I'm not sorry he won at all, but the hype train seems awfully premature. Little too much champagne at the victory party.
He'll have to win the general, the landscape of which we are not at all certain about at the moment. Should he win, he will then have to actively govern and manifest his promises. And he made a lot of promises. They will collide with legislative bodies, no doubt various court cases, and the swamps of monied interests, not to mention tax revenue and budget realities.
If the stars align and he succeeds spectacularly, then we can have this discussion. But it's important to remember, he just won a plurality in a Democratic primary in a deeply blue city. That isn't exactly a test of broader appeal.
It may be an encouraging sign - and I'm encouraged the powers that be just got shut down by the voters (so deserved) - but it was also a weird field of candidates to begin with. An ex-governor who very recently resigned in disgrace is a weirdly singular circumstance.
How this all wears won't be clear yet. I'm not going to make any grand national political prognostications based on Tuesday. And I say this as someone who very much believes the Democratic Party needs reform, that the Old Guard must understand it's time to vacate the stage, and that worker friendly economic policies must take the central place in our messaging in the Bernie Sanders vein.
Because, again, he has made a lot of promises. And if he doesn't deliver - if it blows up in his face - it will do damage to progressive causes. And there will be a lot of power rooting for him to fail and throwing up barriers.
I don't think he'd have national appeal - he has some problematic views that will never play in swing states. But I am rooting for his success in NYC and perhaps even statewide office someday. We'll just have to see what we see and what he does with the opportunity he may be given here.
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