Stop worrying about delegates. They can’t steal the nomination from Bernie.
Hillary isn’t in the lead with delegates; Bernie is. Superdelegates don’t count in the delegate race right now, even if they appear to put Hillary in the lead with how some sources are reporting the race. They’re completely irrelevant, and aren’t going to suddenly hand the nomination over to Hillary regardless of whether Bernie wins in pledged delegates.
Bernie has the real lead, since most superdelegates don’t decide until it is closer to the convention. Not only have they not decided, but some are not likely to for a while.
After New Hampshire, Hillary has 32 delegates; Bernie has 36.
First of all, superdelegates have never decided the outcome of a Democratic primary election. In 2008, Hillary had a massive lead in superdelegates as well. After Barack Obama started to be taken as a serious candidate, he overtook Hillary’s lead around May and beat her at the convention later.
Yes, I can’t fully make the comparison with Obama. Sanders is seen as an unelectable candidate, whether or not that assessment is based on fact. He also isn’t very establishment-friendly, because he’s challenging the situation with money in politics using his powerful and influential campaign.
Even noting that, it’s inevitable that the party will nominate him if he wins more elected delegates bound to the vote.
If they’re going to hand the nomination to Hillary, they would never do it in such a transparent way. Think of the enormous consequences if Bernie Sanders earns more pledged delegates, then the party elite declares Hillary the nominee anyway.
The backlash over this would be immense. The internet would be flooded with angered constituents revolting on an immeasurable level. There would be Bernie supporters that abandon Hillary altogether, in numbers. Even some of her supporters could potentially do the same.
We would most likely see large numbers of voters writing in Bernie’s name, voting third party/independent, or just sitting out the election altogether. Even if 5% of those who would normally vote for the Democratic nominee decided not to, that can be enough to shift the course of the election.
It would also be such an easy opportunity for the Republicans to take advantage of. We could see attack ads like this:
Narrator: Hillary Clinton — Her own party doesn’t even want her elected. What does that really say about what she stands for? Donald Trump is a true representative of the American people, fighting to remove political insiders from office. He’s self-funding his campaign, and refuses to be a puppet for special interests and lobbyists. He will make America great again.
Trump: I’m Donald Trump, and I approve this message.
We also know that considerable numbers of Sanders supporters could go for Trump. They’re both (open to some interpretation) trying to combat money in politics and aren’t funded by Super PACs. It would be so bad, it might hand over the election inadvertently to Donald Trump, the most likely Republican nominee at this point.
The Democratic Party elite would never add fuel to the same fire that badly “Berned” the front runner in New Hampshire. They aren’t stupid, and are going to pull sneaky tactics like hiding debates, tampering with the Iowa caucuses, and undermining our electoral process behind the scenes. Such a visible attack would be a bad idea, even for Hillary.
To quote the RubioBot 5000, “They know exactly what they’re doing!”