Sorry Bernie, Under Every Delegate Selection Process HIllary Still Wins!

Six Numbers That Show Why Clinton Is Still the Favorite Versus Trump NBC News

{Quote} . . . here are six numbers that show why — right now — Hillary Clinton is better positioned to win the presidency than her GOP rival.

1. The advantage for a generic Democratic candidate over a generic Republican is 4 percentage points.

2. The Democratic Party is nearly breaking even on favorability, while the GOP is under water.

3. Barack Obama's approval rating is 51 percent.

4. Trump is under-performing with white women by 10 points.

It's no secret that Trump has a problem with female voters. But he *does* enjoy a slight advantage over Hillary Clinton when it comes to only white women, leading with 46 percent to Clinton's 42 percent. That might look like a boon for Trump until you compare his share of the white female vote by the margin won by Mitt Romney four years ago. Romney beat Barack Obama by 14 points with white women, winning them 56 percent to 42 percent. Trump is under-performing badly with a part of the electorate that makes up almost four in 10 voters, and it's definitely no certainty that there are enough white men out there to cut his losses.

5. Trump's showing a 'nine-point drop in the suburbs.

6. Clinton has a 10-point advantage on the commander-in-chief test.

Bernie Goes More & More AWOL

What the hell are you doing, Bernie? The Vermont senator inexplicably agrees to debate Donald Trump Salon

Donald Trump has withdrawn his invitation to debate Bernie Sanders, although Bernie continues to press for it. Sanders supporter Sean Illing writes:

"This is a no-lose proposition for him (Trump). It doesn’t matter how poorly he performs, his supporters won’t care and Republicans aren’t switching sides. This is an opportunity for Trump to take the sledgehammer to Clinton alongside a fellow Democrat.
From Sanders’s perspective, it’s not clear what’s to be gained. Even if he thrashes Trump at the debate, nothing changes. He might get a bump in the polls and perhaps even win California narrowly, but he’ll still lose the Democratic nomination. Worse still, he’ll lose any credibility he has within the party, and thus any chance he has to improve it. Whether he wants to or not, Sanders will be forced in a debate like this – by the moderator and his opponent – to bash Clinton and the Democratic Party generally.
Recall that Trump has slyly sided with Sanders in recent weeks, calling the Democratic process “rigged” and corrupt. “I think it’s very unfair what’s happening to Bernie Sanders,” he told Kimmel, “and it’s a very unfair system.” He might be right, but that’s not the point. This is Trump appealing to alienated Sanders voters in order to drive them away in November. It’s a smart – if transparent – strategy on his part.

Hillary Clinton Headlines May 29, 2016

The Racist Side of Bernie Sanders Supporters The Daily Beast

DNC rejects Sanders' request to remove committee chairs The Hill

Judge Orders Release of Internal Trump University Documents Washington Post

Bernie Sanders Derides Pick of Clinton Allies as Convention Committee Leaders New York Times

Rise of Donald Trump Tracks Growing Debate Over Global Fascism New York Times

Trump Withheld Alimony From Marla Maples When She Threatened His Presidential Ambitions BuzzFeed

Turning To The General, Clinton Makes Pitch To The 'Thoughtful Republican' BuzzFeed

AIDS Activist Peter Staley Says He Feels 'Used and Abused' by Bernie Sanders' Campaign Mic.com

The Downside of Democracy The Atlantic

A plea to Hillary's Democrat critics: don't hand the White House to Trump The Guardian

Hillary Clinton Struggles to Find Footing in Unusual Race NY Times

Bernie Samders Warns Hillary Clinton on Running Mate Pick NBC News

Hillary Clinton & Elizabeth Warren Tag Team Trump On His Celebrating 2007 Financial Crisis

Hillary Clinton has a new weapon against Trump: Elizabeth Warren The Washington Post

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton seemed to have joined forces with Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday. Warren (D-Mass) spoke at the Center for Popular Democracy's annual Washington gala, where she was honored. The main theme of her speech coordinated perfectly with Hillary Clinton's stump speech in California.

“Donald Trump was drooling over the idea of a housing meltdown — because it meant he could buy up a bunch more property on the cheap,” Warren said. “What kind of a man does that? Root for people to get thrown out on the street? Root for people to lose their jobs? Root for people to lose their pensions?”

Hillary Clinton Wins Strong Popular Vote Primary in Washington

Trump, Clinton win Washington state primary The Seattle Times

Our candidate Hillary Clinton handily beat Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in a symbolic-only victory last night. The size of her win with 54 percent of the vote impressed. Sanders won the much smaller (about 30% of the size of yesterday's vote) Democratic caucus in March, which is where the convention delegates were allocated.

Minnesota is the first state to abandon the caucus system in favor of the significantly more Democratic state-wide primary system.

