Apparently the Bernie Sanders campaign actually outspent Hillary on TV campaign ads in South Carolina. He also had 200 paid staffers working there. That is a huge investment of money and resources. Ironically, his expensive advertising campaign actually worked in Hillary’s favor, as Bernie’s numbers dropped as his advertising blitz went into effect. Those must have been some commercials. And I read a couple weeks ago that those 200 paid staffers were knocking on doors in African-American neighborhoods to read people quotes from Dr. Cornel West about Bernie Sanders. That in itself must have cost him votes, as West is notorious for his unrelentingly vicious attacks on President Obama. I suspect Bernie’s campaign in South Carolina will become a textbook case on how to spend lots of money to get people to vote for your opponent.

And I’m afraid on Super Tuesday he’ll see the same result. It has been widely reported that Bernie has been outspending Hillary on television advertising in the Super Tuesday states. Yet the polls show Hillary winning by nearly two to one in the southern states on Super Tuesday and the margins for Sanders in the few northern and western states (aside from Vermont, of course) will be narrower. If Bernie has spent as much of his campaign’s money on television advertising in Super Tuesday throughout the South as his campaign says they have, and if Hillary’s campaign has had trouble placing ads because Bernie’s campaign had bought up so much time, then the money Bernie has been spending hand over fist in Texas, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas has been almost a complete waste. In South Carolina, he could have gotten the same election result with just a fraction of the advertising he paid for. And looking at his numbers throughout the South, it looks to be happening again, lots of money spent to no good effect. But even worse, Bernie Sanders’ own advertising blitz might be solidifying support for Hillary Clinton. Her numbers rise and his fall despite all his ads. The advertising targeted at African-Americans seemed to have helped to push that very target audience into voting for Hillary. In fact, in South Carolina they voted in record high numbers, more than even for Barack Obama in 2008. Think about that. Bernie’s own money, all those $27 dollar donations–might actually be generating votes for Hillary Clinton. It certainly seemed to do so in South Carolina. Somehow, Bernie’s advertising team is actually making things worse for Bernie Sanders. The more he spends, the better she does.