2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Hillary Clinton Will Never be President of the United States [View all]cui bono
(19,926 posts)Plus Hillary will probably be indicted right before the general.
You didn't bring up the trust numbers. Bernie had a 96% trust rating and Hillary has 6%. The people simply will not come out to vote for Hillary like they will for Bernie.
Hillary also has a very high unfavorable rating, Bernie's is positive. No candidate has ever won the GE with an unfavorable rating.
Because of both of those and her corporate ties, many Dems will simply not vote for her. They'll just stay home because there is no enthusiasm factor with her, it's just the same old same old with her, so many people will get apathetic and feel like it doesn't make a difference if they vote anyway, because they are only given business as usual to vote for and they are sick of that. Bernie has gotten Dems excited about getting money out of politics - which is how he is running his campaign, so we know that is already happening with him - and making govt work for the people again instead of the 1%. He is not just a bunch of hot air, he is the real deal and shows us that by how he is financing his campaign. The people are showing up in droves to see him which shows how enthusiastic they are about him and what he fights for. You can't buy that.
Then there's the independents and crossover vote factor. These are the people who would come out to vote for Bernie in the GE because the GOP candidates are all crazy. But if Hillary is the other choice again, they may not vote at all, or will vote against her and vote GOP.
Then there's the staunch Republicans who may not vote at all given that their candidates are crazy and maybe they aren't active anyway and don't make it a point to vote. But if Hillary is the candidate they will absolutely make it a point to vote just to vote against her. They loathe her. As you said, there's been decades of RW attacks on her and they will do whatever they can to stop her from being president. But they don't mind Bernie, in fact, a lot of them like what he says and like that he's so authentic and they know he means what he says.
So if you want to assure a Democrat gets in the White House, you better hope Bernie wins the nomination.
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