Sanders full of praise for Iowa caucus process, even if not the results

PHILADELPHIA - Although he finished second to Hillary Clinton - 49.9 percent to 49.6 percent in Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses - Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has praise for Iowa's caucus process.

'You all know that Iowa plays a unique role in the American political process,” he told Iowa Democratic National Convention delegates Tuesday morning. 'As the first state where votes are cast, what you have done, and what impressed me, was the degree to which people in Iowa understand the unique role and are really prepared to talk and to contemplate the important issues facing our country.

'I want to congratulate you for that,” Sanders said.

His remarks followed a Monday night address to the convention in Philadelphia which Sanders used to call on Democrats, including his disillusioned supporters, to unite to elect Clinton.

Sanders acknowledged there has been criticism of the caucuses - including some from his camp - about the mechanics of the caucuses, such as coin flips to determine precinct caucus winners, the preference groups and the use 'delegate equivalents” rather than count the actual numbers of caucus participants.

'There are things to be talked about,” he said.

On the other hand, Sanders said the Iowa caucuses, warts and all, 'say to people we live in a democratic society and you're going to have to get involved. Yes, it's going to take an hour or two hours of your life to determine the future of this country. So what?”

The discussion the caucuses facilitate between friends and neighbors about the issues facing the nation 'is what we have got to do as a nation,” Sanders said.

He believes 'the more people get involved in the serious discussions facing our country, the less they are going to be voting Republican.”

Win or lose, Iowa was an important state for his campaign because the caucuses 'gave us the opportunity to tell the rest of the world that we were a serious campaign.”

And six months after the caucuses, Sanders still wasn't ready to completely conceded losing to Clinton by 1.8 delegate equivalents and being awarded 21 DNC delegates to Clinton's 23 - not including superdelegates.

'We ended up coming close to splitting the delegates,” he said. 'I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up with a little bit more of the popular vote.”