Politics '16: Is Hillary Clinton Getting Berned?

Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While Republicans are going through the grief process in accepting Donald Trump as their 2016 standard-bearer, Hillary Clinton is counting the days (and the delegates) until the Democrats anoint her as their presidential nominee.  In fact, she's already getting started in bashing Trump over several issues including gun control and how a bully shouldn't be allowed a pulpit, as she put it.

Not so fast, Hillary.  Coming down the backstretch is Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who's been dismissed by the media (including blogs like this one), the Democratic Party and anyone who has a brain.

Sanders has won almost as many states' primaries and caucuses as Clinton, but the delegate count currently favors the former Secretary of State.  According to CNN, Clinton has 2297 delegates (including superdelegates), and needs 86 more to win the nomination.  Sanders has 1527 delegates, and needs 856 more.

Sanders is still fighting the good fight against Wall Street and the big money that's been dominating politics.  But lately, the attacks against Clinton and the Democrats have gotten a lot more personal and sometimes violent.  The Sanders campaign has accused the Democratic National Committee of not only rigging the debates, but also in the use of superdelegates (mainly party regulars) to favor Clinton.  They have also called for the removal of committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is also a Florida congresswoman and allegedly in the tank for Clinton.

But some of Sanders' supporters, who are as fervent as any, have turned to Trump-like tactics to express their displeasure with what's going on.  In Nevada recently, the Democrats' state convention was marred by chair-throwing, Senator Barbara Boxer of California getting booed and fearing for her life, and alleged death threats to the state's party chair.  All that over party officials' refusal to change its rules to accommodate Sanders.  The Senator has since come out and deplored the ruckus his supporters have been causing, but it didn't sound all that convincing.

So how's all this affecting Clinton?  By failing to put away the nomination like Trump did with his own party, she's lost her double-digit leads in the national polls, which now show a dead heat between the two candidates.  It may be only May and the conventions are two moths off, but all signs point to a tight race that could last until November.

Bernie Sanders is not done yet.  He and his supporters have vowed to take their campaign all the way to the convention, never mind that Clinton could wrap this thing up after California votes in two weeks.  And when she does, Clinton could learn a few things from Sanders and his loyal supporters.  She needs them more than Sanders needs her to win in November.