Why Bernie Sanders Has a Right to Stay in the Race
Down by more than 300 pledged delegates, the calls to unite around Hillary Clinton and for Bernie Sanders to drop out have been growing louder.
Besides the fact that a candidate with a plausible (though difficult) path to victory that wasn’t brought down by a scandal has never really dropped out early, that it will effectively disenfranchise states that haven’t had their primaries yet, and that there isn’t any evidence that uniting behind a candidate early actually provides any advantages in the general election, there are other reasons why Sanders ought to stay in:
Insiders: Kasich could win a contested convention • 2016 Mar 18 • Steven Shepard • Politico (via Eric B on Facebook)
Some Democrats said Sanders’ continued campaign makes it more likely the party’s candidates remain in the news, as the media focus on the chaotic Republican race.
“I don’t feel it is time for Bernie to end his campaign unless his goal is to fracture the Democratic Party.”
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Other insiders cautioned the Clinton forces against putting pressure on Sanders to exit the race–especially given Clinton’s insistence on playing out the string against Barack Obama in 2008.
“Hillary stayed in until the convention. It’s completely unfair and hypocritical for her team to try and push Sanders out now.”
Clinton stayed in the race to the very end, and even late in the game when the likelihood of catching up to Obama was decidedly waning, she was adamant about continuing on.
I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on… [there is an Associated Press article] that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me. There’s a pattern emerging here.
Clinton makes case for wide appeal • 2008 May 8 • Kathy Kiely and Jill Lawrence • USA Today
…people have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa.… I find it curious because it is unprecedented in history. I don’t understand it. Between my opponent and his camp and some in the media there has been this urgency to end this. And historically, that makes no sense, so I find it a bit of a mystery. …I’ve been around long enough. My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere around the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it. There’s lots of speculation about why it is.
Hillary and RFK’s Death • 2008 May 22 • Michael Crowley • New Republic