Bill Press: Media missing the boat on Bernie

Bernie Sanders was the big winner in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington state on March 26, but you could sum up the media coverage in one sentence: “Bernie Sanders won three states on Saturday but he didn’t make a dent in Hillary Clinton’s lead among delegates.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong. When will the lame-stream media stop merely regurgitating spin from the Clinton campaign and start doing its job?

The truth is, there’s something profoundly significant happening in the Democratic primary — one might even say there’s a “political revolution” underway — and most political reporters are missing it entirely.

Have you noticed? All they talk about is “the math.” You know the drill. We hear it over and over: It’s mathematically impossible for Sanders to catch up. Clinton has an insurmountable lead. He can never win by big enough margins to make a difference. Even if he gets close, superdelegates will deny him the nomination. So he might as well just get out of the way and let Clinton start to focus on November.

There’s only one thing wrong with that theory: Sanders keeps winning, and Clinton keeps losing.

Why? Because politics is about a lot more than math. It’s also about message, ideas and policies. It’s also about excitement, enthusiasm and energy. And, no doubt about it, the ideas and message that are generating all the excitement, enthusiasm and energy at this moment in the primary are with Bernie Sanders.

Despite frantic attempts by the Clinton camp to paint her as President Obama’s heir apparent and discount the Sanders campaign, the real story today is not that Clinton has the nomination locked up. The real story is that Sanders has won five out of the last six primaries — Utah, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii and Washington— by wide margins.

The real story is that on Saturday, Sanders picked up a net of at least 65 delegates, according to CNN, reducing Clinton’s lead from 304 delegates to only 239 (closer than Ted Cruz is to Donald Trump). And there are still more delegates to be allocated from Washington.

The real story is that the momentum is on the Vermont senator’s side as he moves into friendly territory in Wisconsin on April 5 — and then on to delegate-rich New York, Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania before the end of the month.

The real story is that Bernie Sanders — a 74-year-old, self-described socialist whom most people had never heard of a year ago, running against the Democratic Party establishment — has now won 15 primaries or caucuses, is tied with Clinton in national polls, scores stronger than the former secretary of State in match-ups against Trump and Cruz, has raised more money from more small donors than any candidate in history, has won more votes from millenials than Trump and Clinton combined — and has done it all without a super-PAC.

That’s the big picture, which most of the media is missing. This is a real horse race, with serious implications for the Democratic Party. Whatever happens, whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee, Bernie Sanders doesn’t have to predict a “political revolution” anymore. He’s already started one.

Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of “Buyer’s Remorse: How Obama Let Progressives Down.”