2,000 Black KY Dems Elect Trump President

Good fallout Wednesday, Friends,

Bernie Sanders is indeed smiling this morning after winning his first closed primary in Oregon by more than nine points and running neck and neck in another closed primary in Kentucky...until the bitter end.

With the last ballots trickling in late from racially-diverse Louisville, Bernie wound up losing the state by fewer than 2,000 votes among some 423,000 cast. Though the results are still 'unofficial' it looks like the African-American vote did Sanders in once again.

The Clinton juggernaut, which has an absolute lock on the all but the youngest black voters, flexed its muscles and extinguished The Bern.

I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet, but even I've gotta admit, it's not looking too
good for me right now.  Maybe I should start measuring the rooms at the Blair House.

Regardless of any rule calisthenics the Democratic party installed to prevent challenges to Hillary Clinton, her complete dominance of the African-American vote was the factor that finished off Bernie, not the rules.

The Clinton machine has owned this vote for decades through its ties to ultra-partisan black churches, a factor Sanders has not been able counter with any efficacy.

What gives the Clintons such dominance in the African-American community (90% of whom vote Democratic) is open to speculation. But it likely relates to President Bill Clinton's racially-progressive administration and the expectation of a similar golden age under Hillary...combined with a slew of promises and backroom deals.

Bernie came out of yesterday's two primaries with a small and temporary advantage, but the mathematics make it virtually impossible for him to win the nomination on a first convention vote.

Hillary can clinch the nomination under the party's arcane rules with just another 92 delegates. Nine contests remain with 930 delegates up for grabs, and they are divvied up proportionally. So barring anything unforeseen, Hillary's got it locked up.

Sanders really needed a decisive victory in Kentucky yesterday to have the momentum to sweep the remaining contests and come into the nominating convention with a compelling argument that he's the stronger of the two candidates. Now, not so much.

Bernie is not likely to make up the gap of 274 pledged delegates and the millions more votes that Hillary holds, and by any reasonable standard, would entitle her to the nomination. As a former high-school math teacher, I can tell you with certainty that numbers don't lie.

The way I see it, Kentucky was the final hurdle for Hillary in the Democratic primary, and she can now lay indisputable claim to being the party's presumptive nominee.

Too bad for the Democrats. Hillary is cannon fodder for Donald Trump, and I can't even imagine how badly she'll be shredded by him over the next six months. 

When The Donald takes the presidential oath of office on January 20th, we can look back to the 2,000 well-meaning Kentucky African Americans who knocked Bernie Sanders out of the race.