To Jeri: I believe we want the same things – we both have progressive mindsets. We just have different paths to those goals. But I strongly believe Bernie is in the wrong place at the wrong time and I have to speak my mind. Maybe I won’t change any minds, I sure will speak about the facts. It’s the whole free speech thing at work. Yes, I’d like his America too, but reality gets in the way.

But set aside, for the moment, what Bernie is promising and re-think why you do not support Hillary. Her past is inspiring. Hillary’s wiki page is immense – it’s almost a book. I couldn’t even finish it, but I read enough to be impressed. She has broken so many barriers, accomplished so much, that I’m surprised she is still standing.

Hillary’s trust issues have been manufactured by right-wing lies and also, ask yourselves why you believe them when countless investigations have failed to find anything of substance? You think the investigators are just incompetent? They have tried so very hard to make things stick. And Republicans have been caught on tape saying that the Benghazi investigation was specifically in place to “get her”.

When President Obama was elected, I allowed myself to think we had turned a corner racially in this country. But what really happened is that all the closet racists, were so threatened by a black man in the White House, that they poured out of the woodwork. Even those who did not consider themselves racist, had second thoughts. Are we still so classically married to the idea of a man as president that our gender bias dominates and we don’t recognize it? Don’t vote for Hillary because she is a woman, vote for her because she is light years ahead of every other candidate in ability, talent, emotional strength, and determination and her positions are not that far apart from Bernie's, although she is not promising instant success without understanding the obstacles.

My main critique of Bernie is that he doesn't know how he will implement his great promises. He appears not to know (or is ignoring) that most of his plans are not do-able in the current circumstances because the laws that enable them do not exist and the money is not there. Non-partisan think tanks and political watch groups have said the same. Change of the kind Bernie talks about is not only decades away but requires financial magic.

When Hillary lost the nomination in 2008, she did not sulk and make faces. She jumped in with a tireless effort to elect President Obama. Bernie’s entire political life has been as an independent and he has actively spurned his Democratic colleagues. If he is President, he will have to rely on their cooperation. Moreover, he has spoken openly about the vast amount of money he has raised from small donations, and has a huge war chest, which he has refused to share with Democrats seeking to retain their seats in Congress. Hillary hasn’t raised as much, but she is sharing. I kind of like that ethic. She has never been “me for me and none for you”.

Although Bernie is a strong supporter of choice for women, he has said that this issue is a distraction (his words) and he would rather focus on issues that matter. Well, he really does lose me on that one and it speaks of a disconnect in his own mind about what is going on with women. Choice great, equal pay, great, but let’s concentrate on the issues? I’m appalled.

And if Bernie had been as relentlessly demonized for 25 years as Hillary has, he wouldn’t be so perky now. He’s had a free ride.

I think the greatest sound bite of the political debate between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton is when she said that although she and Bernie have differences, she will take him over Cruz or Trump any day. Grace under pressure? You bet.

But Bernie says she "is unfit to lead" in a blowback to the same remark that she did not make about him, but that was reported to him by his lying staff, and that he believed without checking.I can't wait for him to pick his Cabinet.

xx, Teal