I support Sanders pushing against Biden regarding Social Security [View all]

Joe handled it just fine. It will not hurt Biden in the General Election. Neither will it help Bernie in the primaries, but I think he knows that. Biden had an excellent debate last night. I think Sanders did well too, though this debate did not help him in the primaries, and I think he knows that also.

Last night's debate, as I predicted, offered Biden the exact opportunity that he needed to execute and bury all whisper campaigns against him regarding his mental agility, whether from the left, or more importantly, from Trump's forces on the right. In the bright glow of a national spotlight Biden performed like a world class political athlete. The timing could not have been better, and the opportunity for Biden to so shine could not have been more helpful.

The challenges Bernie threw at Joe were not mere jabs, they were punches, but they weren't aimed below the belt. World champion boxers do not train against amateur sparring partners in preparation for the big event.And sparring partners do not pull their punches, that would ultimately be self defeating. Biden faced a flurry of incoming blow, and he parried them well, deflecting most. And while an occasional blow landed Biden never lost his footing. All of this is excellent. Biden emerges stronger because of it.

I agree with the pundits. The public won't care if it can be shown that some time or two during the last twenty years Joe Biden did not slam and bolt the door to any consideration of reigning in cost of living increases to Social Security benefits. Even if true, Biden still solidly owns the left side of the spectrum against Trump in all matters related to our social safety net.

But I will never forget, nor fail to adequately appreciate, the role that Bernie Sanders helped play in national politics, fighting to stem and reverse the tidal wave or so called "responsible voices", that had been building for over a decade, that argued for the necessity of "reigning in entitlement spending." Call it the Bloomberg wing of the Democratic Party if you will, but their pulsing drumbeat became the inescapable driver of all budgetary debates in America.

At a time when most liberal Democrats struggled to just rebuff arguments for cutting Social Security, Bernie Sanders was among a small handful actually calling for an expansion of Social Security benefits. In a age of disappearing pensions, of high paying manufacturing jobs being replaced by low paying service industry jobs, of workers in their 50's being ushered to the exits allowing companies to shed their seniority related costs, Sanders understood that Social Security is an indispensable lifeline for tens of millions of Americans, the need for which is growing, not shrinking.

It is about shaping the national dialog. It is about drawing a line sharper than a barbed wire fence. No, America can not continue to find justifications for tax cuts for the wealthy, of bail outs for our largest corporations and banks, of blank checks for the any and all of our military adventures, while pleading poverty and pushing belt tightening measures onto our most vulnerable. I deeply honor and respect what the Obama/Biden Administration did for America, but that doesn't mean I have forgotten the "Grand Bargain" with John Boehner for a deficit cutting budget deal that sat waiting on the table during Obama's first term. Among other things it would have lowered cost of living increases on Social Security benefits, and it would have become the law of the land had Boehner not blinked and walked away.

The forces that seek to "curb entitlements" never give in, and they never go away. They stand ready to resume their campaigns for "entitlement reforms" at any and all opportunities. The counter narrative that Bernie Sanders and others like him have forcefully provided only make the task easier, for a good man like Joe Biden, to resist those efforts moving forward.