Bernie Sanders: Electible in a General Election or Not?

[MariaThinks]

After watching Bernie in several debates now, I am very impressed. He answers questions really well, knows his stuff, and is passionate in his positions. He is not afraid of labeling or apologetic for his positions. His personality comes through and he seems very real.

I have to say that I believe he is electable in a general election and more Americans will vote for him than any republican candidate.

[MondoCane]

1. agreed.

and ironically, I don't think Hillary is electable. If she gets the nomination, republicans win.

[MariaThinks]

2. i think she is also very electible.

[LWolf]

3. I agree.

A Hillary nomination is a Republican win.

What shocks me is that so much of the Party establishment would rather see a Republican win than a Sanders presidency.

Perhaps they understand that when Sanders wins the nomination, their control of the party is substantially weakened, and the party is going to return to working for the 99%. They'd rather deal with 4-8 years of Republicans, whose economic policies they can support while expressing outrage about their social policies, as long as the Democratic Party power structure still belongs to the 1%. Then they can happily trade places in 4-8 years.

[HooptieWagon]

5. FWIW, the polls are pretty consistant that Bernie does better in GE than Hillary.

I think Sanders would inspire a pretty good turnout, not at '08 Obama levels, but good. He will get majority of Indy votes, and even some republican X-over votes. That turnout will help Democrats down ticket.
Clinton will not inspire a big turnout among Democrats. She gets less than 50% of Indy votes. Republicans hate her, they've been anxiously waiting for years to vote against her. In my opinion, we'd be looking at a bloodbath.

[senz]

13. Yes, polls show Bernie doing better than Hill against all GOP candidates.

Most chalk it up to the influence of Independents and Hillary's extensive baggage.

[hack89]

4. Super Tuesday will answer that question. nt

[HooptieWagon]

6. No it won't.

The southern states won't vote Dem in the GE. Sanders will do well in GE in traditional Democratic strongholds of NE, Rustbelt, Midwest, and west coast. He's got enough money to bring his primary into those states, I'm not so sure Clinton does.

[hack89]

8. It will tell us if he can broaden his support to different groups in more conservative states

Iowa and NH are very unrepresentative of the US electorate. He has to pick up independent voters who are usually more conservative than the typical Dem.

[HooptieWagon]

11. Utter hogwash.

Firstly... Iowa has same day voter registration, so any Independent who wanted to caucus for Sanders or Clinton could register right at the front door. Many caucus sites reported running out of voter registration forms, so it appears there were many indy->democrat caucus goers in addition to new voters.
New Hampshire has an open primary. Independants may vote Republican or Democrat.
Both states reflect independant appeal to the democratic candidates.

Secondly, your claim Independants are more conservative than democrats is utter bullshit. Few Independants are 'between' the D & R parties. There's just not that much room there. Most Independants are to the left of DEms and right of Rs. Sanders does solid in the left indies, in fact there is a movement to get a spot in a Sanders administration for Green Party's Dr Jill Stein. On the far right, there is some interest in Sanders due to a few Libertarian issues....legalizing marijuana, auditing the Fed, etc. I know a few former Ron Paulbots who are looking at Sanders with interest. In general, the Independants are against 'the establishment' of both parties, or they would have been registered D or R.
Both left and right Independants hate Clinton. She is the epitome of 'The Establishment'. She's not going to do well there.

[hack89]

12. Ok. Lets pick this up after Super Tuesday

I am not going to waste time arguing with you when we will both know soon enough.

[senz]

16. Well reasoned, HW.

[Gothmog]

7. I keep asking for an explanation as to how Sanders will be viable in the general election

I keep asking this same question and I have yet to receive a good answer. How is Sanders viable in a general election contest where the Kochs will be spending $887 million, the RNC candidate may spend another billion dollars and Bloomberg (who will only run if Sanders is the nominee) will be spending yet another billion dollars?

[One of the 99]

10. Because who ever is the GOP candidate

Bernie will be 10x better than they are.

[reformist2]

14. Bernie is raising tons of $$$ from the voters. Are you afraid of not having corporate money???

[Gothmog]

17. I fear that Sanders is bringing a knife to a gun fight

Sanders does not appear to be viable in a contest where the Kochs will be spending $887 million and the likely GOP nominee will be able to raise another billion dollars. In addition, Bloomberg will run if Sanders is the nominee and Bloomberg is promising to spend another billion dollars. This article had a very interesting quote about the role of super pacs in the upcoming election http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/03/bernie-sanders-grassroots-movement-gains-clinton-machine

Harvard University professor Lawrence Lessig, who founded a Super Pac to end Super Pacs, said Sanders’ renouncing Super Pacs is tantamount to “bringing a knife to a gunfight”.

“I regret the fact the Bernie Sanders has embraced the idea that he’s going to live life like the Vermont snow, as pure as he possibly can, while he runs for president, because it weakens his chances – and he’s an enormously important progressive voice,” Lessig said.

President Obama was against super pacs in 2012 but had to use one to keep the race close. I do not like super pacs but any Democratic candidate who wants to be viable has to use a super pac.

I would love to see someone explain how Sanders would be viable because the explanations that I have seen so far have been sad and weak.

[reformist2]

19. I think Bernie could raise over $1 billion from the 99% - no 1%er money needed!

[Gothmog]

20. President Obama had the best small donor funding network in recent history and could not do this

Even President Obama had to use a super pac in 2012 to keep the spending close and even then he was outspent by Romney

I do not think that Sanders is a Barack Obama but time will tell

[One of the 99]

9. If he can win in the primaries,

he can win in the general.

[Onlooker]

15. He's electable

Who thought Obama was electable? I was so worried in both 2008 and 2012, despite the polls. I didn't believe the United States was capable of electing a liberal black man, but if we can do that, we can elect a liberal Jew. My biggest worry with Bernie is whether he will be able to mount an effective campaign if he insists on being ethical and honest. The fact is that in politics lies and smears work well. But, he will have an army of young energetic volunteers, and that will give him a good chance. If the Republicans choose a Trump or Cruz, Bernie has a very good chance. He'd have a harder time against a more mainstream type (Bush, Kasich) because I think people tend to err on the side of caution when voting, and Bernie certainly has a lot of daring (and great) ideas.

[CharlotteVale]

18. He's electable and I'm voting for him.