2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: wasserman schultz said something today about the debates that really concerned me... [View all]kenfrequed
(7,865 posts)If she really is supporting Hillary she wants Bernie to get lost in a crowd (Hillary and the seven dwarves.) It has the potential to split the 'anyone but hillary' vote.
Putting Hillary v Sanders gives him way more focus than the Clinton campaign wants. They are happy playing 'inevitable' and they don't want a lot of people asking "why are we supporting her."
Half of the other candidates are already running for Hillary's Veep anyhow. They will be more likely to make bold wild statements to carve out some consituency that she doesn't have locked down. Or in the case of O'Malley he will probably attack Bernie on guns during the debate and say something like "Guns have ravaged the city of Baltimore in my home state Senator"
It is kind of predictable.
The point of the Hillary inevitable campaign is to have as few debates as possible (that is an absolute standard tactic for anyone that has a commanding lead) and to have as many people in them as possible to prevent anyone from galvanizing support.