yes, sanders knows he won't be the democratic party nominee, and it's hard to believe he ever really thought he would be. but, he's also been clear that his endorsement of hillary clinton is not a sure thing - and it shouldn't be. don't expect the media to be able to understand this, because it can't think outside of binary, two-party politics.
see, hillary is not very good at working with others. she's an effective autocrat, but she's not good at making concessions. and, frankly, i don't think she feels she needs to - i think she thinks she won a mandate. but, she's only won a mandate with democrats, and sanders is not really a democrat.
the way that this process is supposed to work in the mind of the party establishment (and probably in the mind of most liberals) is that they have the primary, the candidate with the best ideas wins and the candidates that lose rally around the winner. that, in their minds, is "democracy".
but, leftists have never believed that democracy is reduced to a voting decision, nor have we ever believed that a majority mandate negates the views of the minority. we believe in tough negotiations through civil disobedience and spoiled ballots, if necessary. and, we're not going to support the hillary that we see in front of us. we're just not.
the reality is that sanders is making demands that he cannot truly believe that clinton will accept - and is, in the process, preparing himself for a re-exit of the party he was never really a member of.
i mean, do you think hillary clinton is going to support tuition-free public colleges and universities? or that she'll ban fracking? really?
and, see, this is the irony of the way the media works - it functions so strongly on branding that it even confuses itself. bernie is supposed to be the honest one. so, he couldn't possibly be engaging in politics, could he?
he is. and, the reason he's giving her conditions she'll never accept is that he has no intentions of supporting her.