Bernie Sanders Does Better vs Trump? Wouldn't Be Prudent To Assume That New York Times

Bernie Sanders clearly has a strategy going with his voters. When polled in a Hillary-Trump matchup, go for Trump and make Hillary look weak. Then Bernie goes on the stump, shouting over and over that he polls better against Trump than Hillary.

Use these poll results to argue that the democratically elected, primary candidate Clinton can't beat Trump and you are soooo much stronger. Overturn the entire process in a coup whereby super delegates -- who you argue should be abolished -- put you in power.

Sounds like a banana republic coup to us. The boys club just took down Dilma Rousseff as president of Brazil. Regarding Bernie's polling, Nate Cohn advises:

"There are basically two reasons (Bernie polls better than Hillary against Trump).

One is that Bernie Sanders’s supporters are a big reason Clinton is doing worse in her polling against Trump. In the recent YouGov poll, Clinton had just a 40-point lead against Trump among Sanders voters, while Sanders had a 70-point lead. Trump was getting virtually the same share of the vote against both candidates — 40 percent against Clinton, 39 percent against Sanders. Presumably most Sanders supporters will ultimately get behind Clinton, and, on the flip side, Clinton supporters would have been much more negative on Sanders if he had posed a more serious threat to her victory.

The second thing is that Sanders just hasn’t faced any major attacks on his record. The Republicans have cheered him on against Clinton, whom they realize they’re inevitably going to face. Clinton never really attacked him, either — no big negative television ad buys, for example — in no small part because she didn’t want to alienate his supporters.

So Sanders is set to lose, but in a way that leaves him unscathed and therefore appearing very strong in the general. There was something similar with John Kasich. Maybe Sanders really would have survived all of the attacks from Clinton that would have come if he had been a bigger threat to win the nomination. But as it is, it’s just a question mark."

Samantha Bee Says BS to Bernie Supporters

Samantha Bee calls BS on Bernie Sanders' Democratic fraud and rigged allegations The Week

The Nevada Democratic delegate selection rules are arcane and stupid, Bee said, but Clinton won the most democratic part, the caucus; Sanders won the county conventions; and then came the state convention, and "that's when Lady Luck said 'I'm with her.'" Bee said that "if there were actual misconduct by party officials, I'd be furious, too. But ask yourself, what makes more sense? That party chair Lange changed the rules to disqualify Sanders delegates, 50 of whom Hillary Clinton had drugged and tied up in a basement with the skeleton of Vince Foster, or that first-time delegates backing a guy who became a Democrat just before breakfast couldn't get their shit together?" You can guess Bee's answer.

Bernie Loses His Halo Politico

Bernie thinks he's holding all the cards. But high-profile progressives like Netroots titan Markos Moulitsas, namesake of the liberal Daily Kos, spared no words in criticizing Sanders.

“The problem isn't Bernie Sanders' supporters,” Moulitsas wrote. “It's Bernie Sanders himself … [He] refuses to forcefully and unambiguously reject that violence, instead rationalizing and explaining it away with a mix of grievances and outright conspiracy theory.”

"Actually, Sanders hasn’t lost much support among his most avid supporters—who do not include Moulitsas, a sometime critic. What we are seeing, however, is that it’s no longer taboo in liberal circles to attack Sanders as he drags out the nomination process at a time when many are itching to turn their fire on Donald Trump. And if his reputation in the party is being damaged outside his base, that will make it harder for him to extract concessions from Clinton regarding the platform and party nomination rules at the convention. "

Trump Camp Denies Ally's Claim That He Gave Money To Bill Clinton Accuser TPM

Media Matters For America on Monday flagged a February interview in whichTrump ally Roger Stone said that the Republican nominee had given money to Kathleen Willey. The former White House volunteer, accused Clinton of groping her in 1993; Clinton denied that allegation in a 1998 deposition.

"Trump is himself a contributor — I’m not ready to disclose what he has given. And many, many other people," Stone said in the interview with conspiracy-minded radio host Alex Jones. A campaign was running on a website raising money toward paying offWilley's mortgage.

Willey currently is a paid spokeswoman for an anti-Hillary Clinton political action committee created by Stone called the Rape Accountability Project for Education PAC, or RAPE PAC, according to Reuters.

Media Matters surfaced the Stone interview after Trump used audio of Willey's accusations in a web video targeting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton Headlines May 24, 2016

Bernie Sanders Makes a Campaign Mark. Now, Can He Make a Legacy? New York Times

Sanders seeks recanvass in Kentucky primary Politico

Conventional Wisdom: Sanders Refuses To Play Nice FiveThirtyEight

Hillary Clinton's Complicated Path to the Center WSJ

Sanders picks pro-Palestinian activist for Democratic platform committee The Washington Post

Bernie's not-so-secret weapon Politico

Trump Fuels Democratic Voter Surge Politico

Sanders' Sole Senate Backer Says He's 'Absolutely' Against Convention Battle TPM

Can Sanders' money swamp Wasserman Politico