Two new national polls have Bernie up 12-13 over Trump, while Hillary is only up 2-3

[jfern]

NBC/SurveyMonkey national poll, conducted May 9-15:

Clinton 48%
Trump 45%

Sanders 53%
Trump 41%

https://www.scribd.com/doc/312804612/NBC-News-SurveyMonkey-Toplines-and-Methodology-5-9-5-15?secret_password=agyWh3Vh62bCRN4ztTac

Morning Consult national poll, conducted May 11-15:


Clinton 42%
Trump 40%

Sanders 50%
Trump 37%

https://morningconsult.com/2016/05/poll-trump-barely-leads-trump-nationally/

[Jack Bone]

1. K & R nt

[Human101948]

2. Her lead will evaporate as Trump savages her...

He will build on her very, very high negatives.

[CobaltBlue]

3. jfern—“I’m with Her” people will…spin, spin, spin!

[Gavile]

4. There's a reason why the Republicans would prefer to face Hillary in November

[JaneyVee]

6. Operation Chaos 2016 isnt funding Hillary. Theyre funding Bernie.

[JaneyVee]

5. Because no attack ads. Duh.

[Gavile]

8. What would an attack ad against Bernie look like?

[JaneyVee]

9. Brutal:

[Gavile]

12. You do realize that Obama himself has just visited Cuba with Michelle, and MET Castro

The "Castro card" no longer carries any weight.

[JaneyVee]

14. Different Castro. And...

Bernie was praising him in the 80s when Castro was with USSR.

[Gavile]

17. Bernie was ahead of his time

That's a feature, not a bug. It's not the 80s anymore. The Cuban embargo has been lifted and we are normalizing relations with Cuba. The Cold War mentality is anachronistic and irrelevant as far as anyone under the age of say, 70, is concerned.

[JaneyVee]

20. Ahead of his time? He's praising a dictator with death squads.

And since Bernie is against trade deals I doubt he would even lift the embargo.

[Gavile]

23. Unlike Hillary who helped dictators and death squads into power in Honduras

There's a difference between a trade deal and lifting an embargo.

[JaneyVee]

25. Bernie helped the biggest death squad in the world...

The NRA.

[Gavile]

28. Oh please....

[thesquanderer]

30. Send the typical American voter running to the Republican frontrunner?

First, that doesn't account for the fact that the Republican frontrunner is Donald Trump, who has his tremendous issues of his own.

Second, a lot of those things have little to no resonance among anyone who would consider voting for a Democrat in the first place (i.e. those voters are equally lost to Hillary).

Third, of course there will be attacks on Bernie, some legitimate, some not... that's true of Hillary as well. But the idea that all the negative attacks are already factored into Hillary's numbers because of how heavily she has already been attacked is silly. You don't think Trump will have a field day with Bosnian sniper fire? You think he will give her a pass on the email scandal and Clinton Foundation questions, the way Bernie has? There's so much, old and new, that Hillary has never had to face in a serious campaign.

Also, the disparity in these numbers means Bernie can drop 5+ points and still beat Trump. Hillary has no protective margin, and there's no reason to think people's views of her will improve. The only shot she has of an easy win is if Trump runs a bad campaign, and if he does, that would benefit Bernie just as well.

In short, I agree with you that things may not be as easy for Bernie as these polls indicate, but whatever position you think he's in, I'd say Hillary's is worse. Sure, Bernie's unfavorables may go up from where they are now... but it's nearly impossible for them to get to where Hillary's are. As I've said before, they won't be able to do to Bernie in a few months what it took them decades to do to Hillary... and he doesn't provide them with as much self-inflicted ammunition, either.

I do think Hillary will win (both the nomination and the general), but I also believe we will be going in with our weaker candidate, and it won't be a cakewalk. We're lucky that the Republicans are going in with one of their weaker candidates as well.

[oberliner]

10. The evils of Socialism

Higher taxes, bloated government, increased bureaucracy.

Then the foreign policy stuff:

Not tough on terrorism, not recognizing dangers of radical Islam, etc.

