What message would we send if we quickly rejected Bernie and crowned HRC?

[HassleCat]

282. Mine vs. Yours

You frame the issue in terms of, "My candidate is just as good as yours," and that's OK, but it goes beyond that. The Democratic Party should have a "real" primary. This means caucuses and primaries should be run fairly, so that candidates appear on the ballot and have a shot at getting the number of votes approximately in proportion to how well they campaign. Of course, many primaries are run by the state parties, and Hillary Clinton's supporters can be expected to "freeze out" Bernie Sanders in some states. His name may not appear on the ballot at all, and may appear only as an independent in some places. If this happens, and it probably will, it's due to the effective, efficient Clinton campaign machine and its determination to "sweep" her into office. That's normal. That's what campaign organizations do. They try to crush the competition.

This time, it might be a good thing for the Clinton people to hold back, to give Sanders a fair shot, to make sure he doesn't get forced out in the early going. The Democratic Party would look good if it allowed an independent candidate to appear on its primary ballots. Think of the contrast between Democrats and Republicans if we saw an intelligent, civilized debate between Clinton and Sanders, as opposed to the circus that will be the Republican debates. Think of how good it would look for Clinton if she won the nomination after an open and fir primary process, without keeping Sanders off the ballot or excluding him from the debates.