But she's on the side of the MIC, so she'll always be treated with kid's gloves about that. Proof? She's still running for office, not being pursued for law violations.
Contrary to media meme, it is not mathematically impossible for Bernie Sanders to win the majority of pledged delegates, he would just need around 68% of the remaining vote.
It would take a decisive swing in the polls for sure, but not impossible. There are two weeks left and with Trump beating Hillary in many national polls, perhaps enough Democratic voters will see that a vote for Hillary is almost the same as a vote for Trump.
The FBI investigation is yet to have concluded as well.
And if that decisive swing doesn't come, I hope that the superdelegates, who will be the deciding vote in any event, will do what they were put in place to do in the 80's, and that is prevent the nomination of a candidate that would lose in the Fall election.
Are they undemocratic and a disgrace to the party? Yes. But the rules are the rules, and the process is the process. They were made unbound delegates by the party for this exact reason.
Make no mistake, if Bernie Sanders was ahead in pledged delegates, but behind in head to head polling with Trump, the superdelegates would not hesitate to deny the will of the majority of voters, that is why they were there in the first place.
They are also there to create a psychological advantage to the establishment candidate, who gets to include over 500 delegates in their count based on a poll of super delegates, who don't even vote until the convention.
The unwritten rules are different for the connected elite than they are for outsiders and whistle blowers.
My analysis is that at this point Trump is the heavy favorite to win the Fall election. Trump's negatives are already known and baked in, and enough people just don't care, while Hillary's negatives have not yet hit a floor. Trump has not even begun his attempt to define her.
Trump is about to bring up in an unavoidable way her ME intervention as Secretary of State, questionable Clinton Global Initiative deals, Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, her paid Goldman Sachs talks, as well as comments made against women who accused Bill of misconduct.
Trump will continue to be an asymmetric opponent, with tighter OODA loops than Hillary.
She will try to define him, and he will morph. She will make an attack, and he will dominate the next news cycle with an expertly planted submarine.
She won't be able to pin him down, and she will be constantly on the defensive.
Hillary's best and only hope is demographics and identity politics, but my bet is that Trump shaves off enough economically aspirational voters that identify or want his success to win.
We live in interesting times, and it's going to be a very interesting election year.
I say heavy favorite based on the trend lines I see, and that Trumps negatives come from his words, where Hillary's come from her actions, and I think insulting words, style and positions are inherently easier to change/explain/apologize for than actions and character.
Trump's greatest strength this cycle is that he has never held elected office, when it comes to your financial pain, his hands are clean.
Manafort lays out his strategy for Trump[1], and I think it will work.
America has been here before, with another entertainer, Ronald Reagan.
[1] http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/manafort-tells...
Unless, of course, you invested in one of Trump's many "failed" real estate schemes.
While true, that's not the play (IMHO). Think longer term.
#1 What Sanders is doing, intentionally or not, is building the party. If you attend your local Democratic party functions and ask around, you'll find that many were motivated to join by the Dean, Kucinich, Obama campaigns. Check back in 4 and 8 years, you'll find the rank and file of the Democratic party were Sanders supporters.
#2 Sanders is dragging the Overton Window to the left.
#3 The Clinton v Sanders primary contest is the best possible strategy leading into the general election. It reduces Trump's oxygen. Delaying the Clinton v Trump cluster@#$! is the best way to advance the Democratic agenda.
Edit:
#4 Sanders, win or lose, will have considerable input into the VP selection, cabinet, etc. Clinton will have to do something big to win over the Sanders supporters.
I already voted for Sanders in Missouri, over two months ago. I hope that no Bernie supporters in this state thought they could wait until now, because he only lost by 1500 out of 620k votes cast.
I do agree with you that at this point Trump is certain to beat Clinton by wide margins in the upcoming general election. She will attempt the same tactics that already failed for the Republicans. They'll fail for her too. I suppose I'll vote for Gary Johnson again. He might have more of a chance this time around, but mostly I don't want to waste a vote on the status quo. (Don't kid yourselves, Trumpets, Comb-over Donnie is as inside as inside gets.)
"Super"-delegates are kind of awful, but they would be less awful if they didn't declare their preferences until after the final state primary.
And superdelegates change their preference, as they did in 2008, so there is no reason to include their numbers in media graphs until their vote is cast at the convention.