Nearly a week after a demoralizing loss to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the New York Primary, Senator Bernie Sanders moves forward. With reports that his campaign seems to be more focused on wining the Democratic nomination than ever before, many are left to question the delegate math and the Senator's motives. Perhaps most shocking all of is an apparent push for the ever-controversial superdelegates.
Sanders' influence on the 2016 race is clearly undeniable. Swaths of youth and progressives have been brought into the fold by the Senator from Vermont and there exists no doubt that without his entrance into the race, Clinton would be much worse off. Still, those within the Democratic Party are probably beginning to worry about what a contested Democratic convention would mean for election odds come November. With a Donald Trump or Ted Cruz nomination up in the air on the Right and with Clinton's trust issues and poor favorability ratings plaguing the Left, many are talking about the necessity of party unity. A Democratic headstart is theirs for the taking, Sanders critics bellow -- much to the frustration of those still feeling the bern.
To make matters even worse for those supporting Sanders, it's likely true that the campaign does in fact regret how it played in recent months. It's completely plausible that upon entering this race, Sanders had no idea how big his revolution would become and so operated his campaign in an almost alien-like non-political way. To be sure, a more cerebral and articulated apparatus early on may have made a world of difference when it comes to the delegate math he now faces -- because the fact is, politics sells. But Sanders wouldn't cave and play ball then -- and because he did not, Clinton did not. And here lies the greatest frustration for those in support of a Sanders Presidency -- that given the exceptional weaknesses embodied by Candidate Clinton, Sanders the Socialist could have won.
In recent weeks we've been witness to a more intense primary fight. The gloves appear to be off and calling each other's qualifications into question may just be the beginning. If indeed this fight does go all the way to the convention, we may be right to expect a shattered party and a major problem for Hillary Clinton. For as much as she likes to harken back to her (and her supporters') truce with and endorsement of Barack Obama in 2008, the dynamics of this race are different.
However impassioned the 2008 race became, Obama and Clinton, on policy, as it would turn out, were never really that far apart. Can we really say that about the current Democratic contenders? Can we ever imagine a Bernie Sanders Secretary of State under a Clinton adminsitration?
Clinton and Sanders really are about as far from each other as two candidates running for the same Democratic nomination can be -- even if it's hard to tell with Clinton's recent high wire-like political pandering acts. The fact that her supporters sided with Obama is not particularly spectacular considering the ideological similarities between the two-clearly evidenced by the overly-used "Obama's third term" phrase.
But let us not forget that Senator Bernie Sanders proudly wears the Democratic Socialist label, competes with Donald Trump for independent voters, runs intensely on campaign finance reform and wealth redistribution and truly doesn't seem beholden to special interests. Indeed it may be the Sanders supporters who despise the political opportunism, political baggage and political insincerity of Clinton most. A widespread endorsement of Clinton and a pledge to cast a vote for her in November, on the part of convention-ousted Sanders supporters, would be nothing short of miraculous -- it would therefore be wise for Clinton operatives to pay attention, play nice and exercise extreme care in dealing with this delicate issue over the course of the coming weeks.