Allegedly Vermont Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders is set to announce his candidacy for the presidency.

VPR News has learned from several sources that Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders will announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday.

Sanders will release a short statement on that day and then hold a major campaign kickoff in Vermont in several weeks.

Sanders’ entry into the Democratic race ensures that Hillary Clinton will face a challenge to win the support of the liberal wing of the party.

Sanders’ basic message will be that the middle class in America has been decimated in the past two decades while wealthy people and corporations have flourished.

Interesting that Sanders, who has billed himself as a Socialist, has chosen to run as a Democrat rather than following in the footsteps of Eugene V. Debs and running as a Socialist. It is also interesting that another rich kleptocrat is seeking the Democrat nomination on the platform that they understand the middle class.

My assessment of this is that Sanders is entering the race in an attempt to find a replacement for Hillary Clinton. Many Democrats, being the good little Bolsheviks that they are, are reluctant to challenge Hillary and risk the wrath of the Clinton machine and the ire of the feminists by calling Clinton to account on her incompetence, criminality and general grifting. The person they are really trying to draw into the race is [mc_name name=’Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’W000817′ ], who, ironically, is probably a much weaker candidate than Clinton.