Sanders, Clinton, and the Not-So-Simple Case of West Virginia

When Bernie Sanders took the stage in Salem, Oregon, on Tuesday night, after winning the West Virginia primary—“a big, big victory” and “a tremendous victory,” he called it—he had a look on his face of pure delight. The crowd of a few thousand cheered almost every one of his lines; he threw back his head with a broad grin, and declared the town “ready for a political revolution.” To put it more precisely, they, and Sanders, did not sound ready for this campaign to stop. Hillary Clinton has won more pledged delegates than he has and, with the superdelegates who have promised to support her, she is closer than ever to securing the Democratic Presidential nomination. (West Virginia gives out delegates proportionally, so she got some, too.) It would take not only a Sanders surge but a Clinton crash for that to change. Perhaps that’s what Sanders is waiting for. One of the puzzles of the Democratic primary race, which the West Virginia results did little to untangle, is whether voters are more driven by what and whom they are for or by what they are against—and what they simply can’t abide.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Going There with Donald Trump
The Disruptor’s Guide to Succeeding in Trump’s Post-Apocalyptic Greater America
Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, May 11th