No soup for Bernie

Krugman on the state of the race between Hill and Bern.

Quite a few people seem confused about the current state of the Democratic nomination race. 

But the essentials are simple: Hillary Clinton has a large lead in both pledged delegates and the popular vote so far. 

(In Democratic primaries, delegate allocation is roughly proportional to votes.) 

If you ask how that’s possible — Bernie Sanders just won seven states in a row! — you need to realize that those seven states have a combined population of about 20 million. 

Meanwhile, Florida alone also has about 20 million people — and Mrs. Clinton won it by a 30-point margin.

To overtake her, Mr. Sanders would have to win the remaining contests by an average 13-point margin, a number that will almost surely go up after the New York primary, even if he does much better than current polls suggest. 

That’s not impossible, but it’s highly unlikely.

So the Sanders campaign is arguing that superdelegates — the people, mainly party insiders, not selected through primaries and caucuses who get to serve as delegates under Democratic nomination rules — should give him the nomination even if he loses the popular vote. 

In case you’re rubbing your eyes: Yes, not long ago many Sanders supporters were fulminating about how Hillary was going to steal the nomination by having superdelegates put her over the top despite losing the primaries. 

Now the Sanders strategy is to win by doing exactly that.

So democracy is great provided your own side wins, right Mr. Sanders?

On the other hand, Krugman is more or less openly accusing Sanders of dissing black voters of the South who overwhelmingly supported Hillary in the primaries.

Not nice.