Feuding Democrats Hillary’s heartbern The Economist May 21st 2016

1 Bernie Sanders can’t win but won’t quit

AS VICTORY laps go, Hillary Clinton is having a stinker. The former secretary of state has all but won the
Democratic primaries; there is no serious chance that Bernie Sanders can close her sizeable delegate lead before the
contest ends in Washington, DC, on June 14th. Yet the Vermont senator’s persistence, demonstrated by his 21st
victory, in Oregon on May 17th, is making her look weak and her party divided.

2 The alacrity with which Mrs Clinton trumpeted an ignobly small win in Kentucky on the same day was another
indicator of that. She had originally been expected to win Kentucky with ease. Yet Mr Sanders’s victories in
neighbouring Indiana and West Virginia gave the lie to that. Many Kentuckians took umbrage at her perceived
insensitivity to the sufferings of the state’s miners, after she appeared to welcome—as most Democrats do—the
demise of America’s coal industry. She duly lost big in Kentucky coal country and won the state by less than 2,000
votes.

3 These twin primaries encapsulate the latter stage of the Democratic campaign: bad headlines for Mrs Clinton but,
because the Democrats distribute their delegates in proportion to vote share, a tiny net advantage for Mr Sanders,
which changes nothing. This dreary cycle, as far as Mrs Clinton is concerned, followed even more damaging events
in Nevada on May 14th, when a crowd of Sanders supporters hurled chairs and abuse at Democratic officials whom
they accused of fixing the selection of delegates to the Democratic National Convention to her advantage. Invited
to condemn his supporters, Mr Sanders denounced the violence but said he agreed the process had been fixed—a
response Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democratic bigwig, called “anything but acceptable”.

4 There is little doubt that Mrs Clinton is being hurt by this protracted rowing. Her victory is apparent; to defeat
her, it would not be sufficient for Mr Sanders to win most of the outstanding 781 delegates (which is anyway
unlikely; 475 are up for grabs in California on June 7th and Mrs Clinton has a healthy lead there). He would also
need to persuade many of the 525 senior Democratic officers, or superdelegates, who have endorsed her to turn
coat, which is currently unimaginable. Yet Mrs Clinton has not seen the poll bounce presumptive nominees
customarily enjoy—unlike her probable opponent in November, Donald Trump. In late March, she led him by over
11 percentage points in head-to-head polls; she now leads him by five points.

5 She would dearly like to concentrate her attention and resources on widening that gap. Instead it is Mr Trump
who, having swept his opponents from the field, is free to depict her primary efforts to his advantage. “Crooked
Hillary can’t close the deal with Bernie Sanders. Will be another bad day for her!” he tweeted, pretty accurately as it
would turn out, on May 17th. Mr Sanders’s claim that the Democrats have fixed their rules in Mrs Clinton’s favour
is, in this context, especially damaging. It is just the sort of attack Mr Trump, a fellow outsider who hopes to win
over many disgruntled Sandernistas, will use against Mrs Clinton in November.

6 If a Democratic victory then were his main concern, Mr Sanders would quit the race. Yet, celebrating his victory
in Oregon, he vowed to fight on “until the last ballot is cast.” You can see why he might. A former independent, he
joined the Democratic Party only last year and has little love for it. A political nonentity for most of his career, he is
also revelling in his success. He has won 40% of the Democratic vote and is harrying Mrs Clinton to the end. He
hopes especially to make Mrs Clinton adopt his leftist agenda as, on May 10th, she showed signs of doing: she said
she would expand Medicare, which he would make universal, at least a bit.

7 To leave an enduring mark on American politics, as opposed to the primaries, however, Mr Sanders might do
better to try boosting his opponent’s chances against Mr Trump. That would mean endorsing her fulsomely when
he does admit defeat. Yet the longer he continues to fight and castigate her, as a representative of the unfair “status
quo”, the harder this will be.