Bernie Sanders is the kind of guy who promises you the world on a platter. He paints word pictures of unsurpassing beauty. Castles in Ireland. Chauffeured limousines. Penthouse apartments. A life of ease and luxury. At first all these promises are both exhilarating and romantic. After a while, the thrill is gone and the promises degenerate into mere titillation. Over time, they become mere disappointments, until finally, they're just plain irritating. You see, eventually you come to realize that while Bernie is great at making these lofty promises, he only has $1.37 to his name and couldn't afford to buy you a dog house, let alone a castle in Ireland.

Recently, Bernie launched his Promise You Everything, Give You Nothing Tour. He has rather cleverly disguised it as a political rally designed to rebuild the Democratic Party in his image and likeness. And so Bernie is travelling the countryside with prominent Democrats in tow, expounding on the Gospel According to Bernie. He is giving the Democrats HIS prescription for how to cure THEIR party, deftly omitting the fact that his is not now, nor has he EVER been a Democrat!

The prescription is a simple one, simply double down on all the unrealistic promises he made when he was running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2016. Free college? Bosh!! Why not free graduate school too? $15 minimum wage? Chump change! $50 at the very least!! Free homes for the homeless! Sumptuous feasts for the hungry! And free medical care for everyone, pets included!!! He sure does paint a beautiful picture. Of course, his colleagues in the Senate have heard all this before. Bernie has been spewing this reflux on the Senate floor for decades now. Naturally, nobody takes any of it seriously. They know none of his ideas will ever get out of a Senate sub-committee, let alone become the law of the land.

Every parent in the world knows how to become the most popular mom or dad on the block. Make promises you know you can't keep. New pony? Sure! Most advanced computer? Why not? Expensive computer games? Easy as pie. Just put all that stuff on the truck and deliver Christmas morning. Of course, when the bill start coming in it's, "Everything BACK on the truck!". Disappointing? Sure. But life is just one big disappointment, isn't it!

Bernie has sort of become this country's unofficial Grandpa. He spins yarns and spouts all kinds of weird ass philosophies that nobody quite understands but everybody loves nevertheless, even though they really don't know why. He's perfectly willing to indulge his grandchildren's every whim or fantasy because by nightfall Grandpa Bernie is outta here and back on the road to yet another house full of grandchildren, sticking his kids with the unenviable task of explaining to THEIR children why they won't be getting that shiny new sports car Grandpa Bernie promised them.

Promises are Bernie Sanders' stock and trade. He tosses them out like so much confetti at a ticker tape parade. This has served to make him the most popular senator in the United States Senate. The only problem is that it's his fellow Democratic senators who have to figure out how to turn Bernie's lofty promises into legislative reality. They have to explain just why Bernie's vision for America, while appealing, is more pipe dream than blueprint, hoping against hope that one day Bernie would just sit down and shut up!

Do my observations on the redoubtable Senator Sanders sound like the ravings of a grumpy old man? If they do, GOOD! Fact is, on a bad day I AM a grumpy old man. But over my sixty-eight years I've learned that promises are easy, expectations are hard. Sure, it would be great if by some miracle the Congress created a whole host of government giveaways, to be paid for by our wealthiest citizens. It would be even better if President Trump expressed the conviction that he would sign such legislation into law. But that ain't gonna happen. In the end, we're left with this nagging question for Bernie Sanders, a question he's never been willing to answer, by the way. "Bernie, where's the votes?"! Until he can answer THAT question, Bernie Sanders will remain ALL promise and NO expectations!!