To say that the debate became passionate would be an understatement.
One of the main points of contention was the question of Bernie's path moving forward.
My personal take was that it was now virtually non-existent.
And it seems I am not alone in that perception.
Courtesy of the New York Times:
Bernie Sanders has vowed to fight for the presidential nomination until the Democratic convention, but the results this evening suggest that he is not anywhere close to being on track to amass a majority of pledged delegates.
Hillary Clinton’s landslide margins in the South and her competitiveness elsewhere translate to an overall lead of around 15 to 20 percentage points nationwide. Her support is anchored by a huge advantage among black voters, who represent nearly a quarter of Democratic voters and have offered her more than 80 percent of their votes — a tally rivaling or even exceeding the share won by Barack Obama in 2008.
Mr. Sanders, despite pockets of strength, has not fared well enough to overcome such a huge deficit among black voters.
Not even a few feel-good wins in states like Colorado, Minnesota and Oklahoma will change that. Mr. Sanders would have needed big wins in these states — by much more than 20 percentage points — to entertain the possibility of overcoming his enormous deficit in the South, where the majority of Democrats are African-American.
Here's more courtesy of The Guardian:
It’s time for some cold hard truths in this presidential election.
Here’s an ice cold one: winning a landslide victory in the mighty state of Vermont is not a foundation for success. Especially if Vermont has been your home since the Jurassic age of politics.
Here’s another: if you hold a victory rally before most of the states have been called, you’re not fooling anyone. When your victorious supporters have emptied the hall before the TV pundits have barely warmed up, you’re actually throwing a consolation party.
And a little more from Fivethirtyeight:
To borrow a phrase from Dan Rather, Hillary Clinton swept through the South like a big wheel through a Delta cotton field on Super Tuesday. She won seven states total, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia in the South. She also won Massachusetts and American Samoa. Bernie Sanders emerged victorious in four states (Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Vermont), but his victories tended to come by smaller margins and in smaller states. The end result is that Clinton has a clear path to winning the nomination, and Sanders’s only hope to derail her is for something very unusual to happen.
There are of course a few articles claiming that Sanders is still in the game, but only a handful.
My daughter was adamant last night that Bernie supporters would never show up to the polls for Hillary, but I was just as adamant that she did not need them, and if they were GOOD Democrats they would vote for the candidate representing the party.
Like I said, it got passionate.
So what do all of you think?
Is this race coming to an end soon, or does Bernie have what it takes to disappoint Hillary for the second time in eight years?
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