Bill Press: Bernie is a winner

It’s been a long time since Feb. 1 and the Iowa caucuses, but the fat lady’s finally going to sing in California, bringing the 2016 Democratic primary season, with the exception of the Washington, D.C., June 14 tally, to a close.

Yes, miracles can happen in politics. If Bernie Sanders wins the state of California, and if enough superdelegates have second thoughts about presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton and start switching their votes, the Vermont senator could still end up the Democratic Party’s nominee. But whether that happens or not, whether he wins or loses the party’s crown, Sanders is already the winner of 2016 on several fronts.

{mosads}Indeed, the big story about Sanders is not how big he loses to Clinton, but how close he came to winning and how amazingly well he performed as a candidate. Consider: In less than a year, the maverick outsider went from being dismissed as a protest candidate to a phenomenal, national superstar who almost upset the powerful and deeply entrenched Clinton political machine and changed American politics forever.

The numbers alone are impressive. Even before Tuesday’s six primaries, in New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana, North and South Dakota, and California, Sanders had won 20 state contests, received more than 10.2 million votes and collected pledges from 1,566 delegates, according to The Associated Press — more than enough to earn him the right to take his campaign all the way to the Democratic National Convention in July. In 1976, Jerry Brown carried his challenge to Jimmy Carter onto the convention floor with only 301 delegates.

And it’s not just the numbers: Sanders has also won the battle of ideas. From the beginning, his No. 1 goal was to make progressive issues the centerpiece of the 2016 Democratic primary. Mission accomplished! Because of Sanders, Clinton has changed her position on the Keystone oil pipeline and the Trans-Pacific Partnership and has all but adopted a $15 minimum wage. She’s also embraced, for those over the age of 55, Sanders’s “Medicare for all” plan. Even President Obama, like Sanders, now calls for expanding Social Security instead of cutting benefits, as he agreed to in the 2011 “grand bargain” with former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).  

Sanders has also reinvented the art of political fundraising. According to the latest, May 20, Federal Election Commission filings, he’s raised an astounding $212.8 million in campaign contributions. Average contribution: $27. He’s destroyed the myth that the only way you can be competitive in politics today is by having a super-PAC, a sugar daddy or a billion dollars of your own. And he’s built a bigger army of grassroots supporters and contributors than Obama did in 2008. 

All of this means we haven’t seen the end of Sanders. Now one of the most powerful Democrats in the country, he will continue to lead his political revolution. He and his supporters will play a major role in shaping the Democratic Party platform, writing new rules on open primaries and superdelegates, and electing new progressives to Congress. And his proposals on jobs, healthcare, college tuition and income inequality will be the new priorities of the Democratic Party. Not bad for an avowed democratic socialist from Vermont. 

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