Now Sanders wants the superdelegates—the party elite—to give him something he did not earn. And even his claim to the supers of states he won is asinine. Why? Because:

1) The supers were designed to be apart from the pledged delegate system, and by who? By none other than Sanders’ top strategist Tad Devine. If Sanders has a problem with the way the system works, he knows where to lodge such complaints.

2) It’s undemocratic for a party elite to ignore the will of the voters and substitute their preferences for that of the party base. It was bullshit when Clinton made these arguments in 2008, and it’s bullshit today.

2) You can rail against the establishment all cycle and sue the Democratic Party. It was good politics! It won him lots of votes! But then don’t expect that very same establishment to bail you out. If you go to war against them, you must beat them on the electoral battlefield. And it can be done! Because Barack Obama did it in 2008. And if the supers wouldn’t bail out Clinton that year, when Clinton was on the losing end, why would they turn on her this year, when she’s on the winning end?

3) Math, math, math. Give Sanders ALL the delegates of the states he’s won—and he still loses.

Per figures supplied by the DNC, if you give Sanders all of the super-delegates in all of the states he has won so far, the total is around 150. If you give Clinton all of the super-delegates in all the states she won, the total is around 375. If, for good measure, you were to also give Sanders all of the super-delegates in Indiana and in California (both of which Sanders says he has a good chance at winning), Sanders would still be around 100 super-delegates behind Clinton. That would not help Sanders close the gap among pledged delegates, obviously

4) If delegates are apportioned proportionately depending on the popular vote, why would supers be apportioned winner-take-all? If you want to keep within the spirit of the system, you’d apportion them proportionately, right? Or would you do it by regions within the state? Sanders won Michigan, but he got creamed in Detroit. So shouldn’t all Detroit supers (which are likely a significant part of the state’s superdelegate delegation) stick with Clinton?

5) The overall scorecard shows no real Sanders advantage: