Monday, March 28, 2016

Let's Get Real About Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders wasn't supposed to be here. We all know that he was not supposed to even be competitive for the Democratic nomination. The Vermont Senator tells us over and over again about how he was down 70 points, and now he's competitive. We get it. He's done very well in the face of long odds. Hillary did have the establishment support. The media didn't want to initially give Bernie fair coverage. All of that is true, but he isn't going to be the Democratic nominee.

I think Bernie has run a better campaign than Hillary Clinton. I have some friends on that campaign, and they are all really good at what they do. This isn't about staff though. This is about getting elected President. It's about math. On those metrics, Hillary Clinton has simply won this race. Sure, Bernie has moved her left on the issues, and sure, he has put his top issues front-and-center in the Democratic nomination fight. Those are the only metrics on which he has won. No, regardless of what some half-baked Huffington Post writer puts out about Hillary needing to drop out, the truth is that she is on her way to victory.

First off, despite how it may feel to some Bernie supporters, Saturday did not change anything. After all the delegates are apportioned, Bernie will have picked up less delegates for three blowout wins on Saturday than Hillary picked up for Florida. Most of his victory will be erased by New York on April 19th, by itself. She holds double-digit leads in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, and has recent leads of note in Wisconsin and California. While Bernie cites his one national poll lead last week, he's getting beaten pretty badly in all the rest. If we wanted to treat this as a national primary instead of a state-by-state contest, Hillary holds a commanding lead in the "popular vote," which is meaningless to who wins, but shows us the will of the public. What does matter, the actual delegate count, is actually more lopsided for her. Hillary leads amongst elected, or "pledged" delegates, amongst super-delegates, and frankly, any way you want to look at the delegates. While the "Bernie beats Trump worse" argument is completely bogus since no one is going negative against Bernie right now, Hillary still beats Donald Trump by double digits. By every single real and imaginary metric out there, Hillary Clinton is winning this race. She will continue to win this race. With 1,747 delegates left, and 1,218 of them being in the states I listed above, Bernie is not making up a 268 delegate deficit as of today.

I'm not saying Sanders should drop out, concede, or anything else, or that he won't win more states and have good days. Bernie Sanders should run as long as he wants to and can pay his staff. He should stack up delegates, make demands on the platform, and push the party towards what he wants it to be. This is his moment in the sun, and he's earned it. He's just not going to be the nominee though, and I'm kind of tired of hearing complaining about it. No, he wasn't cheated in Arizona (as some Twitter conspiracists claim). No, he's not winning. No, "Bernie or Bust" is not principled (nor would "Hillary or Bust" be), it's stupid. We hold a primary to come to a winner. Did Hillary have advantages? Yes. Political campaigns do not happen in a vacuum, so someone always will start out ahead. It didn't stop Barack Obama in 2008. When the race is nearing it's end, it's immature and counter-productive to say "I won't vote for the other candidate in November" because you are unhappy with the results. Do you really want Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as President? Do you think that Bernie Sanders wants Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as President? Do you think that Hillary is "just like" Donald Trump or Ted Cruz? I mean, I get it, you'll say she is in some way shape or form, but you can't say her policies match their's in a serious way. That's stupidity at the highest degree.

Elections have winners and losers. Sometimes there is gray area on whether or not someone "lost," but there is always a winner. Hillary is going to be that winner. Let's leave it at that.

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