Bernie Can't Put the Genie Back in the Bottle

Bernie Sanders just gave a speech to his delegates at the Democratic National Convention. And it didn't go so well. They really enjoyed the part where he basically gave his stump speech as a victory lap about how his campaign was the best and not beholden to billionaire donors and never had a super PAC and the usual, thus passive-aggressively continuing to indict Hillary Clinton even at the convention, but they didn't seem to like the part where he said it was time to support Clinton and Kaine to defeat Donald Trump.

The crowd reacts to @BernieSanders saying: "We have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine" pic.twitter.com/7v3puhTdLM

— POLITICO (@politico) July 25, 2016

Video Description: Sanders says it's time to back Clinton and Kaine. The crowd jeers and boos and chants "We want Bernie!" Sanders looks shaken and waves his arm, trying to quiet them. They continue to yell, and he tries to carry on, saying that Trump is running a campaign of bigotry, but they jeer at that, too. He looks like he has absolutely no idea what to do, but continues speaking, over the sustained shouting.

Sanders has now been saying for weeks that his supporters won't fail to support Clinton; won't vote for Trump. He's been in such denial—and/or been so convinced of his own control over his supporters; certain that they'll do whatever he says at the snap of his fingers—that he seemed genuinely alarmed to realize that they didn't understand he was just playing politics all along.

They believed him when he tried to win by saying Clinton is corrupt and unqualified and lacks good judgment and all the rest of it. And it was foolish of him to have failed utterly to realize that's exactly what was going to happen.

Yes, Sanders. It turns out that lots of your supporters actually will vote for Trump, since you spent a lot less time talking about how terrible he is than you did talking about how terrible Clinton supposedly is.

I hope he is deeply shaken over seeing the genie he unleashed and now can't put back in the bottle. He should be.

I sure am.