
By A.B. Stoddard – 05/25/16 05:45 PM EDT
Things could be worse for Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy, perhaps an indictment pending in her email scandal, but these are still awful days in her campaign. While there are many threats to her prospects she cannot control, like an FBI investigation, she could surely butter up Bernie Sanders and stop bleeding support from his impassioned supporters. But instead, Clinton is making things worse.
Even though many Democrats are growing increasingly aggravated by Sanders overstaying his welcome in the primary contest, Clinton should leave it to others to throw salt in the wound. Declining a final debate with the Vermont senator and declaring herself the presumptive nominee on CNN last week has only made Sanders more defiant and could further injure Clinton’s own wounded campaign against a surging Donald Trump, who stands to win over some disgruntled Sanders voters on the issue of trade.
As Clinton urges Sanders to wrap it up and “do his part” to unite the party the way she did with thenBarack Obama in 2008, he is requesting a recount in Kentucky over a single delegate, planning floor votes over rule changes at what he predicts will be a “messy” convention in July and insists he is “invigorating” the party.
Sure he is losing staff and his money’s drying up, but it’s full speed ahead to try and win California on June 7 and undermine the former first lady despite knowing her delegate lead is “insurmountable,” as she has reminded him. Unity isn’t top of mind for Sanders these days. As he railed against the presumptive nominee for insulting voters from the nation’s largest state by refusing to debate, Sanders sniffed, he was “disappointed, although not surprised.”
https://thehill.com/opinion/ab-stoddard/281283-stoddard-clouds-loom-for-clinton