Yes, speaking of Obama, he was one of the main factors in stopping Sanders which the article also touched on. Obama has been in the way of progress time and time again, he helped to stop Sanders, to stop the NBA strike, to crush Occupy Wall Street, to call Baltimore protesters thugs, scold Kaepernick etc. https://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/obama-colin-kaepernick-anthem-228880

Obama asked Pete to drop out despite the fact that "Buttigieg was proclaimed the winner in Iowa and finished a close second in New Hampshire; never since the birth of the modern primary system has a candidate with that profile quit the race nearly so early. Even as an ideological move to throttle the Left, the Biden coalescence had no precedent in its swiftness and near-perfect coordination. When Jesse Jackson briefly threatened to take the Democratic Party by storm in 1988, establishment rivals Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, Dick Gephardt, and Paul Simon all remained in the running until the end of March, when more than thirty-five primary contests were complete." Also, let's not forget Pete was an original member of the 2019 Stop Sanders squad https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/us/politics/bernie-sanders-democratic-party.html

The one thing the article leaves out and is often forgotten is that after Nevada Bernie was the out and out favorite and was the frontrunner in almost all national polls and predictions, for example https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/bernie-sanders-is-the-front-runner/

This is when things against Sanders went into overdrive, starting with the debate in SC right after when he was bashed repeatedly over Castro comments that Obama had also said pretty much verbatim. Chris Matthews was proclaiming Bernie would shoot him in Central Park, his supporters were Brownshirts according to Chuck Todd, could we Stop Corona and Sanders was a CNN headline, a contested convention is a good thing say all candidates except Sanders etc. Unlike Obama winning in Iowa Bernie's momentum was portrayed as a bad, scary thing that must be ended at all costs and not embraced.

You are right that Bernie is unique or at least was. I think it was Walleye who said his nomination would have leapfrogged the US ahead by decades. I think his administration would also have helped the US towards a level playing field policy wise with many of the happiest, most productive societies in the world. However, with Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, Kshwama Sawant, Lee Carter, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and AOC etc. there is hope, but that hope is again delayed in a time of urgency on so many fronts.