Could Bernie become the next US president?

LET us go back four years when then-leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, with her remarkable political and policy experience, the favourite of her party's establishment, unlimited sources of funds, and the best political consultants in the world, was facing a serious challenge from an elderly Jew with a strong New York accent who was not even a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party - a self-proclaimed socialist who represented a small New England state Vermont, Senator Bernie Sanders.

Recall that the Mainstream Media and the pundits, the pollsters and political strategists regarded Senator Sanders as a political joke or at best, as an election campaign anecdote, not very different from the way they described another ageing New Yorker who was trying at the same time to win the Republican Party's presidential nomination. You know, "Are you kidding? There is no way this guy is going to win the nomination, not to mention getting elected as president."

But notwithstanding these predictions, Mr Sanders succeeded in drawing thousands of enthusiastic supporters to his rallies, raising millions of dollars, and winning 23 primaries and caucuses and some 46 per cent of pledged delegates to Mrs Clinton's 54 per cent, leading some analysts to conclude that if it was not for the assistance that the former Secretary of State was receiving from the party leaders, Mr Sanders could have won the Democratic nomination.