YES!!! This is what I’ve been waiting for! Now that Sen. Jeff Merkley has made his decision, I’ll finally be able decide who to vote for!!! Thank you Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon for your brave decision, made so early in the process, which will have such a huge impact on who Democrats in NY, PA, and NJ will vote for!!!
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Huh. This is weird… wait… ah, I see my problem now. I forgot to hit this button… /snark mode off
Aaaah, much better now. 
As ever, the exception proves the rule: Nearly all Democrats in the Senate support their former colleague, a Democrat running for President.
Merkley is, well, Merkley – and I trust he will enthusiastically support Clinton in November, despite his deviation from his fellow Democratic senators now!
Not entirely sure what Merkley’s play is here. He has to have some idea that Bernie is not going to be the nominee, so why risk alienating the future nominee? There must be something else…
Merkley is a jerkley. I never liked that guy. He’s doing this for the sole purpose of getting a headline on TPM.
Principle?
He’s a reliable liberal senator.
Oregon loves Bernie. Merkley’s endorsement of him will make him more popular with his constituents. In fact, he was probably getting a thousand emails a day from Oregon voters pushing him to feel the Bern. This endorsement will probably help Merkely more than it helps Sanders
“People know that we don’t just need better policies, we need a wholesale rethinking of how our economy and our politics work, and for whom they work.”
Pretty much. Well said.
=)
I’m making assumptions here, but it does make sense:
- It doesn’t hurt his bona-fides with the ultra liberal wing of the party. He’s now “one of their own”.
- Bernie has a freaking HUGE $$$$ war chest now that he could use to scratch the back of those who scratch his back.
- Bernie also has a freaking huge e-mail list of donors, which may soon get e-mails asking for support of Merkley because oligarchs are after him or something due to his support of Bernie.
- He’s likely in a very, very, very safe seat in Oregon for the foreseeable future.
- I’m guessing he wasn’t exactly in Hillary’s inner circle, so this doesn’t really hurt him later.
“Jerkley” wasn’t a tip-off?
A headline on TPM? Clearly he’s shooting for the stars.
I think TB was channeling his inner Hill … partisan.
Have you read the editorial, austinite? Don´t want to sound old fashioned, but that might be a good place to start in trying to figure out his motives.
Ah but “liberal” doesn’t cut it with Bernie. “You are either a Progressive or you’re not!”
I think you’re 100% correct on this. Merkley has absolutely nothing to lose as Sanders is very popular in the State. No doubt Gov. Brown will also endorse Sanders as well. However, I doubt he’ll be sharing his war chest anytime soon.
Brown already endorsed Clinton.
http://katu.com/news/local/gov-kate-brown-endorses-hillary-clinton-for-president
The article refers to Sanders as an “Independent from Vermont”. Is that true? Has BS not registered as a Democrat? I can’t believe that. I hope somebody at TPM can help me out. Either the article is wrong, in which case it ought to be corrected pronto, or Sanders ought to be pressed on the issue everywhere he goes.
The voters don’t know Sanders Tax Plan and if you look at as a GOP strategist would you would realize Sanders makes for a delicious target to the GOP…to think otherwise is being politcally naive…
This is a start for Bernie, and he is surely going to get another endorsement sometime in the not too distant future. It’s mid-April and there are still some folks out there who haven’t read too much about Bernie yet, and those are just the folks who will most likely give him a good look when it comes time to select their candidate.