Clinton, who was twice elected as a New York senator, locked up wins in five more states on Tuesday, extending her delegate lead. She's favored by 48 points over Sanders, 71 percent to 23 percent, to win the New York primary on April 19, according to the Emerson poll.

The survey of 768 likely general election voters in New York, which traditionally favors Democrats, was conducted March 14–16 via landlines with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/273535-poll-trump-would-lose-home-state-of-new-york-in-general-election

MARCH 17, 2016

In unusually candid remarks, President Obama privately told a group of Democratic donors last Friday that Senator Bernie Sanders is nearing the point where his campaign against Hillary Clinton will come to an end, and that the party must soon come together to back her.......

Mr. Obama made the remarks after reporters had left a fund-raising event in Austin, Tex., for the Democratic National Committee. The comments were described by three people in the room for the event, all of whom were granted anonymity to describe a candid moment with the president. The comments were later confirmed by a White House official..........

Mr. Obama chose his words carefully, and did not explicitly call on Mr. Sanders to depart the race, according to those in the room. Still, those in attendance said in interviews that they took his comments as a signal to Mr. Sanders that perpetuating his campaign, which is now an uphill climb, could only help the Republicans recapture the White House..........

Those in attendance described an urgency in Mr. Obama’s tone as he suggested that Democrats needed to come together to prevent an opening for the Republicans, whose leading candidate is Donald J. Trump, to exploit....

But, while he stressed that he was not endorsing either candidate, and that both would make good presidents, Mr. Obama went on to lavish praise on Mrs. Clinton, describing her as smart, tough and experienced, and said that she would continue the work of his administration. Mr. Sanders has very publicly criticized Mr. Obama on certain policies and has called for a “political revolution.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/us/politics/obama-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders.html?_r=0

Alex Seitz-WaldVerified account
?@aseitzwald
On "Path Forward" call, Sanders strategist Tad Devine notes pledged delegates are not always obligated to vote as pledged...

Alex Seitz-Wald ?@aseitzwald 2h2 hours ago
Devine: "It is not a matter of delegate arithmetic"

Alex Seitz-Wald ?@aseitzwald 2h2 hours ago
Devine says campaign does not "at the moment" plan to try to flip Clinton delegates to Sanders, but notes that it is technically possible.

Zeke MillerVerified account
?@ZekeJMiller
Sanders camp now arguing that state laws binding dels can't be enforced. Not sure of the law, but not an argument you want to have to make

Nate Cohn ?@Nate_Cohn 1h1 hour ago Manhattan, NY
It's weird how quickly Team Sanders went from arguing about super dels to arguing that pledged delegates aren't legally bound to the winner

The Briefing
?@TheBriefing2016
Hillary Clinton is making one thing clear: Love trumps hate.

https://twitter.com/TheBriefing2016/status/709790033180385281

If Americans selected their president on the same basis they choose candidates for most important jobs, based on tangibles such as competence and experience, then there would be no controversy surrounding the 2016 presidential election.

Only one candidate on the ballot has served in the U.S. Senate and as a member of the U.S. president’s cabinet. Only one candidate has negotiated complex bipartisan legislation in the Congress as well as sensitive international agreements with potentially belligerent foreign nations. Only one candidate has gone through two terms in the White House as the president’s closest and most trusted advisor. Hillary Clinton is, by objective and tangible measures, undoubtedly one of the most competent and experienced individuals who ever sought a first term as U.S. president. Without hesitation she has our endorsement, as well as the endorsement of nearly every African-American elected official in the state of Missouri and countless black clergy and civic leaders.

But, in fact, we do not select our presidents based on their competence and experience. We speak from experience. Hillary Clinton also was the most competent and experienced candidate in the 2008 presidential election, but we endorsed Barack Obama in the Democratic primary and, of course, he won the nomination and the general election. Like a majority of Americans, we were energized by Obama’s message of change and overwhelmed by his brilliance as a thinker and his eloquence as a public speaker. We were motivated, too, by the innovative ways he engaged new Americans and brought so many new people, especially so many African Americans, into our partisan political process for the first time. Needless to say, we also could not resist helping to elect our nation’s first black head of state.
.....
While our personal feelings about the unequal distribution of wealth and the unhealthy concentration of largely unbridled power in banks, corporations and the super-wealthy are very closely aligned with Sanders’ thinking, we do not believe in the ultimate viability of his candidacy or the practical fulfillment of his most compelling policy positions. It would be exciting to see Sanders elected as governor of a liberal state and push his positions in an environment where he is likely to find a sympathetic legislature. However, even if a majority of Americans were to elect him over a Republican rival – which we find much more doubtful than Clinton’s chances in the general election – a Republican-dominated Congress, as well as many Democrats, would stonewall and scorn him and his efforts, perhaps even more than they have obstructed and ridiculed Obama.
http://www.stlamerican.com/news/editorials/article_2cb93092-e648-11e5-b400-67f166cc0ab3.html