He's perfect for starting a movement. He'll clearly express his principles. People who share the principles will gather around him. He lives his principles, which makes him easy to follow.
He was a good Senator. Disdaining deals, he operated by amendments on the open floor. This kept him from determining the shape of major legislation, because that's a business of deals. He found a good place as a source of inspired small-bore improvements and a reliable Democratic team player who wore a funny jersey for his own reasons. The system accommodates Senators' quirks, and Bernie's quirk was his principles.
He's not good at running a large organization like a campaign. He often chooses personnel who are better at expressing his worldview than winning him an election. His surrogates drew the media spotlight, but sowed conflict with the DC media as well as the black establishment in the South, both of which operated on rules alien to them.
Recently his press secretary complained on Twitter about a podcast on Vox not paying attention to Bernie. The podcaster replied that he had emailed her inviting Bernie for a long interview on the podcast months ago, and he was still waiting for her reply.
This campaign's MVP staffer, Lis Smith, had the opposite approach. She made Mayor Pete a contender by putting him on all media at all times. Team Pete thought its job was to spread Pete's message. Team Bernie thought its job was to complain about others not spreading Bernie's message.
We'll learn more about what went wrong with the campaign in the next few days. But the picture of Bernie I'm left with is that of a simple and straightforward kind of very good person. He wasn't made to make deals, much less command armies.
He's made to express and live his principles, clearly and directly. They're good principles, and good people are drawn to his side. If that were all it took to achieve power, this would be a lovely world.
