Mrs. Clinton has won substantial victories today in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, winning big in the last real primary (next week we still DC, but it is irrelevant) and with a large lead in California at the time of this writing.
As we predicted in March, Hillary Clinton has now reached the number of delegates need to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination and will face Donald Trump in the general election.
In Mrs. Clinton’s victory speech she hailed the moment as an historic as she becomes the first female presidential nominee. While watching this, she seemed to be in part eulogizing the Sanders Campaign (She perhaps knows something we don’t).
Senator Bernie Sanders won only North Dakota and Montana.
In his speech tonight, Senator Sanders vowed to keep in the race and go after every delegate possible (Washington DC is the only remaining primary), and then go to Philadelphia for the Democratic Convention. Sanders noted he won 22 state primaries and 10 million votes, won by big numbers the votes of young people. He encouraged supporters to defeat Donald Trump. He made no attacks on Hllary.
In recent days, Sanders has been campaigning that the Democratic convention would be a contested one, even though Clinton has reached the number of delegates needed. Sanders staked his credibility on a victory in California, and perhaps believed with a massive victory he could shake loose some of Hillary’s superdelegates. Unfortunately he has failed badly in California.
While Sanders would likely not win a contested convention without some kind of major event, Republicans still expect an indictment to come down from the FBI’s investigation of Mrs. Clintons unsecure email server. This could conceivably dislodge superdelegates from their current steadfast support. Yes, its a longshot.
News services have reported Sanders has asked and been granted a meeting with President Obama on Thursday (tomorrow). He is likely attempting to leverage his current popularity to forward his agenda. Sanders could end up with a strong legacy organization that could well last the next several election cycles. If one were to perform a game theory analysis, Sanders’ best bet is to stay in and make as much noise as possible.