I tried to link to a comment from another thread, but whatever: I also think that the vote for Gabbard was also going to be enhanced by Republicans voting in Dem primaries because of no competitive primaries of their own. It was supposed to be Tulsi vs Hillary, and the Republican votes were to enhance her stature when she finally lost to Hillary-the establishment candidate. In this move, Tulsi would have been the “anti-war” candidate, ignoring all her anti-choice and anti-gay positions. But they would have hoped to also capitalize on whatever POC credentials she has, somewhat Asian and female to obscure that. Well, at least 3-4 POC are running, at least 4 women, and a partridge in a pear tree, enough diversity to satisfy would-be complainers. Tulsi is left with no assets at all.

They never really calculated that Hillary would stay out of the race. They never thought that there would be a whole field of perfectly acceptable candidates, enough to drown Tulsi out and make her candidacy less than a joke.