The Fix: Bernie Sanders has run out of arguments for how he can win

[DCBob]

Bernie Sanders's campaign has hustle. That's hustle in the work-hard, keep-it-together-when-it's-falling-apart sense -- and, a bit, in the three-card-monte sense. As the campaign has progressed and Sanders's chances went from zero to 49 percent, the campaign created a cascading set of explanations for how the senator from Vermont would end up as the party's nominee.

This was uncut hustle, according to Politico's behind-the-scenes look at the campaign. "Top Sanders aides admit that it’s been weeks, if not months, since they themselves realized he wasn’t going to win," Politico's Edward-Isaac Dovere and Gabriel Debenedetti write. But they kept weaving webs of explanations for how it would happen, just enough binding to hold the movement together.

As of Tuesday, those webs have broken apart. Not only because Politico's piece gives the lie to the idea that the campaign itself thinks that it can win, but because all of the arguments that the campaign has made for why superdelegates should give him their votes were washed away by the last big night of voting.

That's Sanders's only remaining hope: To persuade lots of Clinton-supporting superdelegates to back him at the convention. But there are no reasons left for them to do so.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/08/bernie-sanders-has-run-out-of-arguments-for-how-he-can-win/

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Its not clear what Bernie could be thinking to justify continuing on to the convention. He cant possibly win. He is losing credibility and influence by the day. He is wasting money, time and effort. He is helping Trump and GOP by distracting our nominee and the party from focusing on the convention and the general election. I dont get it. It almost seems like he is doing it for spite.

[geek tragedy]

1. I don't think Sanders is running against Clinton anymore, nor is he going to maintain

the pretense that Clinton hasn't won.

There'll be haggling about speaking slots and platform planks and process reforms, that's his game for now.

[DCBob]

3. He cant continue bashing and trashing her all the way to the convention...

and expect to get a speaking spot.

[geek tragedy]

4. he won't, he knows that won't fly anymore.

you don't land the plane from 30,000 feet in one minute, gotta ease into it.

[DCBob]

9. Yes, I suppose it will take him some time.

I was thinking he would do it today but that doesnt appear to be the case.

[Peacetrain]

12. ^^^^^^^

[tonyt53]

2. Bernie said the SD's would support him after he had won most primaries yesterday and had momentum

He lost big time. so he just negated his own argument.

[CrowCityDem]

5. All Bernie has to do is say California changed his mind, and he understands he wasn't the choice.

[DCBob]

8. That would have the been logical decent thing to do.

But he didnt... yet.

[TwilightZone]

6. From the Politico report, it looks like he (or his staff) might have bought into the indictment

fairy nonsense. If he truly believes that she'll be indicted or whatever, he might be hanging on to that thread. If that's the case, he's not going anywhere for a while.

The problem with that reasoning, of course, is that the choice would likely be Biden and not Sanders.

[DCBob]

7. Yes, that is a possibility but as you say it wont be him.. it would likely be Biden.

[TwilightZone]

10. I'm not sure he understands that.

I think he's under the assumption that if she gets indicted between now and the convention, all of the SDs will bail on Hillary and support him.

[geek tragedy]

11. Hillary bought into the Whitey Tape in 2008, even high achieving people go somewhat batshit

crazy when they're desperate and losing a presidential primary that they thought they could win

[TwilightZone]

13. Agreed. Denial and desperation are very powerful motivators.

The former has been in evidence for a while now. The latter starting ramping up around NV time and seems to be reaching critical mass.

[ancianita]

14. So what. He's still won the debate about restructuring governance. That was always the goal.

[PoliticAverse]

15. He's basically left only with Clinton's 2008 "anything can happen". n/t

[ucrdem]

16. So who created and dispatched this misleading tweet du jour?

Wasn't the Clinton campaign. IOW someone is still misleading his supporters.

[Scurrilous]

17. K & R