HILLARY'S FIGHT – AT 10:16 A.M. ET:  Numerically, Hillary Clinton is a lock for the Democratic nomination right now.  That's right now.  She's running into serious trouble, though, and yesterday's State Department report acknowledging that she mishandled her e-mail account while secretary of state will not help her.

She's running for president in a party that has veered sharply to the left under Barack Obama.  Now, only five days before the largest primary, in California, her opponent has almost caught up to her in that state.  From The New York Times:   

LOS ANGELES — Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are locked in a tight race in California, the nation’s most populous state and one that until recently seemed strongly in Mrs. Clinton’s corner, a new statewide poll has found.

The poll, released Wednesday night by the Public Policy Institute of California, showed Mrs. Clinton leading Mr. Sanders among likely voters, 46 percent to 44 percent — within the margin of error. A survey by the organization in March found Mrs. Clinton with a lead of 48 percent to 41 percent over Mr. Sanders.

The survey came as both Mr. Sanders and Mrs. Clinton have stepped up their campaign appearances here in anticipation of the June 7 primary. Mr. Sanders, after initially saying he would not advertise on television here — California is one of the most expensive states for television advertising, given its size and the number of media markets — took to the airwaves this week.

And Mrs. Clinton has quickly responded, with ads set to begin running on Friday in the Los Angeles, Fresno and Sacramento markets: one narrated by the actor Morgan Freeman, another highlighting Mrs. Clinton’s endorsement by the civil rights activist Dolores Huerta. The Clinton campaign will also run Spanish-language ads aimed at Latino voters, and translated commercials in Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Korean.

For Mrs. Clinton in particular, the ad buy is a significant reversal: Her campaign had halted its advertising after her decisive victories in the mid-Atlantic states on April 26, aside from a brief return to television in Kentucky.

COMMENT:  From what I see, the Sanders vote is less about Sanders than about an indifferent attitude toward Hillary.  She's seen by many as old news, a tired warhorse from the 1990s.  In a party now anchored to the left, her reportedly hawkish views on some aspects of foreign policy are a turnoff.  This is not the Democratic Party of Roosevelt, Truman or Kennedy.  Indeed, Jack Kennedy couldn't get anywhere near a presidential nomination in today's Democratic Party.

Hillary's nomination is more or less guaranteed by Democratic convention superdelegates.  Should they turn on her, however, her game is over.  I'm guessing they won't.  But if they do, it's reported that major figures in the party are prepared to push Joe Biden as a replacement, not the socialist from Brooklyn, Bernie Sanders.  If that happens, a Biden-Sanders battle at the convention will require medical teams and psychiatric assistance.  It will also be great television.

May 26, 2016