Former DNC chair Howard Dean tried Wednesday to put a positive spin on Clinton' s bruising loss to Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) in Wisconsin by comparing her recent struggles to those of Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough pointed out Clinton had lost six of the last seven contests to Sanders. Given Clinton's wide lead in the delegate count, he asked Dean whether it mattered.
Dean noted the Democrats allowed delegates in a proportional matter, but Scarborough asked if her continued failings in blue states would hurt her for a general election.
"No, it doesn't," Dean said. "I know that's the big thing in the press but I can remember Jimmy Carter losing ... At the end of Jimmy Carter's nomination process, Frank Church got in, Jerry Brown got in. They each won primaries. People get the Democratic nomination even losing California."
"When you win, you win," Scarborough said.
"You've got to win California, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, or some combination of that, and Bernie has to do that in order to win," Dean said.
Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol pointed out Carter's failings in the later states showed a weakness heading into the general election that year.
Carter went on to win a tight race over incumbent President Gerald Ford in 1976, the first presidential election held since Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate coverup.
Carter was then trounced by Ronald Reagan four years later, taking one of the worst electoral college defeats by an incumbent president in U.S. history.