>Doesn't look like you're going to get Bernie though. Maybe he should stand at the election as an independent. Can he do that ?

Bernie has probably been more effective as a candidate than he would have been as a president.
I can see a parallel with the late Minnesota senator Eugene McCarthy- another Quixotic politician I supported.
McCarthy, while his bids for the presidency failed, focused attention on the Vietnam debacle and transformed the debate for decades to come.
Anyone reading the political history of the late 1960's would have to conclude that McCarthy was one of that era's most influential figures.
Bernie could very well be doing the same thing.