If Bernie is a leader, he will drop out of the race.

[CrowCityDem]

We have reached a point we never thought possible. Donald Trump is not only going to be the Republican nominee for President, but he will have wrapped it up long before the convention. There will be no contesting, there will be no infighting. From today until July, Donald Trump is the nominee, and he can turn to the general election without hesitation.

That is why it is incumbent on Bernie Sanders to do one of two things; 1) Drop out of the race, or 2) Justify his path to victory.

Bernie said not long ago that he will do "everything in my power" to make sure a Republican doesn't win the White House. That statement, by definition, includes his ability to end the Democratic primary season.

While we can sit here and say that Donald Trump has no chance of ever winning the election in November, we also said the same thing about the primary. The mere fact that it is possible means that we, as Democrats, should be doing everything we can to destroy his chances beginning today. That is not possible, however, while we are still embroiled in an active primary. Hillary cannot move on to raising money and fully organizing a general election campaign while Bernie is still in the race. It would be viewed as an insult by many of his vocal supporters, and party unity is too important to allow that.

That leaves Bernie in firm control of what happens next. For the sake of the party not giving Donald Trump a one or two month head start on his never-ending string of attacks against Hillary, the entire party needs to be able to respond in lockstep, without fighting a two-pronged war. Every attack leveled by Bernie at this point not only reinforces the toxic image Trump will try to portray of her, but it distracts her from being able to fight back appropriately. Though he doesn't mean it, Bernie is opening a flank for Trump to attack.

This would be moot if we were still in the midst of a close race. Bernie has lost, though. The math against him is daunting, which even he admits when he and his advisors make the case that their only path to winning is to have the establishment rig the process to steal the nomination away from the choice of the voters. By actively promoting such an undemocratic usurping of the process, Bernie is engaged in a bad faith attempt to wrest away the nomination, de-ligitimizing Hillary, and giving yet more ammunition to Trump.

It is incumbent on Bernie, if he wants to continue on in this race, to justify how he can win through democratic means. If he cannot make a case, his continued presence does not help the party by pushing it to the left, it does real damage by giving Trump a head start. Even now, as Bernie is accusing Hillary and the DNC of money laundering, we can see how easily Trump will take Bernie's own words and use them for his own benefit.

The time has passed for Bernie. With no path to the nomination, he is holding back the party from doing its job and beginning the fight for the White House. Bernie's entire campaign has been built on attacking the Democratic party as an institution, but as a man running to be its standard-bearer, he must realize that the right thing to do is to show leadership and bow out, so there is a future for him to influence.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. Bull.

The real problem is you folks backed a fatally flawed, dishonest, unethical person.

I can imagine that it is tough to recognize and admit your error.

[roguevalley]

13. given that TPTB have started to tout Biden as the new king when the Queen is indicted, Bernie is a

gift from God. If HRC had a shred of integrity which she doesn't with each unfolding scandal, she wouldn't have started let alone stayed in. She isn't being voted for because she's liked and wanted. She is being voted because people have been lied to about her ability to beat Trump. She can't, she won't. She needs to go.

[pinebox]

2. If Hillary has any integrity

She should step down.

#DropOutHillary




Speaking of money laundering.....


http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/clinton-fundraising-leaves-little-for-state-parties-222670

[840high]

6. yep -

[BillZBubb]

3. If Bernie is a leader he'll fight for us all the way through the convention.

Keep peddling the bullshit, though, if that floats your boat.

[In_The_Wind]

8. Yes, indeed!

[ProgressiveEconomist]

4. Well said! K&R

[In_The_Wind]

5. Bernie should continue his run for the presidency.

[ciaobaby]

7. For your reading pleasure

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/278494-poll-dems-want-sanders-to-stay-in-through-the-convention

[vintx]

9. Fail. You're completely wrong. Biden has it right.

Joe Biden understands something about the Democratic Party and its future that his fellow partisans would do well to consider. “I don’t think any Democrat’s ever won saying, ‘We can’t think that big—we ought to really downsize here because it’s not realistic,’” the vice president told The New York Times in April. “C’mon man, this is the Democratic Party! I’m not part of the party that says, ‘Well, we can’t do it.’” Mocking Hillary Clinton’s criticism of Bernie Sanders for proposing bold reforms, Biden dismissed the politics of lowered expectations. “I like the idea of saying, ‘We can do much more,’ because we can,” he declared, leading the Times to observe that, while Biden wasn’t making an endorsement, “He’ll take Mr. Sanders’s aspirational approach over Mrs. Clinton’s caution any day.”

Unwittingly or not, Biden made an even better case than Sanders has for taking his insurgent campaign all the way to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. If the party is going to run in 2016 on a “do much more” agenda—as opposed to triangulating around the center—the Vermont senator’s supporters and like-minded Democrats, including Clinton’s progressive backers, will have to force the issue. Taking the Sanders insurgency to the convention is the paramount vehicle for placing demands that are ideological and, as Biden’s comments suggest, also strategic. That’s one reason why Sanders promised in a statement on April 26 to go to the convention with “as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform”—despite the fact that Clinton’s delegate advantage now all but guarantees that she will win the nomination.

(More at link)

http://www.thenation.com/article/bernies-philadelphia-challenge/

[bullwinkle428]

10. 19 state victories. What is the harm in allowing the voters in the remaining states

to have their voice in this nomination process?

[Eric J in MN]

12. Sanders won 18 states plus Democrats Abroad. He should stay in so CA etc can participate. NT

NT

[saltpoint]

11. I don't actually think this kid named

Jack traded the family cow for a handful of magic beans.

I'm not saying I was there, only that such a transaction seems doubtful.

The account presupposes that Jack is of such insufficient moral maturity that he would risk family members' hunger just because he sought the adventure for himself in a wonderland in the sky with giants.

For the record, I'm all for an adventurous spirit. I would not fault Jack on that count. At the same time, though, I have seen no clinical profile of this kid to suggest he would not have told the stranger 'No, my family's health is more important than my personal taste for adventure."

I believe in my blood and bones that Jack would have said 'Thanks, but no thanks,' bid the stranger a pleasant afternoon, and then went about his business of being his mother's mature son.

Also, if giants roam the heavens, and if giants are real real big, how can their weight be supported by clouds? I may call up Joni Mitchell and ask that question, because if anybody knows jack about clouds, it's her.

[farleftlib]

14. You could"ve just said "Call it, Skinner"

because it would have saved you a lot of time typing a lot of nonsense, propaganda,
logical fallacies, false dichotomy and wishful thinking.

[AgingAmerican]

15. Hillary supporters are acting butthurt

[Lizzie Poppet]

16. It's precisely because he's a leader that he's still in.

A leader of progressives, a leader of the working class...and for many of us, that's vastly more important than being a leader of the party.

That said, my compliments on a civil, reasoned argument. Too damn rare around here...

[Eric J in MN]

17. Sanders is getting young people to register to vote. He should stay in. NT

NT

[rock]

18. He's not a leader

He'll stay in as long a he can fleece his followers of a single red cent. Wait and see. Oh, and welcome. Stay a while.