With Tuesday's narrow New Hampshire victory, Bernie Sanders has pulled off the rare feat of notching popular vote wins in the first two nominating contests _ a one-two punch that would traditionally make him the clear front-runner. Such a prospect rightly has significant parts of the Democratic Party worried that a self-avowed socialist atop the ticket spells doom in November.
Stay calm. Those same people convinced that a more moderate Democrat is what the party needs to defeat Donald Trump should be heartened at the strong second-place finish of Mayor Pete Buttigieg, followed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar not far behind.
Buttigieg and Klobuchar, talented politicians with ambitious agendas and strong anti-Trump messages, together bested Sanders by nearly 20 points. Add in a few supporters of fellow center-left candidate Joe Biden, who's wheezing into Nevada and South Carolina, and a solid majority of Dems seems to think that Sanderism is not the answer.
There will be time for one of these two or, perhaps most intriguingly, Mike Bloomberg to emerge _ provided they sharpen their pitches and take the fight to Sanders, with trenchant critiques of his policy proposals _ because Democratic Party rules were designed to encourage small-d democracy.
Unlike the GOP's winner-take-all nominating process, Democrats have proportional allocation of delegates. In every contest, if a candidate meets the threshold of 15% of the vote, that person qualifies for some delegates, regardless of the winner. (Buttigieg and Sanders get nine delegates each from New Hampshire, and Klobuchar get six).
Even with Sanders strengthening and Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren fading, this race is just beginning.
