2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The Privilege of Never Having to Say You'll Concede [View all]Chathamization
(1,638 posts)the standard that Sanders would be measured by back in April/May. At that time, people were asking if he could bring his supporters over to Clinton as well as Clinton brought hers over to Obama. The answer is no - he's actually been able to bring them over even better than Clinton did.
But now the goal posts have moved again, and succeeding even more than anyone thought just a few months ago is being treated like a failure. Why? Because 538 is "only" giving Clinton a 78% chance of victory? What's the threshold of success for Sanders to bring his followers over to Clinton - failure if he does as well as Clinton did in '08, failure if he does much better - does he have to do twice as well as Clinton to be considered successful? Five times? I have the feeling that no matter what he does, people here will keep claiming that it just isn't enough. Because they're not actually interested in the results, they're interested in how the strategy makes them feel personally.
Again, Clinton didn't do nearly as well in '08 and her effort to bring her supporters over to Obama was considered a success.