Bernie proves he is more electable with shocking new poll numbers.

[anti partisan]

If Team Clinton wants to pretend like Clinton is more electable than Bernie, they could start by showing something other than the exact opposite in the polls.

Source: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/images/polling/us/us02052016_Ust53w.pdf

General election matchups among American voters show:
 Clinton tops Trump 46 – 41 percent, Sanders thumps Trump 49 – 39 percent
 Clinton ties Cruz 45 – 45 percent, Sanders edges Cruz 46 – 42 percent
 Clinton trails Rubio 48 – 41 percent, Sanders and Rubio are tied 43 – 43 percent

So as of now, if the Democratic Party wants to beat the three stooges leading the GOP, they would be wise to nominate Bernie. You simply can't argue otherwise.

[stevenleser]

1. Just remember that Mondale polled within MoE with Reagan at this point. Then lost by 18 points.

The GE polls dont matter at this point. They start mattering in the June-August timeframe when the two nominees or presumptive nominees start trying to define each other.

[closeupready]

3. Correct - the only exception is when Hillary is leading. Then polls matter.

[Fawke Em]

6. LOL!!

[stevenleser]

8. Nope, same rules apply. nt

[closeupready]

11. Hope you are well, amigo.

[Fumesucker]

19. I proudly stand with Steven Leser v2.0.08, that dude was a keen judge of character

[kath]

24. He truly was! His description of HRC was spot on.

[in_cog_ni_to]

25. Stop it!

PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

[INdemo]

45. There were crooks on Nixons staff too

[Gore1FL]

47. Hillary shares some of Reagan's policies, so that's a fitting comparison. n/t

[Jarqui]

2. It's simple to see a key reason why:

Independents hate Hillary. Have for years. Republicans hate her more than Sanders as well.

She's so well known, that's really hard for her to turn around.

[HooptieWagon]

7. That is true.

Sanders brings a lot of fresh blood into the party, in the form of millenials who are disgusted with the current status of both parties, and are Independants or had given up on the political process. They know the system is rigged against them, they live and breathe it every day. Sanders is their voice, Hillary is not. They view her as part of the problem, not part of the solution.

[Fawke Em]

4. They're not shocking to me!

I was sitting in the drive-thru at Dunkin waiting on my morning coffee when I heard Bill Press announce this.

I was so happy, I cheered and teared up. I'm sure people were wondered what I was doing in my car.

I probably didn't need the coffee after that, but I still love Dunkin's coffee (but I like Krispy Kreme's donuts better).

[greiner3]

46. Krispy Kreme ummmmmmm

Some years ago I was headhunter to manage one. Due to circumstaces I turned it down. But hell, I'd weigh 400 lbs now. It's a toss up which is/was the right choice

[WillyT]

5. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[reformist2]

9. The differences aren't even in the margin of error anymore. Bernie outperforms Hillary in the GE!

[dsc]

31. that is flat out false

The MOE is way, way more than the difference in these polls.

[Stallion]

10. Wait Until Republican Billions Paint Him as Karl Marx

some of us have been down this road 4-5 times. Republicans are holding their fire on Bernie because he's hurting Clinton. Clinton can't do it because she is gonna need support from Bernie's voters. Its a mirage.

[jeff47]

12. It isn't 1968 anymore. (nt)

[thucythucy]

14. Meaning what? Nt

[jeff47]

18. That campaign slogans from the cold war are nowhere near as effective. (nt)

[thucythucy]

22. Okay, that makes sense.

It's just that your comment was so cryptic I couldn't tell what it was you were trying to say.

I'd qualify it by saying there are still pockets, large pockets, in this country where cold war slogans (generally anti-left, anti-union, anti "big government"--not to mention racist, sexist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic themes) still prevail. But neither Bernie nor Hillary are ever going to win over those folks anyway, so it makes no sense to tailor any sort of message or policy for them, since this would only hurt us among independents who remain to be swayed. Not to mention that any policy such people support is bound to be bat-shit crazy.

In part too, it depends on current events. If the US is hit again in a major attack like 9-11, carried out by foreigners, the whole "who's strongest against terror" question will re-emerge with a vengeance. This is the closest thing we have now to the "who lost China" nonsense of the 1950s, which was exploited so well by Republicans (and which ended up with the Democratic Party taking a sharp swerve to the right. People forget how conservative JFK was viewed by the liberal wing of the Democratic Party).

Hopefully Senator Sanders, who's run a pretty brilliant campaign thus far, would be able to counter such attacks at least as well as Secretary Clinton. That's my hope, anyway.

Best wishes.

[jham123]

26. but....

Bernie nor Hillary are ever going to win over those folks anyway, so it makes no sense to tailor any sort of message or policy for them


But that doesn't stop Her from trying.....and that is the problem

[Trajan]

20. Meaning what?

Last edited Fri Feb 5, 2016, 01:13 PM - Edit history (1)

"He's been down that road 4 or 5 times now ..."

An obvious reference to the previous attempts by "Liberal" candidates to win the presidency ...

