2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumYes, Bernie Polls Better Against Trump Than Hillary—But There’s A Catch
For example, the most recent poll, the NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, showed Clinton beating Trump by 3 points and Sanders beating Trump by 15 points. That means Sanders bested Clintons performance by 12 points. In other polls, Sanderss lead on Clinton was less but never fell below a margin of 3 points.
Case closed? Not quite, say polling experts.
Clinton has been scrutinized and attacked as a public figure for a quarter century, but Sanderseven after running for president for a yearis a relatively new figure to voters nationally. It remains to be seen how open voters will be to supporting Sanders once Republicans start airing negative attacks, especially ones that note his identification as a democratic socialist. (According to polls, being a socialist is a less attractive quality for voters than being an atheist.)
General election polls dont mean much until the conventions are over and you get to late summer or early fall, said Kerwin Swint, a political scientist at Kennesaw State University. A lot of voters dont look at Sanders as a legitimate threat. Its almost like hes an imaginary candidate.
And its worth adding, as Meet the Press host Chuck Todd noted, that Clinton can be expected to poll better against Trump after she officially secures the nomination and many former Sanders supporters come to her side.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/29/yes-bernie-polls-better-against-trump-than-hillary-but-there-s-a-catch.html
Eric J in MN
(35,620 posts)The argument by some HRC supporters that Obama wasn't vetted and would lose due to Republican criticism.
Clinton voters in 2008 loved to point out that Clinton was doing much better in GE polling against McCain than Obama. And she was. But Obama was nominated anyway....and won.
Arkansas Granny
(31,810 posts)anotherproletariat
(1,446 posts)The saddest part of Hillary clinching next week will be that we will never have the pleasure of seeing Sanders vetted.
baldguy
(36,649 posts)And Sanders is that generic Democrat.