2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: If you think Bernie can win the general election [View all]Jarqui
(10,122 posts)"palling around with terrorists", "he's a Muslim", "he was born in Kenya - he's not an American"
And some of it stuck. To this day, we see polls where a strangely high number of Republicans believe he is a Muslim Kenyan who likes terrorists.
The thing is, it was not broadly accepted because it wasn't true.
Quinnipac poll has had Hillary at 59-60% of Americans don't trust her. Go to Youtube and search "Hillary" with "lies" or "lying" or "liar". The problem with that stuff is that it's Hillary's own words making the case that Hillary is a liar/flip-flopper. So it resonates more with voters. Koch money can probably drive that untrustworthy number to 70% when they've pummeled Americans with the Youtube videos on lying - because there is a much more plausible case easily made.
They'll attempt to make Bernie out as a commie. No question. But that's like the Obama allegations. Some tin hats, like the Birthers or those who believe Obama is a Muslim will buy it but few others.