They Were Right

Remember these guys?

They are, of course, Hillary Clinton's opponents for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, clockwise, from top left, Bernie Sanders, Jim Webb, Martin O'Malley, and Lincoln Chafee.  None of them were given a fair shot at the nomination because the Democratic National Committee tipped the scales for Hillary - even though all four of these guys turned out to be more in touch with political reality than the nominee.

First, let's start with Martin O'Malley.  I don't need to tell you again that he was right when he said that more debates would help the party get its message out and when he said that Donald Trump could possibly win the Presidency, but I will add that he said, when he declared his candidacy for the White House, that the Presidency is not a crown to just give to anyone or to pass between two families at a time when the 2016 general election looked to be a Jeb Bush-Hillary Clinton race. The Democratic establishment, as we all know now, disagreed.  Ironically, Republican rank-and-file voters did agree with that assessment; that's why they rejected Jeb Bush.

Now, Bernie Sanders.  He said that Democrats needed to adopt a progressive agenda and energize the base, but Hillary supporters laughed him off as a candidate whose supporters were too narrow-minded in their focus on income inequality.  But he was right.

Jim Webb?  He distinguished himself as a candidate who could talk to the white working class and said that the Democrats needed to reach that demographic.  That and a buck only got him a newspaper.  When he said earlier this year that Trump might appeal to the very people he focused on in his own presidential campaign, a commentator on MSNBC - I can't remember who it was - had a two-word response to Webb's comments: "Who cares?"  But Webb was right.

And Lincoln Chafee?  On Bill Maher's talk show once, Chafee expressed concern over the ethically dubious aspects of Hillary's career and thought they would be a problem, and both Maher and fellow guest Alex Wagner responded with dismissive groans.  But Chafee was right.

Yes, they all were right . . . but not as right as the Democrats will be wrong if they think the party can go forward doing what they've been doing.