I’m no political pundit, but it certainly looks like – barring some fluke – Bernie Sanders’ run at the White House will come up short.

I feel bad about this for my kids. They were so certain Sanders would win, and it’s always sad to see youthful idealism dashed against the rocks of reality. I have to admit I have been tickled to see these young adult Sanders disciples, two of whom are voting for the first time, drawn to the TV like bugs to a light bulb whenever the wild-haired, 74-year-old, self-proclaimed “democratic socialist” opened his mouth on the screen.

What’s more, as a former newspaper journalist, I have Bernie to thank for helping my son discover the joys of print news. Just before the New York primary, he spied a big color picture of Sanders and Clinton on the front page of a newspaper I had left out on the coffee table, and he scooped it up and started reading the article. When he reached the jump, he became frantic, and rattled the paper at me.

“Is there more of this story? It doesn’t sound like the end.”

I pointed to the bold print at the end of the opening paragraphs. “7A. That means it jumps to page 7A.”

“What? It jumps?”

“It continues on page 7A.”

He began pulling the pages apart. “Where are the page numbers?”

This was almost as amusing as when my kids were confronted by bar soap or one of yesteryear’s dial phones. (“How do you use this thing, Mom?”) The little smug side of me wants to point out that they are no more “intuitive” about the technology I grew up with than I am with the technology they grew up with. But that’s a blog for another time.

The point is that Bernie Sanders had my son inspired enough that he was willing to focus and read a longish story in a print newspaper, and that is no small feat. Even with a parent who wrote newspaper articles for a living, he rarely did more than scan a few paragraphs under his mother’s byline – mostly to be polite.

But Bernie’s bigger legacy is his faith in his ideals. He is not some starry-eyed youngster. He has spent more than three decades in public office, where political winds undoubtedly buffeted him about and dealt him some setbacks. He still believes he can change the world, when many younger than he have turned into worn-out skeptics.

Maybe that’s why the young folks in the middle of a culture that worships youth look beyond the wrinkles and thatch of wild white hair and find inspiration in a Bernie Sanders who doesn’t give up.