Can Bernie get the Superdelegates to defect from Hillary in 11th hour?

[Hermit For Peace]

Bernie's camp thinks they can win over Hillary's Superdelegates and name him as the Democratic nominee, stating that he is in the best position to defeat Trump.

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http://www.npr.org/2016/05/19/478705022/sanders-campaign-now-says-superdelegates-are-key-to-winning-nomination

Do you think the Superdelegates will take another look at the Sander's campaign and go for him over Hillary?

[Dr. Arch]

There is no precedence for this, but it is actually possible, however unlikely.

[Gass3268]

No, especially after the last week. If anything he'll lose superdelegates.

[Pyro]

As much as I prefer Sanders over Clinton, this tactic is embarrassing.
He should be condemning the superdelegates, not vying for their votes.
Hopefully after California he stops with this talk.

[BlueSwan]

Of course not.

Infact, the Sanders campaign, which begun as an idealistic campaign based on a positive message has turned into everything it wasn't supposed to be. Vying for superdelegates, going negative on the presumptive democratic nominee, not calling rapid violent supporters to order, it's pretty damn ugly.

[RaphaelDLG]

If, like, Hillary Clinton gets cancer, or dies, or eats an aborted fetus on live television or something, then maybe he can convince them to defect.

[Hermit For Peace]

If, like, Hillary Clinton gets cancer, or dies, or eats an aborted fetus on live television or something, then maybe he can convince them to defect.

LOL!

[IceSpear]

No

[Ljube]

No

Only if she is indicted or dies.

[Lyin' Steve]

Even if Hillary went to f**king prison the superdelegates would never vote for Bernie.  Not after he:
1)  Condemned them for an entire year as basically fascist thugs stealing the election he rightfully won by negative three million votes.
2)  Had his supporters threaten them and send unbelievably ugly messages to them -- some of the stuff I've seen on the internet is hard to stomach, I can't imagine being a superdelegate right now.
3)  Never did a damn thing to help the party for any of the 30-40 years of his political career
4)  Accused the Democratic party of all sorts of conspiracy theory lies throughout the primary process
5)  Stole a bunch of Hillary Clinton's hard-earned data and then had the nerve to file a lawsuit against the party when they shut off his access to said data, which he later meekly withdrew.
6)  Threatens again and again to blow up the party and cause absolute chaos at the convention, helping Trump get elected
7)  Spends half of every speech poisoning the well of his young supporters so that the Democratic party loses its base for a generation, hoping that he can then hold them hostage to make demands from the party
 Tacitly in public, and openly and aggressively behind the scenes, encourages his supporters to cause as much trouble for their local organizations as possible, as we saw in Nevada.
9)  Just in general shows an absolute lack of respect, dignity or self-awareness
and not to mention 10) He's a clueless, far-left radical with completely delusional ideas that are far outside the mainstream of the party, much though his supporters will try to convince you otherwise, that are completely unworkable, particularly with his well-known Senatorial incompetence, and that are dangerous for the country and the world (foreign policy cluelessness).

Remember in 1968 after Bobby Kennedy was shot the party went with Humphrey over McCarthy, Kennedy's vanquished opponent.  McCarthy was an asshole but nowhere near the new low to which Sanders has sunk.

[Hermit For Peace]

So where is Bernie's campaign getting the idea that they can get Hillary's superdelegates? Just because he's a couple points ahead of Trump in the polls?

Or are they just seriously delusional?

They're obviously out of touch with reality.

[Lyin' Steve]

So where is Bernie's campaign getting the idea that they can get Hillary's superdelegates? Just because he's a couple points ahead of Trump in the polls?

Or are they just seriously delusional?

They're obviously out of touch with reality.

This has been all they've got for at least two months now.  At the Washington caucuses the only argument the Bernie people could give was that we needed to pick him over Hillary because he scored better than her against Trump so he was the "safe pick."  I don't think anyone for a second believed that Bernie was a safer general election pick than Hillary, but there you have it.  Especially given that anyone who knows how to open a PDF file can see that a large part of the reason Hillary's losing to Trump is because a huge number of Sanders supporters are saying they won't vote for her in the general.  Nobody's going to reward that kind of hostage-taking.

[IceSpear]

So where is Bernie's campaign getting the idea that they can get Hillary's superdelegates? Just because he's a couple points ahead of Trump in the polls?

Or are they just seriously delusional?

They're obviously out of touch with reality.

If he ignored superdelegates at this point he'd be essentially admitting defeat, which would cause many of his supporters not to vote. He wants as many delegates as possible to maximize his influence for platform/process changes at the convention, so he needs to keep up the charade.

If he's still saying it after June 7th, then we know he is delusional and has gone off the deep end. At that point it would be time for Obama/Biden and the rest of the party to bring down the hammer. I doubt it will come to that though.

[Ebsy]

This idiotic strategy remains as ludicrous as it was when they first proposed it.

[RaphaelDLG]

So where is Bernie's campaign getting the idea that they can get Hillary's superdelegates? Just because he's a couple points ahead of Trump in the polls?

