By the Numbers

Winning the Presidential nomination of the two major parties is about the acquisition of delegates. In the Democratic Party this is a fairly complex endeavor and it's deliberately designed to be.

The major media is engaged in a daily repetition that Hillary Clinton can't be beat, that Bernie Sanders just doesn't have a path to the nomination. Let's review some facts. As I write this Sanders and Clinton are tied with 51 delegates each. Clinton won Iowa by a mouse fart, Sanders crushed Clinton in New Hampshire and not because he's from Vermont. Clinton just won the Nevada Caucuses. She will in all likelihood win South Carolina especially now that she has the full support of Rep. Jim Clyburn who is an iconic figure in that State.

Clinton has done a masterful job of spinning the narrative in the African-American community that Bernie Sanders has not been in their corner and has only recently took interest in their issues, this in spite of the fact that his support for civil rights goes back to the early sixties with skin in the game. He endorsed Jesse Jackson for President while he was Mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Clinton and some of her African-American surrogates have tried to separate Sanders message about economic issues from race issues, there is zero logic to that argument. If you believe that race, class and economics are not linked, you are an overpriviliged academic that is clueless to what is happening in America. If poor whites, blacks, latinos and asians joined forces at the ballot box an earthquake would rip through the political establishment.

Clinton is successfully, with the cooperation of major media, portraying Sanders as a one issue candidate and that far from being a serious political leader, he is nothing more than Willy Wonka offering a pocketful of sweeties and a charming tune from his supporters, the Oompa Loompas.

Bill Clinton has said that the Sanders Campaign has been fact free. Really Bill? Here's some facts. It was Bill Clinton who proclaimed the era of big government is over. It was Bill Clinton who cheerfully signed into law the biggest welfare reforms in history which ultimately shoved many people deeper into poverty. It was Bill Clinton (and Joe Biden) that gave us the Crime Bill that instituted mandatory sentences, taking away a Judge's ability to evaluate the individual case in front of them, as well as the three strike rule which equally applied to non-violent offenders. It was Bill Clinton who fully supported deregulation of the financial industry and repealed Glass-Steagall. It was Bill Clinton who gave us DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) which formally codified discrimination against the LGBT community. It was Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Joe Lieberman and other young guns that created the DLC (Democratic Leadership Council) which supplanted the DNC leadership and transformed the party into Republican Light. The DLC is gone but it's impact remains.

Hillary Clinton has pointed out, sometimes to boos that Sanders is not a Democrat, which is true by post 1992 standards. He is actually what a Democrat used to be, but she is right to point out that he has never formally been a member of the party. That fact is minor in this election cycle because of the profound economic disparities in our country.

The path to accumulate the huge number of delegates needed to be the Democratic Nominee is not easy and it is the very complexity of their system that makes it unlikely that Sanders will ultimately prevail. They have Super Delegates, they wear no masks or capes but have a lot of power. These individuals are a variety of elected officials and party insiders who owe no allegiance to the will of the States they come from. They all will line up to support Clinton. They are a super weapon in her arsenal. She may not need them if she dominates Super Tuesday. Only time will tell but the battle between Sanders and Clinton is far from over.