They were largely unsuccessful ... Yet, that has no bearing whatsoever on how a Bernie campaign would proceed ...

It's a different era, with different problems, so analogies to past efforts have no bearing on what we might expect THIS time around ...

Bernie is not McGovern ... He is not Hubert Humphrey ... He is not Dukakis or Mondale ...

It's a new era ... A new moment in American history .. the people are tired of the nonsense ... Same ole same ole isn't going to cut it ...

Vote for Optimism and Hope ... Vote for Bernie 2016 ...

[thucythucy]

27. In general I agree.

See my post above.

"Socialism" as a swear word is certainly losing its sting. Those for whom it's still a big issue were never going to vote for either of our candidates anyway.

The McGovern campaign was my first political experience (I worked as a volunteer, ended up at the national convention in Miami Beach). I DO see similarities between Senator McGovern and Senator Sanders, but not in the way most people would think. McGovern was a decent forthright man who would have made a great president, certainly far better than Tricky Dick. And people forget that, coming out of the national conventions, the polls had Nixon and McGovern running neck and neck. McGovern's biggest mistake by far was trying to placate what was then the Democratic Party establishment by picking Eagleton as his running mate. A disaster of epic proportions. The lesson to me was: don't be so eager to compromise your principles.

Best wishes.

[NewJeffCT]

43. It also happened in 2004

Howard Dean was the early frontrunner due to his anti-war stance and was polling ahead of Bush, then lost Iowa and the media jumped on him over the post loss "Dean Scream" and his numbers tanked and it was over for him. Then, John Kerry was ahead of Bush until August of 2004, then got Swiftboated and never recovered, losing in a nailbiter.

When Sanders gets hit with the 2016 version of Willie Horton or the Swiftboaters, he won't even be allowed to respond in the media. And, he'll go the way of previous New England standard bearers like Dukakis, Dean and Kerry.

Somebody on DU published all the responses Kerry made in 2004 to the Swift Boaters, but none of them got enough air time to matter. The same will happen to Sanders when they misquote him or take him out of context - he'll respond, his surrogates will respond, Rachel Maddow and others will respond, but it won't make it onto the regularly nightly news, the newspapers or the sunday morning talk shows.

[thucythucy]

49. Well, that's going to be the case whoever gets the nomination.

What we have to hope is that whoever gets the nod will be politically savvy enough to counter what's bound to be a GOP shit fest of epic proportions.

President Obama was able to do it, as was President (Bill) Clinton.

My feeling is that Democrats are almost always the underdogs, certainly on the national level. Certain blue states are the exception, but by and large the system is always rigged against progressives.

Best wishes.

[NewJeffCT]

50. I think there is a difference, though

I'm not a big fan of Hillary, but all of her issues have been out in the public for 25 or so years now - she's been through the wringer and is still leading or tied with the leading Republicans. What are they going to do - bring up Benghazi, Monica Lewinsky, Vince Foster or emails again and again? There's really not much more that's going to move the lever against her.

My concern with Bernie is that will he be able to withstand the kind of withering assault he'll get with $1 billion to $2 billion of deceptive attack ads? I'm not sure his operation is the well oiled machine that Obama had in place in both 2008 and 2012.

[thucythucy]

54. I have the same concern.

Honestly, in terms of this particular issue, I really don't know. On the one hand Senator Clinton has all these negatives, but as you say, it's all been hashed out endlessly, and unless there's something else we've yet to hear (always a possibility) at least we'll know the general gist of the attacks the GOP will mount.

Bernie, on the other hand, seems at this point rather squeaky clean, but as has been pointed out, he hasn't received nearly the kind of intense scrutiny that Hillary has.

To some degree it hardly matters, in the sense that whoever the candidate is, the Republicans will attack attack attack. I thought John Kerry's record in Vietnam was unassailable, I had no idea "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" would have such an impact (and obviously neither did he).

I think Rubio right now is the candidate on the other side who worries me the most. Like the others, his agenda is horrific, his personal ethics highly questionable. But the media dubs him "serious" and "personable"--a replay of the "who would you want to have a beer with" nonsense that helped Bush II steal the day.

Whoever our candidate is, I'll support him or her to the best of my means and ability. That's the only thing I know for absolute sure right now.

Best wishes, and hang in there!

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

15. No it's not... the revolution is on! Time to join in.

Bernie & Elizabeth 2016!!!

[yeoman6987]

28. He hasn't been vetted

Everything from birth to now will be under the microscope. Hillary has nothing left that isn't known.

[jeff47]

30. Are you operating under the illusion that the Clinton campaign is incompetent? (nt)

[yeoman6987]

34. That is a point. Can he be that clean? It just seems that when getting starts, something is found

Maybe he is the most moral human being. That would be nice.

[NewJeffCT]

44. It doesn't matter how clean he is

Do you think Karl Rove or the Koch Brothers super pac are going to care if he's clean? they'll just take his words out of context and twist them around to fit their message. It works all the time.

