Bernie Sanders' "Political Revolution" Is Resoundingly Here

On Monday night in Iowa, Bernie Sanders, a 74-year-old socialist Jew who looks like an unmade bed, came from obscurity and with no monied backers nevertheless stopped the most powerful political machine in America in its tracks. Even with a ground game modeled on Obama's in 2008 and run by Obama people, Hillary Clinton still needed some coin-tossing shenanigans in several precincts to eke out a "winning" margin of two-tenths fraction of one percent.

She was like that mighty tank in Tianamen Square facing that lone man with the flower in his hand. Except this time the tank didn't roll forward. The lone man still stands, with his millions of supporters behind him.

With all her deep-pocket backers, well-known identity, wealth of endorsements, and legendary campaigner of a husband, a tie in Iowa against "Mr. Nobody" Bernie Sanders was for her a resounding defeat.

Bernie Sanders has proved that he is one hell of a campaigner and that Hillary Clinton is not. In fact, she is a dreadful candidate. In forty+ years of active political campaigning, I have seldom seen a candidate as bad as Hillary Clinton. I will not rehearse here the familiar litany of her phoniness, stiltedness, lack of clear message, and hautiness. On caucus night she tried to be forceful and instead came across as ugly angry. Maybe she was angry. After all she had just had her clock cleaned by an out-of-nowhere contender.

This was the first chapter in Bernie Sander's political revolution. Call it the First Commandment: Thou shalt not hand off the American presidency on the basis of "entitlement".  You want it, you gotta win it! Hillary is not entitled to anything. She may be the wife of an ex-president. She may have been Secretary of State. But nothing she accomplished in either capacity or since entitles her to more than a cup of coffee. In fact, her messing in on health care insurance in 1993 cost us that much needed program for 20 years. From the time she grabbed the issue and began "holding hearings", Congress was set against her and the program she was pushing. Congress makes the laws, not First Ladies. As for Secretary of State, she accomplished nothing in six years, while John Kerry has accomplished plenty in one year.

And I say as a woman who helped break down barriers in politics, journalism, and law: Hillary Clinton is not entitled to anything because she's a woman. In fact, as far she's come she has ridden on her husband's back. That's not what we real women do. We make it on our own. And we don't need Hillary Clinton. We don't need a woman in the presidency in order to know that we are equal.

And the Second Commandment in Bernie Sander's "political revolution"?  Next time. Until then guess what it is and win $20 million!