It will be kind of funny if Sanders winds up with the plurality of pledged delegates

[Recursion]

but not the majority.

Since the convention rules change he pushed then frees every pledged and unpledged delegate in the 2nd ballot. Just kind of funny how that would work.

[7wo7rees]

1. Can't wait for all your dreams to come true Truly, Recursion, you are so

on the pulse... you've got it so right
So wish we had just 1 degree of your prescience. You are awesone.

( EDIT to add lots of sarcasm.)

[Recursion]

2. Oh relax. I didn't alert on you (nt)

[Garrett78]

3. A brokered convention would doom us in November.

[Recursion]

4. Not so much funny "ha ha"

And, yeah, it would, but I can easily see some outcomes where there's no candidate with a majority consisting of pledged delegates

[Garrett78]

5. It depends on how long 5+ major candidates decide to stick it out.

I don't think a brokered convention, or even a 2nd ballot, is all that likely even if it is more likely than in years past. We should know after Super Tuesday if it might happen.

[Recursion]

12. It just clicked for me: candidates who drop out can no longer reassign their delegates

That keeps the rest of the field divided until the convention. That makes more sense now, from a tactical standpoint.

[rampartc]

6. hilarious

if you really want sanders' voters to "vote blue" just throw a bunch of super delegates at us on the second ballot.

you want your guy to win? try this totally new concept - get him or her out there with some exciting ideas that will energize support, win a few primaries, and get us on your side.

if you can't convince a few sanders voters, how can you hope to beat trump?

[Recursion]

7. This is exactly why I thought the rule change was a horrible idea (nt)

[Gothmog]

15. The only rule change is that super delegates can not vote unitl the second ballot

Pledged delegates are free to change their votes at any time. I know because I was at thec2016 convention and read the rules adopted.

[Demsrule86]

21. It is our only chance if this happens as Sander would undoubtedly lose. We must beat Trump.

Sander demanded the rules so

[aikoaiko]

8. It's not like Sanders wanted the super delegate to be used at all

I for one am grateful that we are not inundated with super delegates counts yet that would likely favor party favorites and conventional wisdom.

And I’m glad the super delegates have to wait u til the people have spoken before making their decisions should it come to a second round.

[Recursion]

9. OK but in that second round *everybody* is unpledged

That's going to he absolute chaos

[aikoaiko]

11. Yes, you're probably right.

We'll get through it.

[KPN]

10. I agree. 2016 really did look like a sham with all the SDs

in Hillary’s camp early on creating what appeared to Sanders’ supporters to be an insurmountable up hill battle. Hopefully, with the rule changes, the perception of an uneven playing field doesn’t take root and become a factor in voter turnout or third party choice this year.

[Gothmog]

14. sanders was mathematically eliminated after super Tuesday according to the pledged delegate count

There was no fixing or games other than some really poor behavior by sanders delegates who booed John Lewis and Elijah Cummings as part of a planned stunt. The Clinton campaign had a "whipping infrastructure" in place and my whip warmed me of these planned stunts.

[KPN]

18. Right. That's why I said "what appeared to Sanders'

supporters”. Perceptions are reality as they say; even more so when it comes to rules favoring the existing powers. Sour grapes or not, perceptions matter and did matter in 2016. Hopefully that doesn’t occur this year.

[Gothmog]

13. Actually all pledged delegates are free to vote as they want on any ballot

I was a delegate to the National Convention in 2016 and the rules are the same for this convention. All delegates including pledged delegates are free to vote as they want. The campaigns protect themselves by having absolute approval rights over all pledged delegates and vetting these delegates. I was vetted and I helped vet other delegates. A candidate can remove or reject a pledged delegate for any reason, At the 2016 Texas Democratic state convention, a sanders delegate was removed by the sanders campaign because this delegate did not hate Hillary Clinton. The Texas state party felt sorry for this young man and he was a guest at the national convention.

On the date of the vote for the nominee, a group of sanders delegates walked into the morning breakfast meeting of the Texas delegation to demand that we condemn Hillary Clinton and vote for sanders. A mini riot ensued

sanders spoke to the Texas delegation the next morning and his speech was again solely about himself. There was a mini-riot due to his delegates the prior morning and the only thing that sanders talked about was himself. sanders did nothing to deal with the fact that his delegates were out of control and did nothing to try to help Hillary Clinton win the general election.

Finally a group of sanders delegates yelled at my daughter and called her the c-Word because she would not try to get me to change my vote.

[KPN]

19. Which is basically what Sanders argued post Super-Tuesday.

Upshot: he gets slammed either way by the existing powers.

[DanTex]

16. Bernie didn't push for that rule change.

The Bernie people wanted to get rid of superdelegates entirely. The thing with superdelegates on the second ballot was the compromise.

So I'm not sure what would be "funny." The whole reason they wanted to get rid of superdelegates is because they wanted the candidate to be chosen by voters, not party insiders.

If we do get to a second ballot, then we have to hope that the delegates are smart enough to give the nomination to whoever has the most pledged delegates. Regardless of who that is. Because otherwise, there will be a lot of angry people and party unity will be shot.

[pinkstarburst]

17. Not funny at all

If we do get to a second ballot, then we have to hope that the delegates are smart enough to give the nomination to whoever has the most pledged delegates. Regardless of who that is. Because otherwise, there will be a lot of angry people and party unity will be shot.

This. No matter who it is, the delegates need to respect the will of the voters and give the nomination to the person who received the most pledged delegates. If they fail to do this, they will have themselves to blame when all of that candidate's supporters decide to sit out in November in protest. It would be tantamount to stealing an election.

[KPN]

20. You/one would think at least. Hell to pay otherwise.