Sanders' view are to the left of the mainstream; Clinton's views are self-serving and ever shifting [View all]

[Attorney in Texas]

Neither candidate is perfectly electable: one candidate needs to persuade the voters to a more progressive plan for our counrty and the other candidate needs to win back lost trust.

We should ask -- what are the candidates doing to improve their electability and to buttress against their main weaknesses in the general election?

Sanders

With Sanders, the challenge is show America that we are better than what we have accomplished so far. Outside of the US, the rest of the industrialized world can afford

1. universal health care that does not pay a huge portion of the cost as a ransom to private insurers;
2. paid parental leave that allows families time at home with newborn children;
3. a $15 an hour minimum wage;
4. treating drug addiction as health issue rather than warehousing addicts in for-profit prisons.

There are those in the US who say we cannot afford the benefits which are so widely enjoyed by people outside of the US. Those naysayers underestimate us as a people and a country. Sanders' main challenge in the campaign is disproving the naysayers who would sell America short. Bringing voters to see that our society can be a better, more equitable, and more just society is not an easy task, but it is far from insurmountable. Already, a majority of the US wants a single payer Medicare-for-all type health care system, even larger majorities favor paid parental leave including both maternal and paternal leave, and still larger majorities favor a $15 an hour minimum wage. We are a progressive nation, but we lack the political fortitude to adopt progressive policies, and Sanders' task is to build that progressive groundswell.

Is Sanders working to improve his electability by buttressing against his main weaknesses in the general election? Yes. Sanders is focused on the issues that a silent majority favors and which he will champion.

Clinton

With Clinton, the challenge is winning back the voters' trust. Of all the candidates in both parties, "Clinton has the lowest rating for honesty as American voters say 60 - 36 percent she is not honest and trustworthy," which is noteworthy in that she is even less trusted than Trump, who is deeply mistrusted. Clinton's trustworthiness problem extends across the whole electorate, and she is trusted by only 35% of independents, 30% of men, 41% of women, 37% of those with college degrees, and 35% of those without college degrees. Most importantly, trustworthiness is a critical general election issue:



Is Clinton working to improve her electability by buttressing against her main weaknesses in the general election? I'm not seeing any campaign efforts to bolster Clinton's trustworthiness, and I would feel more comfortable with the idea of either Sanders or Clinton winning the nomination if I saw more effort from the Clinton campaign to bolster her trustworthiness.