“A closer look at the polls shows that Bernie Sanders is simply not within striking distance of winning the nomination,” writes N.Y. Times analyst Nate Cohn in a piece posted today. “His support has run into a wall: women, blacks and Hispanics continue to support Mrs. Clinton by a wide margin, as do white moderate and conservative Democrats.

Sanders, Cohn explains, “has become the favorite of one of the Democratic Party’s most important factions: the overwhelmingly white, progressive left. These voters are plentiful in the well-educated, more secular enclaves where journalists roam. This voting support is enough for him to compete in Iowa; New Hampshire and elsewhere in New England; the Northwest; and many Western caucuses. But it is not a viable electoral coalition in a Democratic Party that is more moderate and diverse” — read: burdened, slow to wake up, not well-read or well-educated — “than his supporters seem to recognize.”

“Yeah, we need to vote for somebody who can appeal to under-informed none-too-brights with little or no college education. That’s what’ll save America! Those damned, deluded educated progressives…what do they know?

A friend argued that “Whole Foods shoppers and Prius drivers cannot an election win…stop helping the GOP.” She was referring to a Daily Kos story claiming that an 8.11 Boston Herald/Franklin Pierce poll which said Sanders was leading Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire 44% to 37% was possibly a Republican scheme of some kind. “The GOP wants Sanders to get the nomination because beating him is like beating Eugene McCarthy or George McGovern,” the friend argued.

“This is playtime,” I replied. “Between now and March ’16, it’s playtime…and I want my Bernie love until then. I know that eventually I’ll have to hold my nose and vote for that hag with the penchant for scheming and connivance and secrecy, largely because we don’t want a rightwing guy in the White House, but until then I want my Bernie love, my Bernie fun, my Bernie exuberance.”