Bernie Sanders won in a couple of primary states last night — moving Hillary Clinton one step closer to the nomination and, thereby, Donald Trump one step closer to the White House.
Watching the country creep closer to doom is not my idea of fun — but it’s not like what I want, or what any of us want, has any impact on the presidential election. It doesn’t even make a hell of a lot of sense to waste my time writing about this.
The fix is in. The DNC chose Hillary Clinton as their candidate years ago, and I’m not sure she can beat Trump in the general election. And if she does, I am not sure I want to hang around anyway. I still can’t decide which of the two fills me with more fear and loathing . . .
Sanders took West Virginia by more than 50%, while Clinton was hanging under 40% — maybe all those pissed-off coal miners? This earned him 16 delegates with Clinton picking up 11. He also won the Nebraska caucuses with just over 57%, gaining 14 delegates to Clinton’s 10 in that state.
But Bernie needs to continue to kick ass in the remaining states to have the slimmest chance of getting enough delegates for the nomination. Clinton is almost 800 delegates ahead of him, 523 of them super delegates to Bernie’s 39 super friends. And the delegates he gained last night don’t make much of a dent in the difference. There are only 1,057 delegates left in the remaining states’ primaries. A Democratic candidate needs 2,383 to clinch the party’s nomination.
“It appears we’ve won a big, big victory in West Virginia,” Sanders told a crowd of raucous supporters in Salem, Oregon, last night. That’s double big. It’s yuge! But even Bernie concedes he has a long way to go.
“We have an uphill climb ahead of us,” he told the crowd. “But we are used to fighting uphill climbs.”
Yeah . . . like Sisyphus.
Clinton’s nomination is not as inevitable as Sisyphus’ rock rolling back down every time he gets it up there, but it’s looking more and more probable, especially if the super delegates stick with her come convention time. The DNC should check themselves before they wreck themselves. A recent poll this week shows Trump and Hillary running neck in neck in a two person race. The same poll shows Bernie beating Trump by double digits. But the Democratic Party seems oblivious.
“Our campaign is generating the energy and enthusiasm that we need to have a large voter turnout in November,” Sanders told his supporters last night. “We are in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination.”
For his part, The Presumptive, formerly known as The Donald — running unopposed — won both Republican primaries held last night in West Virginia and Nebraska. Cruz and Kasich earned a smattering of votes despite dropping out of the campaign, but Trump is creeping closer than doom to the number of delegates he needs, and the Republican establishment is starting to accept the inevitable. The chance of a contested Republican convention is getting as slim as a Bernie nomination,
Still . . . if Bernie keeps surging the way he is and the right number of super delegates get their heads out of their ass and, realizing that Bernie is their best anti-Trump candidate, switch their support to him, the shake-up may instead occur at the Democratic Convention in July.
But that’s a big If . . .