I understand that Sanders did not serve as a Democrat for all those years in Congress, but he always caucused with them, and whenever they did progressive things, he voted with them.   And his arguments that he's made during this campaign? if they are not part of what it means to be a Real Democrat, then I am not so sure I want to be one anyways.  I don't care for the hyperbolic anti-Clinton rhetoric by his most ardent supporters either, but this "Real Democrat" rhetoric seems to me way over the top.

Sanders' time at the school, in particular this land deal, has come under close scrutiny as her husband's presidential campaign gained steam. A local Vermont publication, "VT digger", reported that Sanders overstated pledged donation amounts when the school applied for the loan.

The loan application, provided to CNN by the Vermont Educational and Health Building Financing Agency (VEHBFA), showed that the school claimed that it would take in $2.6 million in pledged donations, and up to almost $6 million in possible donations, to help pay off their debts.

In its application, the college claimed to have managed all its debt and "demonstrated a strong financial position that steadily trended upward over the last several years."

In the loan document, signed by Sanders, People's United Bank requires that the college "receive commitments of a minimum of $2.27 million of grants and donations prior to closing." Audits obtained by VT digger show that the school only took in $676,000.

Jim Foley, general counsel of the VEHBFA, told CNN that "as far as the agency is concerned the loan documentation was fine" but that "hindsight is always 20/20. It looks like the college didn't have the cash flow or the student enrollment" to maintain the financial burden of the loan.

In 2011 alone, Sanders reported on the loan application that they had over $1.3 million in confirmed donations. An audit of the school's finances posted online by a news organization showed contributions of only $127,655.

The college has since sold the property, but in April they were told that their lender would not be renewing their line of credit -- cutting off the cash flow the school needed to operate.

I think most people are pretty sick of this.  It's a tired old story about a sore loser who's 15 minutes is over.  Breaking news:  whiney spoiled brats don't get what they want and pitch a fit.   Yawn.

"[T]his whole mess was over four freaking delegates, and the Sanders people should know better than to conclude what has been a brilliant and important campaign by turning it into an extended temper tantrum. I voted for Bernie Sanders. I even wrote about why I did here at this very shebeen. But if anybody thinks that, somehow, he is having the nomination 'stolen' from him, they are idiots."

So the conventions are a way for those party loyalist and hard core organizers to be rewarded by being part of the process to select a candidate. But not everyone gets to go. So delegates are allocated by state...and then by district to make it fair because you know the minute one part of a state got more delegates than another someone is going to be crying.

I suppose you could do as you say and get rid of conventions altogether, have one big national primary. Ot not even bother with that. No parties, just candidates. Guess who would win - the one with the most money and/or name recognition.

It's most definitely not our responsibility as party officials to dumb down that same process for your own selfish convenience, just so you don't have to read a frickin' one-page memo that sent to you via the U.S. mail on caucus rules and procedure. Because Heaven forbid that you should be required to open an envelope and review its contents. You think that maybe we should also buy you a beer afterward for all your trouble?

Our party's presidential caucus procedures are straight forward. First step, we lay out the simple rules to everyone in attendance, so they know exactly what's going to happen that day. Those are the same rules we send out to registered Democrats in the mail.

The Sanders people can't claim after the fact to have not known about the subsequent election of precinct and district officers following the presidential preference poll balloting, because they were told right up front about it by people like me. They chose to not stick around and so, no, I'm not going to reopen the process because they only now belatedly realized that they may have screwed themselves.

If you truly believe that elections can be conducted without established rules and procedures, or that political parties -- or any other organization, for that matter -- can function and govern themselves without charters and by-laws, then you are clearly someone who's self-absorbed by his own hedonism and should not be taken at all seriously.

The world does not revolve around you. If you were never told that, then go back home and yell at Mom and Dad.

Understanding how each state caucuses and all the particulars is vital to a successful campaign.