I think they are just throwing jello at the wall. Marcos over at Daily Kos made some comments on several threads about what was driving the interest or clicks the past few weeks and it is not the election.  People are focused on the deaths that are happening in the hands of the police. In my opinion that is a good thing. 

The clown car does get some attention with the outrageous statements they make but that is people being curious looking at the freak show.  This is why Marcos has them on the front page instead of Sanders and Clinton. There is a debate coming up with the GOP so that will draw some eye balls. 

People are not tuned into the election cycle.  Clinton's handlers are slow walking this cycle to protect her from dropping in the poles early. The poles will tighten but they want it to happen later to help her stay on top with the early primaries. There is still no debates scheduled for the Democratic Party. The speculation is that they are waiting on Biden to jump in.  Maybe the party is trying to talk him into it. He is unusual because his family life is important to him and they come first. Dowd is too self absorbed in her career to even understand that. 

Sanders has made it clear he is not going to be buying large amounts of air time so they want his kind of grass roots campaign to go away.  They are sure he will go away because they run the horse race and he is not going to be part of it. 

The pundits are grasping for some straws right now because Trump and Sanders should not be climbing in the poles.  Right now the general public is not interested in what the media has to say about the horse race they are trying to create. Clinton isn't going to start the horse race in earnest with any debates until fall.  So in the meantime they only have their jello.