Mr. Biden will have a solid majority of delegates. There is no question today that the majority prevails, and there never will be.
Sanders spoke while there was a crowded field, in the expectation he would have a plurality of delegates, but one well short of a majority. In such a situation, in which it would be obvious that a great majority of voters had rejected Sanders, but had divided that rejection up between several candidates, Sanders proposed that he should carry the nomination, even though he might have no more than a third or so of the delegates. He intended to tar as illegitimate any combination at the convention of his several rivals behind any single one of them. Without a majority, Sanders could not have gained the nomination on the first ballot, and on subsequent ballots, delegates would be free to vote as they thought best, and delegates at large could vote as well. The danger, from Sanders' point of view, was that on a second or third ballot, the two thirds of delegates who did not want Sanders (probably raised closer to three quarters with delegates at large added into the total), would unite behind a single candidate to provide him or her in numbers that would secure the nomination by a solid majority for someone other than Sanders.
Sanders spoke not in support of a convention result that reflected the will of most voters and delegates (which would be that Sanders not be nominated), but rather in support of the proposition that a candidate rejected by an overwhelming portion of primary voters, and whom a great majority of convention delegates opposed, should nonetheless carry the nomination. Because out of a field of four or five candidates, his share of delegates might be larger than that of any single one of his opponents. This would be good enough for a 'first past the post' election to office, but that is not what a Party convention is. A Party convention is not a formality ratifying the sum total of primary and caucus results in the various states and other jurisdictions. A Party's convention is an assembly in which delegates selected, whether by primary or caucus or the Party itself, gather to decide collectively whom they wish to be the Party's standard-bearer. The rules for this require a majority of delegates. Some years ago, in the Democratic Party, nomination for President required two thirds of the delegates voting for a candidate.
"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."
Congratulations to our presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden!
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