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Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Bernie and Obama to Meet Thursday at Bernie's Request

Nate Silver says it all:

"Clinton's crushing it tonight. Democrats want this thing to be over with."

"Seems possible Democrats are sick of Sanders's arguments over process, as Republicans got sick of Cruz in April."

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/740389180962971648
"Clinton’s margins tonight are toward the high end of expectations, with the possible exception of New Mexico, where she won but by a slightly smaller margin than we would have projected. But in New Jersey and South Dakota — and in the early returns from Montana and (more importantly) California — she’s doing very, very well."

There are more votes left to be counted. But it reminds me of the stretch of states that Trump had in April, where Republican voters suddenly began voting for Trump by large majorities after never having given him more than 50 percent of the vote before. That may have been because Republicans wanted to avert a contested convention and were sick of arguments over process."

"Democrats may be reacting similarly, rejecting Sanders’s insinuations that the system is “rigged” against him, and giving Clinton, the candidate who has won far more votes and elected delegates, a more emphatic majority. Clinton has her largest lead in national polls since February, won in a landslide in Puerto Rico over the weekend, and is having somewhere between a very good and an outstanding night tonight, depending on how the rest of the vote in Montana and California goes."

http://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/june-7-new-jersey-california-primary-presidential-election-2016/?#livepress-update-23672723

Never has Nate Silver been more right. As a Democrat who spends a lot of time talking to other Democrats on Twitter, that is the bottomline.

We've tried so many times to tell Bernie Sanders the truth: thanks for playing Bernie, but we're just not that into you. You're ok, but kind of self-righteous and we like Hillary Clinton much better than we like you.

Again, and again Bernie has refused to take the hint. But this seems like a positive development. He is meeting the President on Thursday and this is at Bernie's request.




News bulletin! Following a bruising night in which Clinton won the nomination via earned delegates, not just with superdelgates, the White House released a statement announcing that Sanders will meet with President Obama on Thursday — at Sanders’s request.

Obama is expected to campaign heavily for Clinton, who he congratulated tonight on winning the nomination. But Sanders has the loyal support of voters, particularly young voters, that are key to the Democratic Party, and he may press Obama to back a party agenda that includes nods to his policy proposals on the financial industry, the minimum wage and more."

http://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/june-7-new-jersey-california-primary-presidential-election-2016/?ex_cid=promo_banner

Ok, so it's a start. Bernie may seem to be beginning to consider that when you lose big by every major metric-votes, delegates, pledged delegates, large diverse states- you don't still get to be the nominee because you have big crowds or because you won a few caucuses.

Next he'll have to figure out that when you lose you don't get to write the entire platform by yourself either.
Many Democrats like Emmanuel Cleaver of Missouri argue that Hillary has already run pretty leftist in the primary. 
I mean she's for a $12 federal MW he wants $15-which she's fine with at the state level. The trouble is I don't see that there is so much distance between these two views as it is. 
Other than simply give him what he wants, how does she come any closer?
Ditto with a number of issues from college tuition to bank regulation and campaign finance. 
But it's a start that he's willing to sit down with an actual adult. 


1 comment:

  1. One thing that surprised me about the vote last night:

    North Dakota:
    total votes cast: 354
    total delegates: 18
    votes per delegate: 20

    California:
    total votes cast: 3465986 (estimate)
    total delegates: 445
    votes per delegate: 7789


    I may not be counting superdelegates, I'm not sure, but what strikes me is that the North Dakota vote gets 389 times the representation that the California vote gets. North Dakota was Bernie's big win last night, but is it statistically significant? Those must be caucus votes in ND, no?

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