Is that headline fair? I guess Bernie is old enough to be a shambling corpse, and the youth of America are kind of propping him with their Berning enthusiasm. Hmmmmmmm.
Is that headline fair? I guess Bernie is old enough to be a shambling corpse, and the youth of America are kind of propping him with their Berning enthusiasm. Juli Hansen / Shutterstock.com

Bernie Sanders is in town right now! A real live democratic candidate for president! The Independent senator from Vermont is surging in the polls against Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, making a real case for himself as a legitimate challenger to Hillary's throne. Nationally, though, he's sitting at about 18 percent to Clinton's 55 percent. Presumably he's going on this little West Coast tour — Seattle today, Portland tomorrow, then off to L.A. — to try and close that gap. His campaign is expecting 15,000 people to show up at his big rally at Hec Ed, which starts tonight at 6 p.m. If the crowd actually swells to that number, it will be the biggest crowd of the race so far.

Bernie's got three things on his dance card today. I'll be professionally stalking him all day from press areas, etc., so if you want sweet pix and Tweets about Bernie's visit, follow me @goodeveningmaam. If you want to come along, too, here's Bernie's itinerary.

Potentially Big-Ass Keynote Address at Westlake Park

Time: 1–3p.m.

Deets: Social Security Works Coalition has organized a big rally downtown to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Social Security and the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid. Bernie is going to give the keynote address and supposedly only speak about the greatness of those entitlement programs.

This event might get big. Our hometown socialist, Kshama Sawant, has called for "a sea of red" to greet Bernie. She wants her supporters to wear their "15 Now" shirts to show solidarity.

Small-Ass Fundraiser at Comet Tavern

Time: 5–??? (probably 6 p.m.)

Deets: Instead of having his fundraiser at a mansion in Medina, Bernie's passing the plate around, as Brendan Kiley has already mentioned, at Comet Tavern on Capitol Hill.

It costs $200 to go. I'm hoping that they'll serve something more than just a turkey thing on a pretzel bun.

Big-Ass Rally at Hec Edmundson Pavilion in the U-District

Time: 6–8 p.m.

Deets: This one is supposed to be his big, official, I'm Bernie and I'm Running for President rally. RSVP for this if you want him to get the numbers, but you can just show up if you only wanna spy. I've been told that "Hec Ed" is the place where the Huskies play basketball, but I went to UW for two years and taught there for a year afterwards and somehow never made it to a game, so I can't confirm.