The smartly choreographed unification between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders (HRC GP) [View all]

[Her Sister]

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her defeated rival Bernie Sanders met for nearly two hours last night, and both walked out of the room all smiles. Clinton went right back to focusing on her general election fight against Donald Trump and the national issues that currently face the nation. Sanders says he’s making a major announcement on Thursday night, and while some are expecting him to officially drop out, I don’t know that he will. And I’m starting to think it might be best for Hillary if he doesn’t immediately exit.

President Obama and Elizabeth Warren both endorsed Hillary Clinton last week and had an easy time of doing so, because they never opposed her to begin with. All they had to do was get up and tell their own respective support bases that it was time to get behind her. Bernie Sanders is in a different position. He’s spent the past fourteen months trying to convince his own base that he’s better at this than Hillary, that he’s going to change the party and change the way elections work, and all of these promises that his base is now expecting.

If he turns around this week and suddenly drops out and endorses Hillary, a number of his fans will feel whiplash, as if it were too soon and they didn’t get enough out of it, as if the entire movement had been for nothing. Instead, the best progression for Hillary may be if Bernie gradually nudges his fans in her direction between now and the convention. She can spend the next month throwing him one little bone after another, much of it either superficial or “concessions” on the issues that she already supported herself, aimed at allowing him to save face. Because the more face he can save, the more of his votes he can deliver to her.

There’s a reason President Obama was trotting Bernie Sanders around the outer corridors of the Oval Office, as if he were a visiting dignitary. There’s a reason that even the Senators who have never wanted anything to do with Bernie, such as Al Franken, are now making a point of talking about what a hero he’ll be when he gets back to the Senate. Almost no one in the party leadership likes or respects Sanders, but they know that if they can turn him into a momentary deity then his most devoted fans will feel that he’s being listened to, that he’s now a part of the leadership, and that they can now feel safe voting for the party’s nominee Hillary.

For those supporters of Hillary who are frustrated that Bernie hasn’t officially said he’s dropping out yet, here’s the kicker: there is no primary race any longer. Every state has voted. There is nothing for Bernie to compete in, nowhere for him to campaign, nothing to win or lose. Even if he says he’s still a candidate, he isn’t a candidate for anything. He’s just a free agent wandering around in search of an occasional microphone whose moment of relevance in this election has largely already passed him by. So as long as he’s not out there bashing Hillary and not talking about superdelegate fantasies, and he’s instead focusing his firepower on taking down Trump, he’s not actually hurting anything by pretending he’s still a candidate until the convention

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