AN OPEN LETTER TO BERNIE SANDERS

It's amazing, Bernie.  Your stamina is keeping you going day after day, month after month, with little rest in-between.  You arrive at your rallies, bare-headed and bald, ready to go whether it's rain, shine, or just downright cold (where's your hat?!).  You jump onto the plane, fly cross country or across ocean, jump off the plane, do what you need to do, then it's back to the plane again, retracing steps or creating new ones to the  next place, the next talk, the next rally.  When do you stop?!

You are not young anymore, Bernie.  In fact, you are my age, mid-seventies.  At this age, bodies are not meant to sustain constant abuse.  I know -- I've tried outrunning my years but it hasn't worked.  How is it for you Bernie?  Let's take stock.

When you begin your campaign, it seems a little like Donald Trump's -- not taken very seriously by you, thought of more like an experiment?  You seem relaxed, clear-thinking, speaking about ideas already voiced when you've been interviewed periodically as a Senator outside the Capitol building.  But this is new.  Here is your opportunity to have a wider audience, much wider, and it is invigorating.  You come across as a smiling, grandfatherly, well-meaning figure -- relaxed and ready to go.

Many months and many miles later, what do I hear, what do I see peering from my screen?  For the most part, the smiling and relaxed Bernie is gone.  Except for times when greeting picture-takers or supporters on a one-to-one basis, your personna comes across as grumpy, short-tempered, and argumentative.  Your words at rallies come more slowly; your voice more gravelly.  But these aren't the only problems that have emerged of late.  Consider the following.

Sarcasm has now become part of your public speaking, like in debates.  When responding to Hillary's assertions that she took big banks to task, you sarcastically berate her with something like, "And I bet they were really scared when you did that!"  Waving hands and arms in the air, you sound and look decidedly un-presidential.  

It isn't just the words you speak but also words from people like Dr. Song who precedes you at a New York rally.  He uses the phrase "corporate whore" referring, as everyone understands, to Hillary Clinton.  If the phrase weren't bad enough with a large amount of the crowd cheering, it takes you a full night of sleep to realize what had happened then respond with a tweet of "inappropriate" language.

More and more, especially in New York, your approach has been to use personal negative attacks against Hillary.  This is particularly puzzling because "going negative" is something you vow over and over that you will not do during your campaign.  In your talk now and in your campaign ads, you imply that Hillary can't be trusted and that she is corrupted by money.  You use baseless accusations to accuse her of illegal actions.  As a congressman, you are aware that, while in office, you cannot accept speaker fees.  But Hillary is not in office when she gives her speeches, so she has every right to accept fees.  You imply that her fees are taken illegally, or that she is corrupt because she take the fees.

You note the importance of transparency in the presidential race and keep demanding copies of Hillary's speeches.  And yet, Bernie, transparency is not a part of your campaign.  For example, this past weekend, you fly yourself and Jane, children and grandchildren, to Italy and the Vatican.  You say you are going despite the fact the trip is not part of your campaign; you would never forgive yourself if you didn't go, you say.  Prior to your leaving, Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC asks your wife how you are going to pay for the trip.  "I don't know," she responds.  This is someone who, from all accounts, figures your taxes every year.  Andrea later approaches Jeff Weaver, your Campaign Manager, with the same question.  "The Campaign will pay for it," he quietly responds.  There is no follow up question then and none since your return.

How, Bernie, can your campaign pay for your trip to the Vatican if the trip (and your speech) is not a part of your political campaign, something you repeatedly admitted?  Politicians time and again are tripped up by misuse of political campaign funds.  It would seem that you demand transparency on the part of Hillary Clinton when she gives speeches (about which there is no evidence of corruption), and yet, when it comes to you, there is no transparency at all.

The latest violations from Hillary's campaign, your campaign alleges, are that she and the DNC are in cahoots about a joint funding account and it's illegal, Jeff Weaver says.  "It must be stopped," Jeff Weaver says.  The truth is, Bernie, that the account Hillary has with DNC is also offered to your campaign.  It is signed early on, but never used.  Just as Donald Trump realizes that delegate-hunting is something he should have started long ago, so now your campaign is also found wanting.

It's sad.  "Hypocrisy reigns supreme," says someone describing your campaign.  Your current bombastic, self-righteous, and dishonest approach to running a presidential campaign is disappointing, to say the least.  How will it all end?  One of your advisers accuses Hillary of making "a pact with the devil".  Both you and your campaign need to get back to a higher level of rhetoric if we can expect to heal wounds and hold the White House this fall.