The DNC and/or state orgs should change their rules

[Jim Lane]

36. Fortunately, I think most Democratic Party leaders are too smart to follow your suggestion.

Multiple errors in your stance:

1. You ignore the point about 2008. Just because, at the time of the primary, the rule says that some or all of the delegates won't be seated, doesn't mean that, at the time of the convention, they won't actually be seated. In 2008 the delegates were seated. Therefore, many voters will (with considerable justification) reject your facile assumption that the candidate can't be nominated.

2. Even among those who accept that assumption, quite a few will be in a mood to give the finger to the establishment. Note that candidates in 2016 with an anti-establishment aura (Sanders and Trump) did better than the chattering classes had expected.

3. Even aside from the genuine Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, there are many states in which Republicans and Republican-leaning independents can vote in a Democratic primary. In many others, if they see that there's no real contest on the GOP side (the incumbent, be it Trump or Pence, a shoo-in for the nomination), they could switch their registrations in time. They'd be happy to cast a mischief-making vote for a candidate who ticks off the DNC pooh bahs.

4. Even if you were right that such a DNC diktat would clear the field of the "undesirables", it would still be a huge black eye for the party. The Republicans would be happy to appeal to independents by saying, "Our party is a big tent that WELCOMES independents!"

For all these reasons, the practical politicians at the DNC will easily outvote the handful of hotheads who'll still be stuck on refighting 2016 and who'll howl for vengeance against Bernie.

Oh, wait, I just re-read your post and saw, "That ends the story." I guess everything I wrote must be wrong because you've pronounced it so.

Sarcasm aside, "That ends the story," as a wrap-up to a post about an election that's almost three years away, is likely to be wrong more often than not. I obviously consider my prediction more probable than yours but I would never be so absolute about it. A lot can happen between now and then.