John Judis had an interesting piece at TPM a few days ago, the point of which is that with the Republican side now in doubt, the Democrats need a competitive primary. The heart of his argument is:
If Sanders were to drop out now, or after April 26, Clinton would probably spend her time fundraising among the billionaire class and holding endless meeting with the same advisors who are currently responsible for her lackluster campaign. She needs to find a way to appeal to someone other than African American senior citizens who will vote for her anyway. Continuing to campaign against Sanders is the best way to do that.
Clinton's campaign seems stuck in the mud thematically. I listened to some of her speeches the last week. I heard her appealing to voters to support her because she is a Democrat and Sanders is not really. Look, America isn't Europe circa 1960. We don't have membership parties, and partisan allegiance has been declining since the election of 1896. If your main appeal is that you have a D next to your name, you are going to lose.
What’s so troubling about this is that Hillary really is likely to win the nomination. But if at this late date her campaign doesn’t have a point or a message, we should start panicking about President Trump or President Cruz.
I’ve been commenting on this site a long time, and back in the Bush days actually winning the election was a big deal to people. Now it seems like Democrats mostly care about dragging Hillary over the finish line of the primary.
If we learned nothing from 2008, it’s that the general election is going to be a hostile environment not under the control of the Democratic party. A candidate who can’t even deal with a contested primary is likely to lose to Donald Trump… or even Scott Brown.
Bernie has at least shown he can run strongly with not much support. If Hillary can’t do the same or her supporters don’t think so, then Bernie isn’t the one who needs to drop out.