Check the delegate count, Bernie...

[MineralMan]

You're not the winner so far. Mayor Pete is.

[Kurt V.]

1. what is it?

[lapucelle]

4. Pete has 23. BS has 21. N/T

[Kurt V.]

5. thank you

[MineralMan]

7. See this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=democratic+delegate+count

[leftieNanner]

2. Yep

And twenty-something isn't anywhere close to the total needed for the nomination. So it's not time to crow yet.

[Dopers_Greed]

3. 22-21

One delegate difference after only two small states.

Meh...I'd say they are virtually tied.

[lapucelle]

11. Iowa awarded the at-large delegate to Buttegeig as the winner of the Iowa caucus,

so Pete leads by two.

https://whotv.com/2020/02/09/iowa-gives-buttigieg-the-largest-delegate-count-followed-closely-by-sanders/

[TwilightZone]

6. He has good PR and he wants desperately to be perceived as the front-runner.

In the case of Iowa, he falsely claimed he won, pretending not to understand how the process works, and his supporters repeated the same nonsense on social media. They still are.

The lie then turned into momentum, so much so that prognosticators like 538 made wild swings in their predictions, declaring him the clear favorite with not much actual data behind them.

It all seems kind of familiar, actually....

[George II]

10. Sorry, I respectfully disagree - Weaver, Turner, Gray, Sirota, et. al. don't strike me as "good PR".

[Cha]

14. Thank you.. just thinking kinda the same.

[TwilightZone]

16. "Good" from his perspective, in this particular instance.

My point was that he managed to sell the lie pretty effectively. I agree that his staff are rarely "good" in any other context. They do him much more harm than good, in my opinion.

[whistler162]

24. You forgot Moore

[George II]

8. He's claiming victory in both states, but hasn't finished ahead of anyone in either.

[Dem2]

9. All thise drama with only 1% of the delegates needed to win

It's fun I suppose, but there's a LONG way to go!

[David__77]

12. He's not ahead in the delegate count. He's ahead in the popular vote.

Parties may have varying views about what they want to talk about.

There may also be a phenomenon of varying emphases on the popular vote and electoral college.

[TwilightZone]

13. Popular vote is irrelevant.

You need 1990 delegates for a majority. You don't get any extra points for popular vote totals. This isn't like an exam where you get extra credit.

Claiming a victory in a caucus based on popular vote, while losing the delegate total, is simply a lie. Sanders knows better and did it anyway.

[David__77]

20. Maybe someone will run a campaign commercial accusing him of that.

"Bernie Sanders claims he won because more voters chose him. He should know that's irrelevant - proof that he's a LIAR!"

[Dopers_Greed]

23. You are misrepresenting the argument

Sanders won the popular vote in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Each state runs their caucus/primary independently. The popular vote total is relevant for each individual contest, but not relevant to the overall race.

So saying he's ahead in the popular vote is dishonest.

[David__77]

25. Do you think it's dishonest to say Hillary Clinton won the 2016 general election popular vote?

Each state ran an election to determine electors to electoral college.

[Dopers_Greed]

21. Thank you

For the popular vote to even start being relevant, primary rules would have to be uniform across all states.

[MineralMan]

17. And how does the convention choose a nominee?

C'mon...

[David__77]

18. That sort of remains to be seen, actually.

It depends on if a candidate is selected on the first vote.

[MineralMan]

28. Not really. It will still be delegates voting to choose

the nominee, regardless of what happens in the first vote. On the second vote, the superdelegates, mostly elected Democrats, will vote. Other delegates, whose candidates they are pledged to but two do not get 15% of the vote can vote as they choose.

We'll know more when more delegates have been allocated. Right now, only a few have been.

[Beringia]

15. Bernie, Bernie, Bernie

v

[Buzz cook]

19. Sades of 2016

A bit early for the delegate count.

[Garrett78]

22. Frontrunner status is not just about delegate count. It's about looking forward.

There's a reason why 538 has Sanders at 38% to win the nomination, with no other candidate above 18% (Biden). And why Harry Enten has Sanders at 5.5 out of 10, with no other candidate anywhere close. Sanders is the frontrunner without a doubt.

Just like in the early going of 2016. Sure, the delegate count was fairly close, but Clinton was clearly the frontrunner and it was evident on Super Tuesday that she had the nomination in the bag.

With Buttigieg and Klobuchar, it's hard to say where they might win going forward. They have near-zero support among POC and put all their resources into the early states, as underdogs always do in hopes that they'll gain momentum and donations, so as to build infrastructure elsewhere.

For Biden, it all comes down to these next 2 contests.

[Gothmog]

26. sanders is not the front runner

[LanternWaste]

29. It can be tough to hear patience and hard work.

[R B Garr]

30. K&R!