Or are they just seriously delusional?

They're obviously out of touch with reality.

To me it's clearly just a tactic to make it look like he has a chance to keep his supporters in the final states engaged and they aren't serious about it.

EDIT: IceSpear beat me

[Xing]

Not unless he actually does prevent Hillary from reaching viability in California, lol.

[BlueSwan]

So where is Bernie's campaign getting the idea that they can get Hillary's superdelegates? Just because he's a couple points ahead of Trump in the polls?

Or are they just seriously delusional?

They're obviously out of touch with reality.

This has been all they've got for at least two months now.  At the Washington caucuses the only argument the Bernie people could give was that we needed to pick him over Hillary because he scored better than her against Trump so he was the "safe pick."  I don't think anyone for a second believed that Bernie was a safer general election pick than Hillary, but there you have it.  Especially given that anyone who knows how to open a PDF file can see that a large part of the reason Hillary's losing to Trump is because a huge number of Sanders supporters are saying they won't vote for her in the general.  Nobody's going to reward that kind of hostage-taking.

Oh they do believe it. And it isn't even close to being the craziest thing they believe. Some of them make the Young Turks seem totally grounded in reality.

[Lyin' Steve]

So where is Bernie's campaign getting the idea that they can get Hillary's superdelegates? Just because he's a couple points ahead of Trump in the polls?

Or are they just seriously delusional?

They're obviously out of touch with reality.

If he ignored superdelegates at this point he'd be essentially admitting defeat, which would cause many of his supporters not to vote. He wants as many delegates as possible to maximize his influence for platform/process changes at the convention, so he needs to keep up the charade.

If he's still saying it after June 7th, then we know he is delusional and has gone off the deep end. At that point it would be time for Obama/Biden and the rest of the party to bring down the hammer. I doubt it will come to that though.

That's a good point.  It's easy to forget how little of the party apparatus has actually come out for Hillary.  Obama and Biden haven't stayed out of the race because they were too busy going sunglasses shopping.  They wanted to make Bernie's inevitable defeat seem as fair as possible to try to prevent exactly what's happening right now from happening.  In that sense, they really ought to just endorse now and get it over with, since Bernie's doggedly determined to stir up chaos and convince everyone the process was rigged against him regardless of reality.  But if he doesn't have the decency to drop out and endorse Hillary after June 7, we're going to see Obama, Hillary, and Pelosi give Bernie a royal smackdown from on high.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

If something miraculous happens on June 7th (let's set the line at him narrowing the pledged delegate gap to under 100) then there may be reason for him to hope. Some of the supers that backed Clinton only after March 15th/NY/PA would probably jump back into the undecided column without any pushing at all, and there would be the opportunity to convince others. Whether there would be a path to 2383, I don't know. But at least the divide would become more even.

If no such miraculous event happens (and I don't think it will), then he should give up. The national polls argument has already been thrown at supers left and right, and they have been clear in rejecting it based on 1)lack of Republican attacks toward Sanders, and/or 2)a hope that the 25% or so of Democrats who say they will vote for Bernie but not Hillary eventually hold their noses and vote for Hillary.

[BlueSwan]

But if he doesn't have the decency to drop out and endorse Hillary after June 7, we're going to see Obama, Hillary, and Pelosi give Bernie a royal smackdown from on high.

I'm not so sure. They're scared to death of angering the Bernie supporters. And rightfully so. But this is the real wild card. If Bernie really takes the fight to the convention, this election is Trumps for the taking.

[Lyin' Steve]

But if he doesn't have the decency to drop out and endorse Hillary after June 7, we're going to see Obama, Hillary, and Pelosi give Bernie a royal smackdown from on high.

I'm not so sure. They're scared to death of angering the Bernie supporters. And rightfully so. But this is the real wild card. If Bernie really takes the fight to the convention, this election is Trumps for the taking.

What do they have to lose?  June 7th has basically been the final deadline for Bernie to drop out throughout the race.  If he misses it then it means he's basically going to go on for another two months.  Might as well lance the boil early rather than letting him destroy the convention as well.  If Trump gets his 2-3 point convention bounce and Hillary doesn't that will needlessly narrow the race.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

It's not like an Obama endorsement of Clinton would guarantee Sanders's withdrawal however. What it would do is help keep any wavering Clinton supers in the Clinton column.

[Hermit For Peace]

Bernie keeps saying that he's going all the way to the convention to contest it, and hopefully win Hillary's Supers. Doesn't sound like dropping out on the 7th is in his plans.

And I still say that he has a persecution complex. Everyone is out to get him and ruin his run.

[tallguy23]

Of course not.

Infact, the Sanders campaign, which begun as an idealistic campaign based on a positive message has turned into everything it wasn't supposed to be. Vying for superdelegates, going negative on the presumptive democratic nominee, not calling rapid violent supporters to order, it's pretty damn ugly.

This. All this. Sanders' campaign has become incredibly disappointing.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Not now he can't. The scorched-Earth strategy has f***ed him.