Birdie Sanders!

 As of this writing, Bernie Sanders has claimed dominant wins in Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii. I've been saying for a while now that while keeping the delegate count closeish(If you don't count superdelegates) is all well and good, but at some point you need to start winning solidly if you want to be taken seriously, elections are about perception more than anything else, and it has been easy for Clinton to control the narrative there and give the perception that he is losing a lot because, well, technically he has been.

Today changes a lot of that, we knew that he would do well in the Northwest, the Clinton campaign even admitted that Sanders was likely to have a good night, but polling was pretty sparse in Alaska and Hawaii up until now and I don't think anyone planned for just how solid the wins are, it appears he has at least seventy percent of the vote in every state tonight, it's a pretty big deal and should help him a great deal as we move back east in the next couple weeks.

Also helping him is a bird.

Not actually kidding here, the bird landed on his lectern yesterday while he was speaking at the Moda Center here in Portland, it stuck around for a bit and then headed off to who knows where. Bernie Sanders as the Beastmaster is a pretty powerful image and his campaign jumped on it within hours, as they should. 

I firmly believe a single powerful image can make or break a campaign, we saw it in 2012 after the Benghazi attack when Mitt Romney did his poorly conceived press conference and let the nation see his smirk.

 

I do think it drove a nail into his campaign, we as a nation are pretty uncomfortable with seeing somebody smiling after a tragedy, especially one involving the death of members of our armed forces. As a symbol of Romney's intense disregard for, well, pretty much everyone, it is pretty unbeatable.

Contrast with Sanders, the bird flew up to him, for someone who is campaigning on a platform of peace and equality there really isn't a better opportunity than that, the man is so trustworthy that tiny prey animals feel safe with him, surely he can keep the country safe?

As it happens I believe that answer is yes anyway, but images mean things, and that bird showing up helps a lot.

Speaking of birds, the presumptive nominee Donald Trump has an interesting bird experience. Back in November I think it was he was doing a photo op with a trained eagle named Uncle Sam, Sam was... unimpressed with Trump.

I like to imagine where we would be if that bird had managed to snag a finger or an eye or something, but I guess we don't actually live in the best possible reality.

The symbol of America views Trump as either a threat or prey, either way it isn't an image that works too well for someone who claims to be tough and patriotic.

The Trump image didn't get a lot of play, honestly it's too old to really have much of an impact on the election, unless someone brings it up in the general, perhaps as a contrast to his own experience? I suspect we won't be so lucky as to get a Trump/Sanders general election, but I can dream and this weekend was a major step in that direction. Whether you care counting by delegates or by perception. Bernie Sanders won big this weekend.