Pass the Bern

Empirical fact: most of the people who really hate Hillary are actually liberals, most of them Bernie Sanders supporters. Anyone who tells you otherwise is out of touch.

Many Sanders supporters would vote for Hillary but for many others, there is zero chance that they will vote for her.  For them there is no going back.

Problem: if Bernie is not going to run 3rd party, but instead tries to play ball and inherit the Democratic Party (this is almost certainly his strategy), then how does  he transfer his own allegiance to Hillary (in light of the empirical fact mentioned above, and the fact that he called her "evil", etc.)?

Choices:

Endorse her now: His entire movement would loathe him immediately. They say "Hello Jill Stein and the Green Party!" (that last part is going to happen for many anyway)

Endorse her at the convention: imagine the boos from the delegates if they go into Philadelphia thinking he has a chance.

Be her Vice President? The ship sailed on that. The Hillary hate is too strong now among his followers. Imagine the humiliation of Bernie's nationwide crow-eating tour as her V.P.  Sorry, no magic birdies this time. Plus he goes down with the ship with Hillary when she loses. It could blow his legacy entirely as a sell-out.

No good solution for him, but it has to be found.

Unless Hillary can truly be dethroned by the convention, then it is better to have his followers see him as a bit of a sell-out. They will forgive him, when they come looking for a hero after the election, in the Age of Trump. Better to let them believe they would have beaten Trump with him on the ticket instead of Hillary. That's what they are going to believe, even as they check Jill Stein's name in the ballot as a protest vote (or even Gary Johnson's---this year's John B. Anderson).

There's no graceful solution for Bernie but the rewards are clear if he can navigate the shoals. He will be a bit of a sell-out, to be sure, but so long as he stays clear of Hillary's implosion, he can possibly inherit an entire Party apparatus come November. Sanders is a man who knows how to work the system.

Many Sanders supporters hate Hillary. Many more of them REALLY REALLY hate Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, whom they see as having rigged the primary process before it even began in order to make her friend Hillary the inevitable nominee. They believe that in a fair content, Sanders would have beaten Hillary. That's why they feel so righteous. That's probably not going to change.