2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: A reminder of why minimizing Clinton's Southern victories is so hurtful. [View all]magical thyme
(14,881 posts)establishment candidates. The fact is that the "southern strategy" has had an outsized influence on outcomes ever since those states agreed to align their primaries and caucuses into a block early on.
I don't think that people are trying to diminish the importance of the black vote. I think they are trying to stress that in spite of his losses there, Bernie is still viable.
We knew he didn't stand a chance to win in the south. We also knew, however, that in order to make it to the convention he had to make it through the firewall with enough delegates and money to continue to the more liberal states.
There was even a specific number of delegates cited in several articles -- he could be down by 150 delegates in the Super Tuesday states and still be a viable candidate.
In the end, he beat that target number, plus has garnered enough financial support to be viable. It's not that the black vote is not important. It's that the southern conservative vote has lost some of it's excess influence.
And the later states in the race have regained some of their lost importance.