Bernie colleagues may back Hillary, but are stunned by "The Bern", scrambling to imitate him.

Last edited Mon Feb 22, 2016, 05:25 PM - Edit history (1)

More cracks in Hillary's wall of "inevitability".
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Democrats look to copy Sanders' success
They're stunned at the surge in support for 'The Bern.'
By Lauren French and John Bresnahan * 02/22/16 * Politico

They haven’t endorsed him, and many think he doesn’t stand a chance to win. They’re overwhelmingly supporting Hillary Clinton. Yet Democrats are in awe of their schlumpy, old colleague Bernie Sanders.

Hill Democrats are scrambling to figure out how they can capture some of Sanders’ magic — and his ability to conjure up campaign cash, seemingly out of thin air, from an apparently endless stream of supporters.

They’re also stunned by how “The Bern” has tapped into the zeitgeist of college-age voters, a key demographic for the party in a presidential election year. That surge of support is something Democrats haven’t witnessed since the glory days of Barack Obama back in 2008.

“The fundraising base is phenomenal. You can’t ignore that. You can say that winning a primary is ephemeral. But that funding base — millions of people willing to donate, more than Obama. Wow, that’s something amazing,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said.

Sanders’ campaign raked in more than $6 million in the 24 hours after his crushing victory in the New Hampshire primary earlier this month. Sanders is fundraising on a par with Clinton, a development that has stunned the Democratic establishment and provided him the financial muscle for a drawn-out struggle with her for the presidential nomination. Success like that is something party leaders can’t ignore, even if they reject the messenger.

It’s not that Sanders will be embraced as the establishment pick anytime soon. Clinton has a stranglehold on congressional Democrats’ endorsements, with more than 180 House and Senate members openly backing her. Sanders has only three, despite fighting Clinton to a draw so far.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/sanders-and-house-democrats-219430#ixzz40vUUI0Jo

ON EDIT: This article may illustrate yet another reason why Bernie's coat-tails in the GE will
be much longer than Hillary's, i.e. most of the super-delegates stand to gain big by joining
the political revolution come convention time, seeing that they can actually do BETTER in their
home districts by being flat-out progressive, better than drudging along with the lukewarm
DINO establishment-