The Minority Report. Why Clinton or Sanders are viable even with 25% of the delegates

[bravenak]

2. I do not see it this way.

We only have two candidates this time. The one who hits the magic number first. Wins. If you look at the delegate totals between Obama vs Dukakis, you see that Dukakis had far fewer delegates than Obama and could be forced to listen to Jackson, if either Bernie or Hillary hit the nunber (2382) of the 4763, they are the nominee regardless.

In the 1988 race, there were many candidates, some of whom eventually removed themselves from the race and gave over their delegates (asked them to move to Dukakis).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries,_1988

The fact that Jackson felt he should be considered had no bearing on the actuality. He was not chosen.
So, in esscence, people were able to pressure Dukakis, because the race was flooded with candidates who took delegates that he needed for a clear majority.