They would have a field day.

[Gavile]

13. Things which are only an issue to hardcore Republicans anyway

Those aren't the people we need.

[oberliner]

15. Think George McGovern

He lost in a landslide because he was painted as being too far to the left.

[Gavile]

19. That was 1972

Go back to 1972 and ask anyone if they thought we'd have a black President, gays could marry, or that pot would be legalized. Things have moved on a little since then.

[oberliner]

22. Understood

I am just trying to respond to your question about what attack ads on Bernie by the Republicans would look like if he were the Democratic nominee.

[lapfog_1]

24. good thing we never nominated that leftist FDR...

too far to the left ya know.

Herbert Hoover mopped the floor with that guy and his "new deal"

[oberliner]

26. Huh?

The question was what attack ads would Republicans use against Bernie Sanders. I was saying it would be similar to what Nixon used against McGovern. Trying to paint him as being too far to the left.

[lapfog_1]

31. This is NOT the same time...

who cares what Nixon did to McGovern.

If you use that as the yardstick and times never change... then the Democrats should have never nominated FDR...

Times change. Right now... a true leftist could win. The economy has eroded the middle class... almost to the point where there isn't much of a middle class. People feel that Wall Street and the Big Corporations and ruling elite are screwing them (mostly because that is true). The repukes are nominating a completely racist reactionary "loose cannon" (almost a joke of a candidate). That opens the opportunity to put in a real leftist reformer to correct the imbalance of the last 30 years of corporate rule.

Corporate rule that as led to the disparity between the haves and have nots not seen since the era of the robber barons.

Not to mention the overwhelming danger of human created global climate change... people (even Trump supporters like my brother in law) are seeing the effects in their lifetimes... effects that are accelerating at an alarming rate. Status quo with the energy corporations is a death warrant to future generations. Time for a radical change.

[JaneyVee]

16. Yeah, you need moderates.

[Gavile]

21. Bernie attracts the moderates more than Hillary

Moderates do not have a problem with taxes or a candidate who is not a "tough on terror" warhawk.

[Tarc]

7. These desperation polls have taken on an air of "who would win a fight, Batman or Superman?"

"Sanders vs Trump" is a fantasy contest, nothing more.

The grips; come to them.

[Broward]

11. Again, all the scaremongering about Trump from the Hillary camp is a load of crap.

If they really feared a Trump presidency, they'd be backing Bernie.

[B Calm]

27. They win regardless if Hillary or Trump wins. Hell look at some of their posts on DU.

You'd think we have been invaded by republicans. Socialism, Social Security needs to be done away with because it's going broke, blah blah blah. I remember a time when DU use to ban these types.
,
,

[Broward]

29. The Party and DU is ridden by right-wingers and sheep.

[NCTraveler]

18. Do you know where O'Malley or Biden polled? Nt

[jfern]

36. Biden always polled better than Hillary. My guess is he doesn't poll as well as Bernie now.

When they polled Biden and Bernie, Biden did better, but probably because Bernie was suffering from low name recognition at the time.

[NCTraveler]

37. I think they should include them. Nt

[BernieforPres2016]

32. The DNC doesn't care

They would prefer President Trump to President Sanders. They care about money and personal power above all else, and Bernie would work to bust up their corrupt club.

[NorthCarolina]

33. ^^^This^^^ -nt-

[ViseGrip]

35. Hillary has already lost!

[itsrobert]

38. And yet Bernie can't beat Hillary

that's the way the system works. And Bernie has not been vetted yet.

[davidlynch]

39. Corporate backers of Hillary would obviously rather throw the election to Trump...

Than let Bernie win.

If Bernie wins, they'll have real opposition to their legislative agenda, because Bernie will wield the veto pen. At least with Trump they'd have someone potentially sympathetic to their causes. Hillary is their best bet because she's predictable: she'll absolutely support TPP, Keystone XL, fracking, Social Security "Reform" and so on.

Trump would be a wild card but at least they'd have a chance. But a Bernie win would represent a total loss from their point of view.