Crooked Hillary's publicity stunt will alienate Californians in general election

In order to minimize the damage from a probable win for Bernie in the California primary, the Clinton campaign had made it seem like they'd shift focus to New Jersey instead, and declare her the presumptive nominee once that state's large black population put her over the top in the delegate count. Their polls close three hours earlier, so she could declare ultimate victory in the primary, and should Bernie win California three hours later, nobody would care.

It turns out that this was only a head-fake. Their true plan was revealed last night when first the AP announced that an updated survey of superdelegates showed that enough had declared their support for Hillary that she now has enough to clinch the nomination. Then NBC News announced their calling it for Hillary, which was then spread to MSNBC, and several hours later to the Clinton News Network ("sometimes referred to as CNN"). This morning it's being announced by the NYT, WaPo, and others.

The Clinton campaign's last-minute bribing / blackmailing / etc. of these superdelegates was designed to demoralize the Sanders supporters in California right before the primary, and get them to stay home in resignation.

Even if they turn out enough to win, they will still feel slighted by the publicity stunt, as though their vote didn't matter, when they've expected for months now that it would.

From what I can tell from comments on Facebook posts (ones that draw thousands of comments) and Twitter responses, the Hillary and Bernie factions have moved beyond attacking each other's platforms or candidates. They are now playing the blame game about who's responsible for the inevitable triumph of the Trump movement, as the "Bernie or bust" voters will either vote third party or not vote at all, substantially reducing the turnout for Crooked Hillary when it really matters, in the general.

Since California is the most important state that Bernie will either win or tie, the Clinton campaign ought to be concerned about retaining that state's Dem primary voters more than those of any other state. Instead they are doing the best they can to cut off California's visibility by this publicity stunt right before their primary.

This stunt could wind up costing Hillary the largest electoral prize in the fall, as California's 55 votes go either to Trump or perhaps even an independent Bernie run. But in either case, not to her royal highness.

The civil war will only get aggravated throughout the day and week, as the Clinton machine and the media begin trying to pummel the Sanders supporters into pledging their support for Crooked Hillary in the fall -- after rigging the process from the outset and pulling one stunt after another against them, right up through the present.

Because most of the Sanders supporters are not Dem party loyalists, trying to cow them into becoming Hillary voters will have little effect. If the Establishment tries to scare them about Trump, they will do what disaffected voters always do, and stay home rather than vote for someone they despise maybe somewhat less than someone else.

It was always clear that factional fighting would grow even more bitter leading up to, during, and after the national Convention in July. But at first it looked like most of the antagonism would come from the losing side lashing out at the winners. So far they've only threatened to not vote for her in the general -- no big overt acts of antagonism. Now that Crooked Hillary has decided to unload so mercilessly, rather than only use threatening words, the Bernie movement will feel like it was the other side who fired the first shots in the civil war.

We keep hearing about the unified Democratic party and the divided Republican party -- but that is only among the party hacks. Among actual voters, it is the Trump supporters who are unified, while the Hillary vs. Bernie voters could not be more at war (well, just wait a month).

With the Clinton campaign burning bridges so early, a Trump victory is looking all the more likely!