Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie ?Sanders’ latest strategy — trying to flip Hillary Clinton’s pledged superdelegates — to win the Democratic nomination after Tuesday night’s ugly loss in New York is a “delusional” tactic by a campaign that’s quickly running out of moves, observers said.

“The belief that he’s going to somehow convince superdelegates to vote for him … is delusional, to be honest with you,” said Garrison Nelson, a longtime University of Vermont political science professor who has known Sanders for 40 years. “Superdelegates are born and bred lifetime Democrats and they are wedded to the party. It’s the party of their lives. And Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat.”

Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats in the Senate, lost the New York primary by 16 percentage points and now trails Clinton by 741 delegates when superdelegates — elite party insiders — are factored in.

Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver told MSNBC on Tuesday night that even if Clinton is leading the delegate count after the last round of primaries on June 7, the Sanders campaign will still try to flip superdelegates.

U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch ?(D-South Boston) said Sanders will have a hard time justifying a prolonged campaign if he suffers tough losses in Tuesday’s primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

“If she runs the board on Tuesday, it would be very tough for Bernie to make the argument that he’s going to stay in and continue to fight,” Lynch told Boston Herald Radio yesterday. “If she can get the necessary delegates — which I think she will — to get the nomination, I’m not sure what the purpose of continuing to fight would be.”

But Dana Perino, former press secretary to President George W. Bush, said the stark divisions tearing apart the Republican Party could also plague Democrats if Clinton fails to win the ?presidency in the fall.

“They have to realize that they’ve moved the party really far to the left,” Perino told Boston Herald Radio. “Older, moderate Democrats and African-Americans are looking at this and saying, ‘We’re not so much for this new-fangled Democratic Party that’s coming up here.’ ”

And there’s no guarantee that even after Democrats pick a nominee, the loser will gracefully ?endorse the victor.

“He’s a grudge-bearer — so is she,” Nelson said.

“That’s why Elizabeth Warren is so important … because she’s the bridge … between the Bernie people and the Hillary people. … She’s going to be the one who’s going to have to sit down with Bernie and say, ‘Chill.’ ”