What the heck was that all about? Because, as of today, the answer Sen. Sanders is giving to the question “Is Hillary qualified to be president?” is a clear “of course.” That’s what he told Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s Today.

Add to that comments he made in a CBS interview last night that he would do everything in his power to ensure that neither Donald Trump nor Ted Cruz ever got to be president and that he will “certainly support [Hillary Clinton] if she is the nominee,” and we’re more or less back to where we were before Bernie and his team temporarily lost their minds.

An unfortunate by-product of Sanders earlier comments is that there now exists video of Sanders saying what he said, which will be used by Republican ad makers in the fall for one purpose: to remind some Sanders supporters how much they dislike Mrs. Clinton and to discourage them from getting on their bicycles or skateboards to cast a vote for her on Election Day.

I don’t know if it will impact the outcome, but the ad will be made and aired, and that’s unfortunate.

Bernie Sanders has done, and continues to do, a remarkable job of raising issues that need to be raised. We also know, according to polling data, that the Democratic Party is moving to the left, so the constituency for those ideas is growing.

Barring a meltdown of unprecedented proportions, Hillary Clinton will be her party’s nominee, but perhaps together with Elizabeth Warren Bernie Sanders can be an important force for progressive ideas and policy implementation after November, especially as Clinton contemplates re-election in 2020 and maintaining a coalition to ensure that happens.

If Sanders manages the next few months well, he will be a very important force for progressive ideas in the years to come, both in terms of policy but also in helping like-minded politicians get elected across the country. Parties matter and political alliances matter.

There is great power in what he is accomplishing and what he can accomplish in the future as long as he understands that, short of a blood-in-the-streets revolution, which I do not recommend, political change usually happens by understanding and respecting the rules of the game and playing a constructive part in moving things along, sometimes very slowly, even as loftier goals provide key context.

It’s important to protest loudly that change is not coming fast enough, though it never does. It would be a mistake to look askance at incremental improvements in the lives of women and men, and those who fight for them, as if the goal is to sell out a grander vision.

For the Democratic Party to succeed, for progressive ideas to succeed, it is essential that those who are impatient and those who have the skills and forbearance to construct change piece by piece respect each other’s approach.

That is what has been so exciting about Sanders and Clinton on the same stage, and that is what has made the last few days so disheartening.

Follow me on Twitter @RichardKBarry1