Feeling the (sun) Bern

Bernie Sanders is not just a problematic Democratic nominee because of his $60 trillion (and rising) spending plans. In a matchup with the incumbent, he’s looking increasingly weak in the crucial Electoral College target of Florida. In less than a week, Sanders has managed to offend two important voting Sunshine State blocs. On “60 Minutes,” he defended decadesold comments about Fidel Castro, saying some perfunctorily negative words about authoritarianism while praising Fidel Castro’s “massive literacy program.” He stuck to that line in Tuesday night’s debate in South Carolina.

Miami is home to the largest Cuban refugee population in America; millions still bear the scars of living under Castro’s totalitarian oppression. “Sure, there was tyranny, but everyone could read!” doesn’t go over very well with people who remember how little education matters when freedom of speech and the press are nonexistent.

Then, in the debate — a chaotic embarrassment for the Tiffany network’s storied news division — Sanders called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “reactionary racist.” Netanyahu is an ideologue who does many things wrong, but such nasty namecalling ought to be reserved for dictators and leaders of hostile nations.

For good measure, Sanders, alone among Democratic candidates, is shunning next week’s AIPAC conference, calling the leading American-Israeli bridge-building organization a “platform” for “bigotry.”

Trump won Florida by 1% in 2016; Sanders is already a damn tough sell among retirees. If the biggest swing state of all becomes toxic to Democrats, victory becomes about as likely as a blizzard on the streets of Miami.