There is no progressive majority for a “political revolution” in the Democratic Party without the support of black voters. ...NYT
Consider the possibility that this low turnout was largely planned -- that a significant group of Americans deliberately withheld their vote as their way of signaling terminal disgust with a thinning white majority that effectively denies them full citizenship except when their vote is needed. Three fifths of citizenship doesn't seem fair.
As usual, I voted yesterday in Legion Hall. It was lunch hour. The place was empty except for the three election workers. In general elections, the best turnout Dems can manage is 25%. For a primary? Almost no one. What matters most here? Delegates.
None of this means that the race ends quickly. Democratic delegates are awarded proportionally, so Mrs. Clinton would need time to clinch a majority of pledged delegates. Mr. Sanders has a loyal base of supporters who could easily fund an insurgent campaign well past the point when it is even plausible to suggest he could win the nomination.
But if the race continues as it has to date, Mr. Sanders will suffer serious losses over the next two weeks. Mrs. Clinton could approach or exceed 80 percent of the vote in Mississippi and Louisiana. She could win 60 percent of the vote in Michigan, a state where black voters represent an above-average share of the electorate. Mrs. Clinton would be poised for a clean and decisive sweep on March 15, when five big states with large numbers of black voters — Illinois, Missouri, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio — cast ballots.
Even then, Mrs. Clinton will not have a majority of pledged delegates. Only half will have been awarded. But Mr. Sanders would need to win by around 20 points from that point on to catch up.
The results tonight show that outcome is highly unlikely. There is no progressive majority for a “political revolution” in the Democratic Party without the support of black voters. ...NYT
Well, and white voters too.
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There is one comforting result: Republicans are imploding. It's official. "The GOP has two weeks to take down Donald Trump" is the big headline at the Post.
The window for stopping Donald Trump closed almost completely Tuesday night, leaving the demoralized anti-Trump forces with two weeks and no agreed-upon strategy for denying the New York billionaire the Republican presidential nomination. ...WaPo
This leaves room for a polite hug for Hillary in the general from disillusioned Republicans. That probably sounds great for Hillary supporters. But not for the rest of us. We just hear the Washington's wheels turning over. Same old same old.
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Charlie Cook, the smart guy, has this:
4. The Clinton team should not be over-confident about facing Trump this fall. The most recent polling has Hillary Clinton with a comfortable lead over Trump in head-to-head match-ups. However, as we have seen throughout this primary season, Trump looks a lot easier to beat on paper then he is in reality. Moreover, we saw a pivot tonight from Trump to the general election with what is likely to become a standard line of attack against Clinton this fall: she was part of what caused the problems, which means she can't be part of what fixes them. If eight years of Obama hasn’t “fixed” the economy and the lives of middle-class Americans, how will someone who has been in politics for the last 25 years offer a better solution? Clinton had better have a strong, substantive and believable answer to that question going forward. If she doesn’t, Trump will exploit it to his benefit. ...Cook Report
