Sanders: 'The Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention'

[jmowreader]

56. Exactly.

The word Bernie is actually trying to use is BROKERED. Here's what happens.

For the past five months the states have been holding primaries and caucuses. At each one, the candidates earn delegates through their vote totals - these are the "pledged" delegates because they take a pledge to support the candidate they were assigned to. When the National Convention comes around, these delegates come together and cast a vote. At the same time, the superdelegates cast votes for whoever they like best. The pledged-delegate total and superdelegate total are added together...and if one candidate receives at least 2,383 delegates' votes, that candidate has won the convention and faces Donald Trump in November.

If no candidate receives 2,383 votes, all the pledges are nullified and all the delegates are "supered" - any of them can vote for whoever they want. This is the condition Bernie yearns for, and if it happens it's thoroughly possible Trump would face Bernie in November.

Now for Bernie's problem: That scenario can only happen if there are more than two candidates left in the running come the convention. With a multitude of candidates each carrying delegates, it's very conceivable the vote will split in ways that present no candidate with enough votes to take the convention. With two candidates, ONE of them has to gain the majority - and 2,383 is exactly 50 percent plus one. Right now, Bernie is 290 pledged delegates and 500 supers down to Hillary. Kick in the forty supers who have already expressed their desire to support Hillary but have been asked to withhold their endorsement until after Tuesday (because Hillary wants pledged delegates to push her over the top) and the ass-kicking Sanders is about to take in two days...the only prayer he has is faithless pledged Hillary delegates because he isn't going to flip 500 superdelegates.