Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard recently risked her polit- ical career by resigning as a Vice-Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for President.

COULD THE DNC’S FORMER NO. 2
EMERGE AS CANDIDATE SANDERS’
FEMALE VP RUNNING MATE?

Hawaiian Representative’s gutsy trajectory

MANY WOMEN DON’T LIKE CLINTON
 
By Bjarne Rostaing
 
A while ago I suggested in Voice of Baltimore that while Elizabeth Warren’s conspicuous absence was critical to Bernie Sanders’ primary election loss in Massachusetts, Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was on a more gutsy trajectory.  (March 9, 2016: TULSI GABBARD—The real Elizabeth Warren)

Gabbard did not tiptoe through the tulips, but walked away from the stench that is the Democratic National Committee, currently a mutual admiration society between Debbie Wasserman Schultz and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Gabbard had been a rising star, the DNC’s No. 2, and her resignation was a courageous and politically dangerous move that got attention. However when she campaigns for Sanders it is rarely covered.

Disinvited to a Sanders-Clinton debate a while back, she was clear enough in making her case on CNN, but lacked drive and power. She is a fast learner, and given time with Wolf Blitzer, her current performances lack nothing – plenty of energy, clarity, and no wasted words. It was political, but so clear and fact-oriented it didn’t have that smell.

And finally, why is it CNN (Wolf Blitzer no less) rather than “liberal” MSNBC that is giving Gabbard this kind of exposure? Is MSNBC in Clinton’s pocket? Some of their stars are, for sure, and you can feel it when they question her.

Gabbard’s positions are tough, with long-range significance.

For example, getting real about foreign policy. She wants to stop messing around in Syria and other places where we don’t belong. It’s in complete opposition to Clinton’s failed aggression in this area (her lauded “experience”), and as a combat vet in contact with the reality, Gabbard is grounded as few politicians are.

The long-range issue is whether the war lobby continues to involve us in moneymaking wars or whether we turn our attention to our own internal problems, like debt and infrastructure. The grass-roots are tired of war, but Clinton isn’t.

Tulsi Gabbard appears on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer to tell the CNN host about being disinvited from a televised Sanders-Clinton debate.

What gives Gabbard’s message real power is that she does not come off as a “liberal.” She’s an Iraq War veteran, too sharp and tough and practical, and resonates as a pro who does her homework rather than as an idealist. Also a strong campaigner who can think on her feet.

What to do? Where’s the leverage?

Maybe it’s time to stop and really think about what Donald Trump has taught us about the rules for nomination: that the 20th Century rules have come unmoored. With Trump and Sanders, we’re seeing proof that it’s possible to reach out directly to the people as Andrew Jackson showed America in 1828.

One of the so-called “rules” is that vice presidential candidates are chosen late in the game after a lot of dancing around. Maybe that needs looking at, too.

It’s not quite without precedent.  In 1976, Ronald Reagan, not known as a wild and crazy guy, named Pennsylvania Sen. Richard Schweiker as his vice presidential running mate just before the opening of the Republican National Convention.

The Gipper lost the nomination to President Ford that year, but there’s a humungous difference:  Schweiker brought respectability, but little juice. Gabbard brings energy, the future, and some real edge.

And she takes away quite a few women, many of whom don’t much like Clinton.

Gabbard is potentially Sanders’ secret weapon. Clinton is relying on the votes of women, seemingly oblivious to their dislike for her, and she is accusing Sanders of sexism. Picking Gabbard as his running mate would end that.

What would happen if Sanders and Gabbard teamed up now and started duking it out with those machine politicians who love Clinton?

A brave new world in which Wasserman Schultz et al. would evaporate, Clinton would be in deep do-do, and actual change could occur.
 
bfrostaing@voiceofbaltimore.org
 
EDITOR’S NOTE: 

“Inside Pitch” is a Voice of Baltimore commentary/opinion column authored by various contributors, along with VoB editors and staff.  It has been a regular feature of this website since 2013.
 
Democrat Tulsi Gabbard has represented Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2013. Until February 28th of this year she was one of several Vice-Chair- persons of the Democratic National Committee, required to stay neutral in party primaries. Although seen as a rising star she has publicly opposed the leadership and taken a big risk by opposing presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.  (View her gutsy YouTube endorsement of Vermont Senator Sanders  by clicking here.)

Debbie Wasserman Schultz represents Florida’s 23rd District in the United States Congress and is Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.  Former Harvard Law School Prof. Elizabeth Warren is the senior Senator from Massachusetts. A Democrat and the state’s first female in the U.S. Senate, she defeated the Republican who had been elected to finish out Ted Kennedy’s unexpired term when the long-time Senate leader died in 2009.

 Bjarne (Barney) Rostaing is the author of Epstein’s Pancake, a novel published by St. Mark’s Press and available for purchase on Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble — click here  and  here.

He was an editor at the SoHo Weekly News, won a First Place AFI Award for a sports video, and worked with Uma Thurman in her film debut in “Kiss Daddy Goodnight” (1987).  As a sports writer, Rostaing exposed — in Sports Illustrated — the 1984 U.S. Olympic blood doping scandal.

His earlier works include Breeders (St. Mark’s Press/2011), a crime novel set in the world of horse racing; Phantom of the Paradise (Dell), based on the 1974 horror film written and directed by Brian De Palma; and Bill Walton’s Total Book of Bicycling (Bantam Books/1985).

Originally from Bantam, Conn., the “Red Diaper Baby” lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y.

To learn more about Epstein’s Pancake,  click here.