WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Elizabeth Warren has officially missed the boat on running for president, but that doesn’t mean Hillary Clinton has clear sailing to the Democratic nomination.

Two leaders of the “Ready for Warren” movement that sought to draft the Massachusetts Democrat have accepted her decision not to run and switched their support to Vermont independent Bernie Sanders as the new standard bearer for progressive policies.

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These policies, which are resonating with enthusiastic crowds, include federal investment in infrastructure to create jobs; a higher minimum wage; paid sick leave; higher tax rates for the rich; campaign finance reform; a tougher line on trade accords; subsidies for higher education; and further reforms to guarantee health care for all, among others.

“While Warren is the champion who inspired this movement, the draft effort was never just about her — it’s about her message and the values she represents,” Erica Sagrans and Charles Lenchner wrote last week in a blog post on CNN. “Bernie Sanders has caught fire in a way that’s reminiscent of the draft-Warren movement itself — from the Internet to town halls in Iowa, Sanders has captured the imagination and support of people looking for a real progressive challenger in the 2016 Democratic primary.”

Indeed, as reports flood in from Iowa, New Hampshire, Las Vegas, Denver, Minneapolis, and elsewhere of standing-room-only crowds, switches to larger venues to accommodate the thousands of people who show up for his rallies, and impassioned testimonials from Democratic voters, Sanders is clearly on his way to realizing the hopes many had pinned on Warren.

So “Ready for Warren” has become “Ready to Fight” and endorsed Sanders for president, a move that could bolster his nascent campaign infrastructure and channel grassroots donations to the Vermont senator.

While Sagrans and Lenchner don’t completely abandon hope of convincing Warren to run, the success of Sanders on the campaign trail and their support for him make it less likelier than ever that she will enter the race.

None of this matters, however, to the Beltway pundits who continue to smirk at the mention of “socialist” Sanders and see him at best as a slightly clownish sparring partner for Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll out this week delivered the latest confirmation of Clinton’s position at the head of the pack — with 75% of Democratic primary voters saying she is their preferred candidate, compared to 15% for Sanders, and registered voters saying she would defeat any of the three leading Republican candidates in the general election.

But the perceptions reflected in the polls and inside the Beltway are lagging the reality on the ground, much as they did when Barack Obama built up a groundswell of support against frontrunner Hillary Clinton in 2008.

An embarrassingly obtuse Chris Matthews led a “Hardball” panel last week in cheerleading for Clinton because “she’s a Democrat and he’s a socialist.”

He dug the hole deeper as he caricatured Sanders’ policies as meaning “take from the rich and use it for school programs and stuff like that.”

Needless to say, his panelists — including former Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod and former Clinton speechwriter Lissa Muscatine — agreed with Matthews’ glib assessment.

“I think Hillary`s fundamental approach reflects the mainstream of the Democratic Party,” Axelrod opined, before continuing dismissively on Sanders’ chances. “I think people will have a fling with Bernie. Bernie’s like a great fun date because you know he`s not going to be around too long.” Cue laughter from the audience.

Muscatine continued the charade by pretending like Matthews that Sanders’ desire for a more equitable distribution of wealth excludes growth while Clinton’s lip service to greater equality is based on growing the pie, raising all boats with a rising tide, or whatever cliché you prefer.

It is a media bubble like this that explains why MSNBC, which bills itself as a liberal counterweight to the conservative viewpoint of Fox News, is circling the drain in ratings as it misses the point of what’s going on in this country.

Sanders has drawn within 10 points of Clinton among Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire, site of the first primary, and he has just begun to campaign.

Meanwhile, the barrage of news about Clinton’s deleted emails and conflicts of interest inherent in Clinton Foundation donations and speechifying for exorbitant fees by both Bill and Hillary Clinton has eroded support for the former first lady more than the polls indicate.

As Clinton’s trustworthiness sinks into negative territory and more people get exposure to Sanders without the filter of a dismissive media establishment, what began as an impossible campaign and is now in the realm of only the improbable may end up surprising the political establishment in the same way Obama’s success did in 2008.