by
N. Peter Kramer
He dominated Hillary Clinton in Washington State, Hawaii and Alaska. Though Clinton remains the overwhelming front-runner to win the Democratic nomination Sanders’ results give him a rationale to continue fighting till July, in the Democratic Convention. The Vermont senator is causing a lot of unease among the leaders of the Democratic Party, which are all backing Hillary and are counting on a smooth performance in Philadelphia. They are lucky that so far Donald Trump, the Republican firebrand got all media-attention and the Democratic unease stays under the radar.
After his triple victory in Washington State, Hawaii and Alaska, Sanders reiterated that he will not leave the stage quietly. On April 5, Wisconsin is the next big prize, 96 delegates. It shares borders with two states Sanders won, Michigan and Minnesota. But it shares economic and demographic characteristics with Ohio an Illinois, states that Clinton won.
But both candidates are already focussing for the real big fishes, 247 delegates of New York state on April 19 and 189 of Pennsylvania on April 26. On this last date there are also 189 delegates to win in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Rode Island. April seems to be an incredible busy month for Bernie and Hillary.
Senator Sanders is persistently attacking Clinton on her ‘going to war in Iraq’ vote in the senate; her friendly relations with Wall Street and big money; on fracking (shale gas) and campaign financing. He is campaigning on a single-payer health care system, a $15-an-hour minimum wage, tougher regulation of the finance industry, closing corporate tax loopholes and a ‘vigorous effort to address climate change’. The challenge for Clinton is to beat Sanders in a way that does not alienate his supporters and to avoid drifting farther left to secure the nomination. Easier said than done…
