Sanders strategically endorsed Clinton but still has shot at nomination, Bernie-backer insists

Michael Gibson isn’t headed to Philadelphia next week for the Democratic National Convention. As a Bernie 2016 field organizer for Western Colorado, Gibson’s presidential candidate all but threw in the towel last week to presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton.

But Gibson, a No Name resident whose company reps electrical power systems, insists Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton was a tactical maneuver in order for the Vermont senator to speak at the convention, and that nervous superdelegates worried about Clinton’s polling numbers against Republican nominee Donald Trump will flock to Sanders next week.

Gibson, who helped deliver 22 Western Slope counties to Sanders on Super Tuesday in March, says disgruntled Bernie-crats are poised to abandon the Dems if Clinton is nominated next week. Overall, Sanders won Colorado 59 percent to 41 percent for Clinton on March 1.

“We already have [seen an exodus],” Gibson said. “Because of Bernie’s endorsement of Hillary there’s been a huge — massive actually — move to change voter affiliation from Democrat to Green or to independent.”

Green Party U.S. Senate candidate Arn Menconi is counting on disaffected Bernie-crats in his race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. But Gibson is telling millennial Dems and anyone else disgusted with party politics to wait and see what happens next week.

The Never Trump movement spearheaded by Colorado Republicans may have failed at this week’s GOP convention in Cleveland, but Bernie’s revolution is not done, Gibson insists.

“I’ve been doing my absolute best to tell people to hold onto their hats — the 25th [of July] hasn’t occurred yet. Bernie has not conceded. The logic is all toward the superdelegates actually voting for Bernie. I’ve heard from so many Democrats who say in an election like this, who’s the best candidate to beat the Republican? And right now Bernie polls so much better than Hillary.”

Gibson says Clinton is vulnerable following FBI findings that she was extremely careless in her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state, and because of her insistence that natural gas is a bridge fuel necessitating ongoing hydraulic fracturing.

“To get done what needs to get done, we need not just the White House but we need a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, we need a majority in the Congress, and we have to have it if we’re going to achieve any kind of momentum around the issues that the Bernie campaign has been about, but most importantly global warming, because that cannot wait,” Gibson said.