In the 2008 presidential race, as Barack Obama piled up delegates and primary victories, Hillary Clinton bowed out in June after a bruising race, sending the presumptive nominee to an uncontested Democratic National Convention. Now that the shoe is on the other foot in 2016, Clinton wants Bernie Sanders to take a note from her playbook, reports Politico. After primaries essentially wrap up on Tuesday, "I expect Senator Sanders to do the same," she says, and send the party off "to the convention in a unified way." "I think given where we are in this race, that I will have not only more than a three million vote margin, but I will have a significant majority of pledged delegates by the close of voting on Tuesday."
Not so fast, Sanders told a news conference in California on Saturday night: "The Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention." His contention is that while Clinton will probably clinch the number of delegates she needs in the coming days, she's heavily dependent on superdelegates he plans to siphon, reports CNN. "The media is in error when they lump superdelegates with pledged delegates. Pledged delegates are real," Sanders said. "Hillary Clinton will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to win the Democratic nomination at the end of the nominating process on June 14. Won't happen. She will be dependent on superdelegates." Added Sanders in another interview: The convention "is a long time from today." (More Hillary Clinton stories.)