Why Shouldn't Bernie Sanders Stay in the Damned Race?

Matt Welch defends what little Democratic competition exists in 2016, on tonight's Kennedy

Poor Paul Krugman is distraught. Or at least pretending to be:

This is really depressing: Sanders claiming that there will be a contested convention, and suggesting that the nomination fight was rigged. Can someone tell Bernie that he's in the process of blowing his own chance for a positive legacy? […]

At this point it's as if Sanders is determined to validate everything liberal skeptics have been saying all along about his unwillingness to face reality — and all of it for, maybe, a few weeks of additional fundraising, at the expense of any future credibility and goodwill. Isn't there anyone who can tell him to stop before it's too late?

We've been seeing a lot of such sentiment from Team Hillary, which is hardly surprising, given how remarkably successful she has been in trying to eliminate any mortals who would dare compete against her in an electoral contest. But for the majority of us Americans who view Clinton unfavorably, there is an alternative interpretation. Which is: JESUS CHRIST, CAN WE HAVE A GET A LITTLE DEMOCRATIC COMPETITION AROUND HERE?

Bernie Sanders is the only major-party candidate left who is unequivocally against the War on Drugs. His foreign policy positions, while not demonstrating any particular fluency in how the rest of the world works, are considerably less interventionist than Hillary's hawkishness. He's got a whole bucketful of terrible economic ideas, to be sure, but then, he's not even a Democrat, is he? Having Bernie Sanders in the race means having an ideological competition about a whole host of issues. It's the only such contest of ideas on the Democratic side all season. Why end that now, unless your main purpose is to get Hillary Clinton elected president? I guess some questions answer themselves.

Anyway, I'm going on the Fox Business Network program Kennedy tonight at 8 p.m. (with a repeat at midnight), to talk about this, about Ted Cruz's Hail Mary in Indiana, about California protesters at Donald Trump appearances, and more. Tune in!

As a palate-cleanser, here's what I saw when Bernie Sanders debated Hillary Clinton in Brooklyn last month: