“Lanes,” eh? Well, now that Bernie Sanders has again made total fools of all of you pundits, how about you STFU about “lanes.”

Every campaign season, the swaggering idiots in the Pundit Class find themselves hypnotized by a talking point they think will make them sound smart, sound plugged in, and send the signal they are totally in tune with the pack mentality that’s defined our useless media for decades.

In 2000, as Rush Limbaugh so brilliantly pointed out, the mindless cult all bowed to the word “gravitas” — as in “Voters are concerned George W. Bush is lacking in the gravitas they look for in a president.”

Yep, to prove you were one of the cool kidzzz in 2000, you fired off the “gravitas” talking point whenever possible.

In 2004, if memory serves, the media cult found a whole new supersmart talking point… “unilateral” — as in, “Voters are concerned George W. Bush is too unilateral in his foreign policy decisions.”

Fast-forward to 2016, and the supersmart word was “ceiling” — as in, “As more Republicans candidates drop out, Trump’s ceiling of support will prove too low to win the primary.”

Hey, I’m spectacularly wrong all the time, but at least I’m not spectacularly wrong being a mindless parrot…

Lanes

Lanes!

LANES!

Please, God, make these idiots stop.

Bernie Sanders has just won the trifecta, and he’s the first presidential candidate to do so, to win the popular vote in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada…

Where are you precious lanes now?

A taste:

Here: “The takeaway from Iowa: Buttigieg, Sanders won their respective ideological lanes.”

Here: “Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren share the progressive lane … strategists say that can’t last.”

Mike “Always Wrong” Allen, natch: “These people tell me that Bloomberg, 77, who announced March 5 that he wouldn’t run, might reconsider if a centrist lane were to open up.”

Here: “The support of African American voters. Bloomberg, 77, also lacks the generational appeal of Biden’s leading contender in the moderate lane, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana.”

Need I go on? Well, we shouldn’t forget the utterly useless Politico… “How Bloomberg plans to create his own lane in 2020.”

And anyone dumb enough to consume cable news knows exactly what I’m talking about.

You want to know why Bernie’s running away with it…?

Because he’s the best candidate up there.

That’s it.

That’s why.

Bernie might be a power-hungry, pushing-80 Stalinist with a bad ticker who will take away our health insurance and flood the country with illegals, but he’s still the best candidate up there.

There’s no one in the Democrat field I like, but even though I disagree with Bernie the most, he’s the one I hate the least and have some grudging respect for. Why? Because he works his ass off, has spent years building a real base of support, is the most authentic, and is by far the smartest.

And that’s why he’s winning.

If there’s one cliché the idiotic pundit class gets right it’s this one: candidates matter.

Candidates matter more than issues, and they matter more than whatever real or contrived sins shimmer in their past.

A young inexperienced black radical who spent 20 years in a racist church should not have beat a respected war hero, but that’s exactly what happened in 2008. Why? Because No Drama Obama was the better candidate, the alpha male, the one who wasn’t the neurotic who quit the campaign to go and save the economy.

A New York billionaire who used to be a Democrat and who never held elective office had no chance against 16 seasoned Republican politicians, and he kicked their collective butts. Why? Because Donald Trump was the better candidate, the alpha male, the one who was never caught off guard, who knew how to fight the media, who stood his ground and made us laugh. He was pure competence.

Sure, some of us vote on the issues, but in the end, in the age of mass media and TV — and history proves this — it’s the candidate who matters. And all this talk about “lanes” is pure psychobabble. There’s only one lane in presidential politics: the Competency Lane, and a Jurassic Marxist owns that lane. Why? Because…

Elizabeth Warren is a shrill neurotic, Pete Buttigieg is a platitude-spewing dork, Joe Biden is as shockingly corrupt as he is past his prime, Amy Klobuchar has all the charisma of a clock radio, and Mike Bloomberg is a humorless, sour-faced dwarf.

Bernie’s Bernie. He’s tough, hard to catch off guard, comfortable in his skin, actually believes in something, and that’s why he’s winning.

This country did not go from a Texas neocon to a black radical to a real estate/reality show star in three short presidential cycles because “issues matter.” By and large, American voters vote on competence… Who’s up to the job… Who keeps the other guy on defense… Who has the poise, smarts, charm, and ability to stand up to the pressure.

And in this pathetic field of Democrats, Bernie is winning that “lane,” the only “lane” there is.

You want more proof…? Here ya go:

Sanders beats Bloomberg by 15 points — 53 to 38 percent.

Sanders beats Buttigieg by 17 points — 54 to to 37 percent.

Sanders beats Klobuchar by 21 points — 54 percent to 33 percent.

Sanders beats Biden by 4 points — 48 to 44 percent.

Sanders beats Warren by 2 points — 44 to 42 percent.

And yet they still talk of lanes, and how so-and-so needs to drop out so the moderate lane or the far-left lane can overcome Bernie.

Bernie is a good politician. That’s why he’s winning, and until our idiot “experts” figure out that you can’t put human nature into a box or lane, they’re going to continue to sound like a flock of mentally-challenged parrots : flying above it all, out of touch, mindless followers, shrill, and just plain dumb.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying the Democrat primary is over. Bernie can still stumble. And maybe he has. He’s not a great politician. He’s no Obama or Trump. He’s just happens to be the best in a field of dolts. What’s more, low expectations still give Bloomberg a shot at second life at this week’s debate… There’s all kinds of things that can still happen. Obama could endorse someone. Who knows? But as of right now, Democrat voters see Bernie as the best option to take out Trump, as their best chance at winning, and unless that perception changes fast, unless someone else proves they can fill the one and only LANE, Bernie’s gunna’ win it all.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.