* Bernie Sanders isn’t waiting for a “Hail Mary” long shot to overtake Hillary Clinton’s all-but-assured nomination. He’ll soon be leaving the hustings of New York, where he’s losing to Clinton, to head to the Vatican for a fortuitously-timed, income-inequality conference. Papal optics always help–even for a secular Jewish candidate.
* Sanders has backed off some in his “qualifications” comments about Hillary Clinton, but it’s only to nuance into “decision-making” criticism. The bigger issue for the Clinton campaign remains the general-election impact of those Sanders’ sound bites that will be highlighted in Republican ads in the fall.
* Amid all the unhelpful rhetoric between the Clinton and Sanders camps, there was a particularly noteworthy quote about Hillary Clinton’s “qualifications.” It was from Bill Clinton. “She is more qualified than I was in ’92,” he pointedly noted.
* Come November, Clinton’s success will depend a lot on her surrogates, and it’s much more than Bill and Chelsea. It’s Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. They are critical in keeping disappointed or disaffected liberals from taking it out on Hillary Clinton.
* Trump’s “Silent Majority:” They are still a plurality. And would that they were silent.
* Although they won’t like it in Waco, Tx., let’s hear it for conservative commentator Erick Erickson, for his labeling of Trump supporters as “Branch Trumpidians.”
* The smack-down loss in Wisconsin, preceded by interview gaffes and underscored by lots of empty seats in a pre-primary rally has prompted changes in the Trump campaign. According to a campaign statement, he now plans to place new focus on policy. Well and good, if not credible, but this is what it took to focus on policy? Airing out issue positions and knowing what you’re talking about aren’t ends in themselves?
* Corey Lewandowski, we hardly knew ye. Trump’s embattled campaign manager has looked in over his head for a while, but it didn’t matter until the Amateur Hour run-up to Wisconsin and the Colorado fiasco. Now the Trump campaign has brought in Paul Manafort, 67, a veteran lobbyist, smooth-and-seasoned political consultant and Washington establishment insider.
According to the campaign, Manafort, whose credentials include protecting Gerald Ford’s delegates at the contested 1976 convention, will be “responsible for all activities that pertain to Mr. Trump’s delegate process and the Cleveland convention.” In other words, everything that’s important. In further words, he’s the man, the professional who knows what an organized and disciplined operation should look like. The one who gets access and the candidate’s ear, if not ego.
* The headlines called it a Sanders “win” in Wyoming. It fact, it was a double-digit victory. In reality, however, the caucus breakout gave both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton seven delegates. In fact, the numerical results favored Clinton, 11-7, when her four super delegates are included. In reality, Sanders won momentum when he desperately needed to make delegate inroads to have even a long-shot chance.
* Sanders has seen support–and enthusiasm–maintained although Clinton needs only a third of remaining delegates to lock down the nomination. One reason–in the face of what seems like Clinton inevitability–is that this is a way for some Dems to symbolically remind Clinton that she needs to tack more to the left for the November showdown.