[2pooped2pop]

56. It's what's known that IS the problem

[doc03]

21. Exactly the Republicans haven't touched him, I wonder why? They even

ran an ad in Iowa calling him a socialist to draw votes away from Hillary, the old reverse psychology trick. Funny how history repeats itself, we went through the same program with Obama. Obama got the far left and youth vote then when he didn't get 100% of what he
promised they turned their back on him and we lost the House and are just hanging onto the Senate by a thread. Bernie Sanders has zero percent chance of getting anything he is promising enacted. Wait till the Karl Marx ads and Sanders face with the hammer and sickle ads come out.

[A Simple Game]

40. You mean like the TV pundits do every time he has a sit down interview?

Doesn't seem to bother Bernie, in fact he does so well I suspect he is planting the questions.

[frylock]

42. WOLVERINES!!1

[stevenleser]

48. I really think that's why the youth vote is buying into this. They don't remember 1984 or 1972

I don't "remember" 1972 either, but I have educated myself on the subject.

But I remember 1984 vividly as the last time a Democratic nominee proposed middle class tax increases. And Mondale didn't have the whole Socialism thing with which to contend.

As you said, some of us have been down this road. We know why things look as they do now and what it would become. Sanders current numbers vs Republicans is a mirage as you so eloquently put it.

[HooptieWagon]

53. Republicans tried to paint Obama a Muslim.

Didn't work. Only the dumbest of republicans are going to believe Sanders is a Communist, and they're not voting for ANY Democrat.

[Odin2005]

55. Any Democrat is going to be painted as Karl Marx.

Not That Marx was a bad guy, anyway.

[SamKnause]

13. Can you feel it ?????

FEEL THE BERN

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

17. I'm feelin' it! Bernie rocked last night... best debate performance ever!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2016!!!

[FrostyAusty]

35. loooooove it

Rock on!!

[thucythucy]

16. Heartening news.

I'm hoping both the Sanders campaign, and more and more elected Democrats, are now planning the pivot from the primary into the general. The GOP is going to be brutal, no matter who the Democratic nominee is, and we have to be prepared.

That said, this is better news than I expected at this point.

[amborin]

23. knr

[speaktruthtopower]

29. If

this poll holds up with subsequent ones, it will shock the establishment.

[CoffeeCat]

32. As Bernie wins more contests, his numbers will get better and better

He's going to win NH by wide margins. The spin on the inter tubes will be that this was expected, ho hum.

However, the impending states that are voting combined with the general electorate will see that Sanders went from nothing to a tie in Iowa and a win in NH.

Clinton will no longer have her "inevitability" or "most electable" memes to fall back on. Those two memes were the psychological backbone of her entire campaign.

That's all we heard in Iowa. For months!

Without her magical memes, I say that her support continues to erode; and more flock to Bernie in droves.

[SoapBox]

41. Thank you for saying it, CoffeeCat!

Every minute, of every day...Americans are learning about Bernie and his common sense, MAINSTREAM message. He's consistent, honest and authentic.

We need him to lead us through a complete change in this country.

[kenn3d]

33. National Polls? Shocking?

Historically, the national polls have not been very meaningful this far out from the GE. Although the relative comparisons in successive surveys by the same pollster may offer insights to the broader trends.

This Quinnipiac poll is either a BIG outlier, or may be pointing to a dramatic trend change that's just beginning to emerge.

Prior Qpoll: Clinton 61 / Sanders 30 (Clinton +31)
New Qpoll: Clinton 44 / Sanders 42 (Clinton +2)

This is a 29pt swing from the same pollster using the same sample size and methodology over a 6 week period.

This is indeed shocking imo.

[TIME TO PANIC]

36. K & R!

[AzDar]

37. Bernie!!

[thereismore]

38. What I see as very hopeful for Sanders is this small datum:

Favorability among black people:

Hillary: 73 favorable
20 unfavorable
5 haven't heard enough


Bernie: 55 favorable
14 unfavorable
31 haven't heard enough

Folks, this shows that Bernie has a chance to be accepted by the black community, because 31% haven't heard enough. I think that means 31% of black people still keep an open mind about him.

Currently, the % unfavorable is lower for Bernie than Hillary. Bernie can win the black vote if he is able to introduce himself to the black community properly and show them that he cares about black lives in ways other than just economic. Yesterday at the debate he showed that he understands that things in Flint would have been different had Flint been a white community. I think he needs to continue in this direction and if he is able to express his beliefs, he will win the black vote and he will be the next POTUS.

[99th_Monkey]

39. In reading over the poll/pdf I couldn't tell WHO was being polled ...

.. is it just D's and R's or are Independents (that make up 44% of the electorate) also included
in the people polled.

They clearly only polled registered voters, because some questions say "among D's, or among R's".

but I don't see anything that tells me if Indies were also polled, so I'm assuming they weren't.

[orpupilofnature57]

52. When he says I have a plan he tells us the plan without statements like " Experts agree my plan "

Without identifying the Experts or the plan !!!!