Now Bernie Sanders is betting on the establishment and the superdelegates
This is what it's come to for Bernie Sanders, that most definitely independent senator from Vermont: With Hillary Clinton enjoying her superest Tuesday yet and mounting what is by any realistic measure a virtually insurmountable lead, he's planning a last-ditch Hail Mary pass, aimed at winning the nomination by swaying the Democratic Party's superdelegates.
Yes, those same superdelegates that Sanders supporters previously denounced as an undemocratic and anti-Democratic tool of the establishment designed to suppress grassroots movements. This would be the group that is the actual, literal, living embodiment of the Democratic establishment that Sanders has so vocally taken on. And this would be the same party whose nomination Sanders sought, he admitted this week, simply as a way to get media attention. Did I call this a Hail Mary? This is a 99-yard field goal.
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No, I haven't been reading The Onion; this actually from Politico. Edward-Isaac Dovere writes there:
Sanders' campaign thinks the next few weeks of the campaign calendar favor him and is preparing plans to make the uphill case to the superdelegates – the 718 activists and elected officials who can vote however they please – that his late-breaking momentum would make him a stronger nominee that they should support over Clinton.
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Sanders' superdelegate pitch will likely take the shape of both direct lobbying and a more formal pitch. Sanders' campaign will argue that voter enthusiasm and holding to the populist principles of the party are on Sanders' side. They'll point to their massive, low-dollar online fundraising.
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In a sense, this is a deeply fitting approach for Sanders, as it matches the legislative approach he envisions for the presidency: Use populist momentum and power among the people to overwhelm elite leaders and bend them to his will.
But as Sanders should well know, big bucks (even if it comes from massive, low-dollar online fundraising) don't trump big votes. And right now, the votes are on Clinton's side. It's a simple matter of math: She's built a sizable delegate lead and Democrats don't have winner-take-all primaries. "Because Democrats award pledged delegates proportionally, Sanders needs not only a string of victories but also popular vote margins large enough to pick up delegates in bushel baskets, contest by contest," Dan Balz wrote in The Washington Post Wednesday. So for Sanders, it's superdelegates or bust.
Do I need to say that it's going to be bust?
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