Bad News For Bernie: Favorables Plunge When He's Subjected To Expected RW Attacks

[stopbush]

From Josh Marshall over at TPM:

Berned Up?

By JOSH MARSHALL

PublishedFEBRUARY 18, 2016, 2:40 PM EST

A word of caution from TPM Reader BY ...

"Your reader MJ is right to be worried. I've seen results of a poll (and heard about another) done by a group here in DC that tested Sanders's support before and after likely lines of attack against him. The results are bad, real bad.

The attacks are pretty obvious (and it's telling that no one in the GOP is making them right now), and the effects are dramatic. Sanders does well at the beginning of the poll (like he does now in face-to-face polling), but by the end is significantly behind *every* GOP contender. Basically, in the words of one highly-placed, data-driven Democratic friend of mine, "the numbers are brutal in many demographics. There's just no math that gets Sanders to a victory."

And I say this as a mild Sanders supporter, or at least I was before seeing these numbers. I've known Bernie for years and like him a lot, but the prospect of a Bernie-Cruz race is terrifying to me now.

This is, I know, an extremely contentious topic for our readers. There were actually some polls I saw this morning that made me at least somewhat reconsider my pretty strong opinion that whether or not Hillary Clinton is a strong candidate that Sanders would be torn apart in a national race. But it's important to remember that it's not "Bernie Sanders", it's "Bernie Sanders after a fusillade of attacks based on a life history of a sort of politics that is very alien to a lot of Americans." In any case, I will try in the next couple days to pull together my thoughts on this whole issue and, at least as best I can piece it together, the best way to evaluate this question of electability.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/berned-up

[misterhighwasted]

1. "There's just no math that gets Sanders to a victory."

There's just no math that gets Sanders to a victory". 

[lunamagica]

2. Is this a surprise to anyone? Right now they are treating him with kid gloves -in fact, helping him

because they want him to ein the nomination.

One it got it, they'd turn on him so fast he wouldn't know what hit him.

He has no idea what it takes to endure what the GOP would throw at him during a presidential campaign.

If he feels wounded by Hillary, and even by three young women from BML, how could he endure the GOP?

[stopbush]

4. You saw how grumpy and irritated he got last night taking questions

from a room full of Ds and two moderators who weren't exactly attack dogs. How is he going to react to being called a commie, or having his being Jewish attacked through nasty innuendo?

He'll spend so much time defending himself and trying to do nuance about being a democratic socialist that he will be totally off message.

[lunamagica]

11. He lost it with the military veteran who questioned his work in charge of the VA

His tone when he said he had nothing to apologize for? My goodness! No one can question him, and his never, ever wrong.

The veteran, who has been at the receiving end of Sanders work, couldn't hide the contempt he has for Sanders...pure contempt

[72DejaVu]

3. Bernie couldn't win

if the GOP candidate ate a puppy on live TV.

What country do these Bernie fans live in? Have they ever paid attention to politics before?

[Hekate]

6. It's really depressing, isn't it?

[72DejaVu]

9. On the plus side,

Bernie should be able to carry Oz, Neverland, Narnia and the Shire.

[Hekate]

10. Why yes, yes he should!

[lunamagica]

12. Oh, yes, sure wins!

[Stuckinthebush]

21. I totally disagree about the Shire

Those are reasonable hobbits in the Shire who are more interested in a pragmatic choice. Bernie MAY carry Hobbiton by a sliver, but just barely.

[Justice]

5. Bernie is completely unvetted; GOP will unleash everything at him as the Dem nominee

[stopbush]

18. Bernie would have been in his glory leading the charge over No Man's Land

in WWI.

Up from the trenches, over the top, "let's go, boys! Victory is ours!" 50 yards of glorious charge, enthusiastic yeliing...until the machine guns mow everyone down.

That's Bernie and the BSers - haven't ever been in the combat of national politics, but think their leader knows what they're going up against.

End result? A massacre.

[DesertRat]

7. The GOP would LOVE to run against Bernie Sanders

They would tear him to shreds.

[COLGATE4]

15. That's why Rove and his fellow sewer dwellers have

been doing everything in their power to prop Bernie up against Hillary, up to and including planning on inserting Rethugs into the Nevada caucuses to vote for Bernie.

[Cha]

19. Exactly COLGATE.. Thank you!

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. Been saying this all along, and it's the reason the much maligned super delegates are lining up....

behind Hillary. She has been vetted more than ANY modern day candidate for the office of POTUS.

[wysi]

13. And she has faced the most vicious of the RW attacks...

... and is stronger than ever.

[Tarheel_Dem]

14. Well, there's that too.

[SunSeeker]

17. Exactly. The superdelegates are all loyal Dems who don't want our party destroyed. nt

[SunSeeker]

16. No shit.

That is why Republicans are running ads that help Bernie in the Dem Primary. That is why they're calling for Republicans to vote for Sanders in the Nevada Dem Caucus.

The general election attack ads would write themselves. And DU Bernie juries won't be able to hide them.

[Gothmog]

20. Sanders is very very vulnerable to negative ads

One reason why the silly hypothetical match up polls cited by the Sanders supporters are totally meaningless and worthless is that Sanders has not been vetted or subject to attack. Sanders numbers would collapse when he is vetted. Sanders is very vulnerable to attack ads

[Cha]

22. And, the rw wouldn't pull any punches.. they don't stick to the truth either.

As if the facts aren't bad enough.