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Sanders needs a better argument for continuing the fight.

Drew Angerer/Getty

Bernie Sanders is close to the point where winning the primaries with pledged delegates is impossible. Since Hillary Clinton is the odds-on favorite in Indiana, Sanders is likely to end the night even deeper in the delegate hole. So far, Sanders’s justification for staying in the race has been the bizarre argument that the superdelegates should flip, to both reflect the states he’s won and to acknowledge that he’s a stronger candidate in the general according to existing polls.

The argument for more superdelegates based on his state victories makes some sense, but would only narrow the divide between him and Clinton, not make him the winner. The argument that Sanders should get more superdelegates on electability grounds makes no sense. After all, Clinton is already showing she’s more electable than Sanders in the primaries. Further, a superdelegate victory would completely negate Sanders’s call for a political revolution based on an energized electorate.

This is not to say that Sanders should quit. But he needs to better articulate why he’s staying in.