It is advantageous for Hillary and for the Democratic Party that Sanders continue his campaign.

[Attorney in Texas]

How does the continuation of the Sanders' campaign help Hillary? Several ways:

The ongoing Sanders campaign gives Hillary an avenue to dominate news cycles with a story other than her email server problem or whatever bullshit twitter post Trump launched the previous day - this prolongs Hillary's opportunity to discuss how her platform will help the middle class and those aspiring to join the middle class;

The ongoing Sanders campaign gives Hillary a foil against which she can cast herself as the Goldilocks "middle choice" between Trump on her right (at least on domestic issues) and Sanders on her left;

The ongoing Sanders campaign gives Hillary a prime time event to make her general election pitch in a forum worth more than tens of millions of dollars in TV ads - it is crazy to pass up on the California debate, which is a golden opportunity in the Golden State to hit a huge audience with her general election message.

How does the continuation of the Sanders' campaign help the Democratic Party? Several ways:

The ongoing Sanders campaign gives the Democratic Party an opportunity to restore the enthusiasm we will need in the Fall if we are going to have a chance at avoiding a Trump administration - the party would hugely benefit from a vigorous debate about party rules (who wouldn't have some of their faith restored by the reform of a process where lobbyists super-delegates are installed to impose their will over grassroots voters?), the party platform (wouldn't it help with Hillary's key weakness by fighting the perception that Hillary is rudderless to adopt a platform that enshrines her shift to the left during the primary?), and the best role for the FDR-Sanders-Warren wing of the party (imagine how much easier it would be to retake the Senate if we empowered the Sanders-led movement to tap its energy on behalf of our Senate candidates in New Hampshire, Colorado, and Wisconsin?);

The ongoing Sanders campaign gives the Democratic Party an opportunity to find common ground - while Sanders continues to get push-back from the party and from Hillary on important progressive issue, of course he will continue to fight for these goals, but you hear more and more Sanders (and Warren) attacks on Trump, and this helps unite the party by reminding us of our common goals and so we do ourselves a disservice by cutting this process short;

The ongoing Sanders campaign gives the Democratic Party an opportunity to rebut the widely held perception that the party has done everything in its power (and resorted to some means that should have been beyond its power) to mutate the primary into a coronation - democracy is a good thing and the debate between the progressive wing of the party and the establishment wing is a natural part of the democratic process that we should embrace.

We are Democrats and this is democracy. Democrats should not fear democracy.

[bettyellen]

1. If he'd release his taxes so as not to give cover for Trump....

[Attorney in Texas]

3. Hillary's ridiculous failure to release her Wall Street love-letters/transcripts give Trump all the

cover he needs.

We can continue to discuss our differences if you want, but that is not what this thread was about.

[bettyellen]

5. Sorry- but SBS making up "new rules" doesn't mean anyone but Sanders has to follow them.

Releasing taxes are SOP for candidates. Why the hell is SBS advocating for less than the standard transparency? Not happy he is carving out special exceptions for himself and Trump. He's dead wrong to help Trump in this way.

[Attorney in Texas]

6. Sanders didn't make up new rules, millions of voters did. Scoff at the voters at your own risk.

Hillary's lack of transparency is part of why NOBODY TRUSTS HER.

Let's keep this up.

[bettyellen]

14. He certainly has been trying to impose his own rules....

That he has voters agreeing with him doesn't change that fact. Why does no one who supports him care about tha tax returns? Because they are making up new rules as they go along. No integrity there.

[Attorney in Texas]

15. Sanders does not control the people who want to see Hillary's Wall Street apology tour transcripts.

Sanders has said, for example, he is uninterested his Hillary's "damn emails." Great that Sanders feels that way, but I am still perturbed by the deliberate FOIA violation as are millions and millions of voters.

Likewise, Sanders' call for the transcripts corresponds with my interest, but if Sanders changes his mind tomorrow, it won't affect the desire of millions of voters to see Hillary's transcripts. No one can say "I told Wall Street to cut it out" and claim that her speeches to Wall Street were not mere apologetics and then deny access to the paper trial to confirm or refute her campaign claims. Hillary's lack of transparency is badly hurting her campaign.

