The crux of this is that these people feel sincerely entitled to a president who fits their personal preferences, rather than just trying to get the least fucked-up and harmful option in a busted system where bad interests have lots of power
The reason pundits like the contested convention thing is that it plays to their vanities: what if the smart people made a meritocratic decision about who’s best?
This is driven, in part, by being mostly isolated from negative reactions to their opinions over the years.
All you need to know about pundits is that Bob Shrum, who went 0 for 7 as I recall in Presidential campaigns, ultimately became a pundit. Failure is not a barrier to success, it’s a fucking prerequisite. I think that’s why people were briefly excited about 538, until it was exposed as just as phony.
At least 538 had the potential to be something other than some pointy headed nerd who could not manage a campaign for student council opining about what people who eat at Applebees look for in a president. Now, it turned out to be the same thing, but it was briefly exciting to think it wasn’t.
