Almost all of my limited attention span has been focused on the Republican primaries.
But this news item caught my attention:
Hillary Clinton raised $30 million in February and has $31 million on hand, her campaign announced on Wednesday — far less than Bernie Sanders.Her rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, raised $43 million in February, with $6 million of that coming on Monday. Sanders’ campaign has not announced its cash on hand, but as of the end of January, he had nearly $15 million in the bank.
Money does not appear to be Bernie’s problem.
Delegates are the problem, where Hillary leads 1,034 to 408. But that overall delegate lead includes 457 Superdelegates for Clinton to just 22 for Bernie. The Democratic primary system is rigged in favor of the consummate political insider.
The popular vote totals are closer, though Clinton still has a lead, 3,924,073 to 2,534,623.
What is Bernie’s strategy to win? Or in 2016 parlance, what is his “lane” to victory?
I don’t see how he does it. But he has enough money to hang on to the convention, and if he can obtain close to 40% of the vote, he has a credible argument that he should be the nominee if Hillary is indicted or the FBI at least makes a criminal referral to the Justice Department. In either of those scenarios, there will be pressure for the convention to hand the nomination to Joe Biden or someone similar.
But with Bernie sitting there with a large chunk of elected delegates and popular vote, the Democratic establishment will have a hard time pushing him aside.
So that’s my theory. Bernie can’t win against Hillary, but he can make sure that when Hillary falls, the nomination is his.
Thoughts?
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