestionably take votes – lots of them – from Hillary Clinton as a cudgel over Democrats’ heads.  How could they possibly refuse, if doing so would send him to the Green ticket?

On the other hand, Mr. Sanders is also a life-long hardline ideologue; a left wing purist.  The idea of running on a Green Party ticket, instead of very publicly selling his soul to Mr. Clinton, has got to be appealing.

And it’s not like he would be breaking any long-term ties to do so:   two years ago at this time, Bernie Sanders wasn’t even a Democrat.

With the convention less than three weeks away, it seems self-evident that Mr. Sanders will make a decision relatively quickly.

Stay tuned.  You can’t say it won’t be interesting.

Especially to a fellow named Trump….