Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a primary night event in Phoenix, Arizona, March 15, 2016. (Photo: Sam Hodgson / The New York Times)
Last night was pretty tough for Bernie Sanders. Hillary Clinton won four of the five primary contests at play in the latest Super Tuesday, and leads in a fifth contest in Missouri that’s still too close to call. She also added to her already significant lead in delegates.
The mainstream corporate media, of course, have now declared the Democratic race for president over, and Hillary Clinton is now once again the “inevitable” nominee, and they couldn’t be happier. This is probably the reason not one of the major networks covered Sanders’ speech live last night. They’re already writing him off as a cute but harmless afterthought.
But here’s the thing: this race isn’t over — far from it. Sanders still has a path to the nomination, and a strong one at that.
See more news and opinion from Thom Hartmann at Truthout here.
Over the next few weeks, the primary schedule shifts to the West and upper Midwest, where Sanders has already had success and where he’s favored to pick up even more victories.
If Sanders manages to win by big margins in states like Wyoming or Wisconsin, he can whittle away at Clinton’s delegate lead — which, despite what you might hear on the mainstream media, only grew by a net total of 57 delegates last night.
But more importantly, success out West and in the Midwest could win Sanders some much-needed momentum and media coverage, which will mean a lot when voters in big states like Pennsylvania, New York and California head to the polls later on in the year.
What happens after that is anyone’s guess, but in the wake of what happened last week in Michigan, when Sanders won the largest primary election upset in history, there’s no reason to think the “impossible” couldn’t happen again. The experts and pundits in the establishment media industrial complex have written Sanders off before, and…