It’s Easter Sunday and Bernie Sanders has risen from the political dead again. The mainstream media keeps declaring the Sanders campaign dead and preaching that Hillary Clinton is the inevitable Democratic nominee… And then Sanders sweeps Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii by huge margins.
Sure, the Clinton campaign can argue that Sanders victories in Alaska and Hawaii weren’t that important since they are right next to his home state of Vermont, but in all seriousness, the landslide in Washington carried with it a lot of delegates. One third of Clinton’s lead just *poof* evaporated.
Even with these victories the situation is grim and the odds are still against him, but in politics odds can change and the caucuses of “Sanders Saturday” absolutely shifted those odds and created a groundswell of momentum going into the must win states for Sanders.
With these “Super Saturday” victories, the momentum is high going into Wisconsin’s open primary with its 96 potential delegates. According to the Emerson College poll from March 20-22, Sanders is only behind in Cheese Head state by 6 percentage points. For Sanders, polling anything less than 10 points behind in an open primary state is considered a draw and this poll was done before his massive victories in Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii.
The Wyoming caucus follows that and Sanders seems to do exceptionally well in caucuses. So while Wyoming doesn’t have a lot of delegates, it will certainly add to his momentum going into the big states of New York and Pennsylvania.
Hillary Clinton was the Senator of New York, but she is not from there and aside from Wall Street, her support in the Empire State doesn’t seem to be all that enthusiastic. Bernie Sanders is from New York and his think Brooklyn accent gives him a great deal of street cred. As the Sanders momentum continues, I expect to see Clinton’s lead evaporate in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
Of course, the big prize is California with its 546 delegates. Clinton may have racked up the endorsements from establishment politicians, but many Hollywood celebrities have endorsed Sanders. The website FiveThirtyEight might not consider celebrity endorsements to be worth much, but they could really help Sanders take California. A win there with a significant margin could allow him to take the delegate lead before the convention.
That just leaves the infamous “super delegates.” This is where Sander supporters really need to focus on. So far, Sanders supporters have contributed an average of $27 every time they contribute to his campaign. This has allowed him to outraise Clinton without a SuperPAC. Imagine if Sanders supporters put that fundraising prowess to work on smaller races. What if millions of Sanders supporters pledged to stop funding political candidates who aren’t using their super delegate vote to support Sanders? What if we also rewarded political candidates who do pledge to support Sanders with their super delegate vote with a massive grassroots “money bomb” to their campaigns? If a particular elected official doesn’t support Sanders, maybe Sanders supporters show threaten to fund a progressive primary opponent against them.
This is politics and if these super delegates plan to vote against Sanders, his supporters have to make it clear that there will be a political price to be paid. Bernie Sanders isn’t the type of guy who will reward fellow politicians will placements within his administration, his supporters could absolutely use the old carrot and stick to help Sanders win super delegates and the primary.
As much as the Clinton campaign would like this primary race to be over, Bernie Sanders is closing in on her. He polls better against the Republicans in one-on-one match-ups and does better in likability and trustworthy surveys. Even wild birds flock to him in support. If Democrats really want to defeat Donald Trump in the general election, Bernie Sanders is this nation’s best chance.
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- Thoughts On: Bernie or Bust (skepticink.com)
