2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: If Trump is forced to run third party, I think there's a good chance Bernie will too [View all]Chan790
(20,176 posts)It would basically insure that the election gets kicked to Congress and because we have only a narrow chance of taking back the House, that means you're handing the Presidency to the GOP nominee who likely finishes 3rd or 4th in the popular vote. If Democrats retake the House, then you're giving the Presidency to Clinton anyways...there is no path in a 4-way race for Sanders to the Presidency because there is no possibility of a direct EC win of 270EC votes; there is no path for Trump either in a 4-way race...his only chance in a 3-way race is to either take safe Democratic states or to sweep the toss-ups while shutting-out the GOP nominee.
No, the correct tack for Sanders if Trump goes 3rd-party and Hillary wins the nomination is to garner concessions from Clinton. She can't win the Presidency without his support and him not running an independent race. He literally holds control of who gets the Presidency...and we all know it'll be Clinton in that case but he can hold it hostage to his demands in the meanwhile...demanding to name her T Sec. Labor Sec. and policy concessions, for example...or the next DNC chair...or pretty much whatever he wants that it is in her power to give him.