Bernie has hit his ceiling.

[Chichiri]

Despite a last-minute surge of “Bern-mentum” and weakening support among Latinos, Hillary Clinton put up a strong showing at the Nevada caucuses on Saturday thanks in part to strong support from African-Americans and older voters. Her coalition today looks like a hybrid of the Clinton 2008 base (women, core Democrats, and older voters) and Obama’s 2008 voters (African-Americans and more affluent, college-educated white voters).

Sanders, meanwhile, failed to prove that his coalition, while energized and engaged, has the depth and breadth needed to survive in states that are more diverse. For example, while he once again crushed Clinton among young people - winning those under 45 years old with 72 percent - and made inroads with Latinos, he lost African-Americans by 54 points and those over 45 years old (who made up 63 percent of the electorate) by 34 points. Moreover, if the exit polls are correct, he carried Latinos by just 8 points. In her narrow 2008 win in Nevada, Clinton won Latinos by 38 points.

Sanders’ road post-Nevada doesn’t get much easier. The playing field for the next couple of weeks is on decidedly tough terrain for him. Upcoming primaries between now andMarch 1 include racially diverse states like South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Colorado and Virginia.

Sanders has the money and the energy to go deep into the primary season. However, at some point, as Clinton learned in 2008, the delegate math starts to work against you and there’s simply nothing you can do to change that.

From Cook Political Report: http://cookpolitical.com/story/9273

[itsrobert]

1. The Exit Polls were not correct. Hillary won Latinos 60 to 40

n/t

[Skwmom]

4. Based on the county with all the chaos? Yeah, we an rely on that count. (sarcasm intended)

[basselope]

9. False.

[berniepdx420]

2. you know your candidate is losing by more than 52,000 votes

[HillDawg]

3. Do you know

that is a false statement?

[Qutzupalotl]

7. Did we ever get a vote count from Iowa?

That could make a big difference.

[HillDawg]

8. No, they dont release popular vote

in either Iowa or Nevada, just delegates, so that number is skewed.

[Armstead]

5. Clinton hit her ceiling long ago

If she is sent out into the General; Electrorate...that will become traguically clear I'm afraid.

Best we can hope for is that Ted Cruz is the GOP nominee/

[Qutzupalotl]

6. I hit the ceiling when I saw this:

http://usuncut.com/politics/the-nevada-caucus-is-a-complete-fiasco/

[Gamecock Lefty]

10. Poor Bernie - got a nice lump on his head from bumping that ceiling!

Ouch!

[AZ Progressive]

11. People said that Bernie hit his ceiling long ago, and they were wrong

[BillZBubb]

12. All Sanders has to do is survive past Super Tuesday.

That's when all the right wing states vote. They'll almost all go for the more conservative Clinton. The redder the state, the bigger the Clinton win.

If Sanders can stay in the fight after that, the tide will turn dramatically. As the blue state primaries start to dominate, Clinton will be in big trouble. Her real hope is to rack up enough delegates in her red state victories (along with her fellow corporatist super delegates), to make a Sanders win nearly impossible.

This is looking a lot like the 1968 race where the establishment war supporter was nearly brought down by the youthful, anti-war faction. The assassination of Robert Kennedy, who was making a late surge, may have been the decisive event. The establishment/Humphrey faction so divided the party, that Nixon won.

[AzDar]

13. But has Hillary hit her Basement?

[Alfresco]

14. The ceiling and walls are starting to close in on Bernie.

[bravenak]

15. He is done

[ladjf]

17. No. It's still expanding it's base. The Bernie movement is fast on the rise. nt