Portside

Bernie Sanders wins a battleground state by a 57-43 margin. The win in Wisconsin is huge, with Sanders winning seven of the last eight contests. The hope of Sanders and his supporters is that their momentum math will ultimately influence the delegate math, by cutting Clinton's pledged-delegate lead and convincing superdelegates to swing his way - as happened in 2008, when a number of superdelegates who were initially leaning toward Clinton ended up with Obama.

The Republican presidential candidates are wrong. Supreme Court nominees can and should be confirmed in election years.

 In the WFP membership vote conducted last week, however, Sanders was the clear favorite. The senator earned what the WFP described as “an overwhelming super-majority” of 87.4 percent.

 How did a Southern Democrat “confound the conventional wisdom that this victory couldn’t happen” and secure a 56-44 win? And what does it tell us about how Democrats might play politics in a region where just weeks ago—after devastating defeats in contests for the governorship of Kentucky and control of the Virginia State Senate—Democrats were being dismissed as unelectable?

 Despite the best efforts of political and media elites to dismiss and diminish socialist ideas, polls show that Americans are increasingly open to the ideology. Polls of millennials in recent years have found slightly higher levels of approval for socialism than capitalism. Although Bernie Sanders is asked "Are you a socialist?" The other contenders are not asked "Are you a capitalist?"

The Republican rising star struggled for two days to get clarity with regard to his appearance at a "white pride" - Ku Klux Klan event in 2002. Initially, his office tried to keep things vague, suggesting it was "likely" Scalise attended. He was a veteran state legislator then, elected from the same precincts where David Duke once ran strong. When it became clear he was not just present but a presenter, Scalise started spinning scenarios that might explain it all away.

The House and Senate passed a “CROmnibus” spending bill packed with giveaways to Wall Street, big banks and big corporations and then quit town. Congress failed to take what the unions representing postal workers identify as the most necessary immediate step to aid the postal service: initiation of “a one-year moratorium on a reduction in service standards and plant closings.”

The results were overwhelming. With 100 of the 103 precincts where the issue was on the ballot reporting, 87 percent of voters were backing the $15-an-hour wage. Just 13 percent voted against the advisory referendum. That huge level of support will strengthen the hand of activists who are encouraging the city council to consider a major wage hike.

Bernie Sanders says he is "prepared to run for president of the United States." That's not a formal announcement. A lot can change between now and 2016, and the populist senator from Vermont bristles at the whole notion of a permanent campaign. But Sanders has begun talking with savvy progressive political strategists, traveling to unexpected locations such as Alabama...