It just got really real. That’s the word on the street, anyway, if you believe the political media’s narrative that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is in a full panic over the tightening of the race in Iowa and a recent poll from New Hampshire that shows Bernie Sanders with a 27 point lead over Clinton in that state. Witness, for example, this tweet from The New York Times‘ Jonathan Martin:

McCaskill WIELDS A KNIFE: GOP is nice to Bernie because “they can’t wait to run an ad with a hammer and sickle” https://t.co/0TAOcmTnyX — Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) January 20, 2016



Martin is referring to a pretty strong quote from Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who was keeping it 100 in a new NYT piece, one of several such quotes in the story:

“The Republicans won’t touch him because they can’t wait to run an ad with a hammer and sickle,” said Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, a supporter of Mrs. Clinton’s. …“Here in the heartland, we like our politicians in the mainstream, and he is not — he’s a socialist,” said Gov. Jay Nixon of Missouri, who is term-limited and working to elect a Democratic successor. “He’s entitled to his positions, and it’s a big-tent party, but as far as having him at the top of the ticket, it would be a meltdown all the way down the ballot.” …“It [a Sanders ticket] wouldn’t be helpful outside Vermont, Massachusetts, Berkeley, Palo Alto and Ann Arbor,” said Representative Steve Cohen, Democrat of Tennessee.

The problem with this part of the narrative is that McCaskill has been sticking Bernie with that same knife for damn near most of this campaign. She went on Morning Joe back in July and said essentially the same thing, only less catchily. Sanders fans took it badly then, and they’re taking it badly now. Democratic Underground calls McCaskill an “attack dog” and says she’s implying he’s a communist.

Now, I hate that “here in the heartland” (translation: whiteland) shit more than the next guy, but McCaskill and Nixon are right, their constituents, and Americans in general, are easy to frighten with things like “Democratic Socialist,” which is the nicest thing Republicans will call Bernie once they decide to campaign against him. He’ll be lucky if it’s just a hammer and sickle, and not a mass grave outside of a gulag.

That’s not to say there are no signs of nervousness out of Clinton’s camp, but this isn’t one of them. Campaigns intensify when the voting is about to start, that’s normal. There have been a few wild swings at Sanders recently, but by and large, they’ve held it together. If you want to see what a panicking campaign looks like, you had a perfect reminder of one at last night’s Donald Trump rally.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.