Sanders vs. Clinton
However, were Sanders to play it the way his opponent played it in 2008 he would continue to hang on and hang on and hang on. That’s what Hillary did, refusing to drop out even after Barack Obama’s lead became so large it was insurmountable.
Instead of turning his sights and that of the Democratic Party toward a strong John McCain and his Republican Party, Obama was forced by Hillary Clinton, and her husband Bill Clinton, who took to the campaign trail for her, to spend time and resources on finishing her off. This when she was already finished off but refused to take the hint.
Clinton and her team now want Sanders to go and Clinton supporter and Democrat strategist Jim Manley said that despite today’s results in Washington State and Alaska, Clinton’s lead is still “too big.”
“These wins will help him raise more funds for the next few weeks but I don’t think it changes the overall equation,” he said. “Hillary Clinton has too big a lead.”
Manley wants Sanders out now but Sanders and his team are talking about hanging in all the way to the convention in July in Philadelphia as long as the numbers show they have a chance. Manley, though, insists that it is “all over but the shouting.”
Clinton: Large lead
Clinton does indeed have a large lead, though it is not an impossible task for Sanders. With 2,382 delegates needed to win the Democrat nomination she now has 1,697 delegates to 976 for Sanders.
She has benefited especially from the ‘superdelegate’ count, those party officials free to back the candidate of their choice; there she has 469 delegates to just 29 for the senator from Vermont.
The Democrat system in the primaries gives out delegates based upon their proportion of the vote in each state or territory, so Clinton will continue to add to her total regardless of how many of the remaining 18 states and 4 territories left that she wins outright.
However, while it may be very difficult to win for Sanders he “only” needs two-thirds of the delegates remaining to do so. Back in 2008 Clinton hung on despite having virtually no path to victory regardless of how many remaining delegates she won. She was in reality out of it by April, numerically out by early May and yet hung on until June.
Given that, it seems hypocritical for Clinton and her supports to suggest Bernie Sanders should drop out of the race. Their doing so is not having an effect on Sanders anyhow, who has $140 million to spend, enough to get him all the way to the convention.