[bettyellen]

18. You guys follow and post every RW nutjob scandal rag pretending to give a shit...

No one is buying the sudden concerns. No one belives you guys suddenly find shitty liertarian and RW conspiracy theories to be credible. You're embarrassing yourselves. Thank god this is all over shortly.

[Attorney in Texas]

20. If you think this is what the right-wing smear is going to look like, buy a feinting couch now.

[bettyellen]

21. If you guys were pulling punches saving them for later - you lost the game.

Don't buy that bullshit either. Every single RW attack has been and continues to be posted here. No one has bee holding back. You did your best to ruin her and it did not work. Go home.

[Attorney in Texas]

22. Sanders has differences with Clinton which are based on policy. He has not pulled punches on policy

Trump has attacks based on Bill's past transgressions, attacks based on Hillary's term as First Lady, attacks based on the Clinton Foundation including attacks on Chelsea and her husband.

Bernie is not "pulling punches" on these attacks, he is just not interested in that sort of a campaign.

If we nominate Hillary, you will enjoy the pleasure of Trump's personal attacks for almost half a year.

Here's the difference:

PRIMARY DEBATE - Hillary says "Bernie, we cannot afford universal single payer health care for every citizen as a right," and Sanders responds "we can increase taxes on those who benefit disproportionately from our government to make them pay their fair share like every other major democracy does in order to guarantee health care for all of its citizens."

GENERAL ELECTION - Hillary says "Donald, we cannot afford the manpower it would take to physically deport every immigrant currently in America without complete documentation," and Trump responds "yeah, what about Monica Lewinsky and Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick and Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers?"

You will grow sick of this and look back on the politeness between Sanders and Hillary and long for the good old days.

[bettyellen]

23. Sanders let's his surrogates spread the crap- hoping for indictments, speculating that

It might be good of Trump brings on the revolution, and whine about scandals while never acknowledging nothing came of the RW attacks. If it happens at his rallies, Sanders approves of it.
And here at DU you guys fling poop like monkeys.

[Attorney in Texas]

24. I'm not hoping for an indictment (and I seriously doubt there will be one), but I am hoping that IF

there is an indictment, it will not be too late in the campaign for us to stop Trump.

[oldandhappy]

2. goldilocks!!!

Sorry, a whack to my laughter button

[Scootaloo]

4. Not all Democrats favor democracy, though.

Party registration doesn't necessarily line up with political belief, after all.

[Attorney in Texas]

7. True.

[senz]

11. We learned of Bill's DLC in the '90s but the full damage wasn't visible.

A few good politicians and a whole lot of innocent people continued like nothing had happened.

A Gertrude Stein "poem" that seems appropriate lately: "Before the flowers of friendship faded friendship faded."

[Vote2016]

8. For supporters who fought agaist the "coronation" appearance, you would think Hillary supporters

would be less tone deaf on the issue.

[Attorney in Texas]

9. Hillary isn't bitching about Bernie dropping out; you'd think her supporters would take the hint.

[Vote2016]

13. Crazy, isn't it?

[Time for change]

10. I agree with much of this, but

as far as giving the Democratic Party an opportunity to rebut the widely held perception that they've done everything in their power and beyond to mutate the primary into a coronation -- no way. They've gone too far in that direction, and as far as I'm concerned they will never be able to rebut it because it clearly is true. And besides that they've wasted every opportunity to rebut it, and it's too late for that.

[Attorney in Texas]

12. We agree. The Party cannot un-do what it has done. The Party can, however, take steps to confirm

that it realizes its actions were wrong.

Ousting DWS would be a good start. Eliminating super-delegates would also help. This wouldn't fix what has been broken, but it would be a step toward not breaking the process next time.

[Bill USA]

16. he's got representation on the platform committee. Now it's time for Dems to focus on beating Trump.

[Attorney in Texas]

17. There is also the rules committee, the credentials committee, the convention, the post-convention

game plan, etc.

There are a lot of issues to work out.

It is time for the Democrats to make a plan to go forward and beat Trump collectively - it is not enough to head off in 10 different directions with no focused plan and hope someone lands a blow against Trump.

[YouDig]

19. The only one who fears democracy is Bernie, trying to grab the nomination even though

voters rejected him.