The “Bernie Only Polls Better Because He Hasn’t Been Attacked” Canard. Debunking a popular pro-Hillary myth
May 16, 2016

 
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Whenever someone asks a supporter of Hillary Clinton why Bernie Sanders consistently polls better against Trump than she does, they tell you… without an iota of proof… that it is “only because they [the GOP candidates] haven’t gone after him yet.” Not only is that not true (as I will explain below), but it is also irrelevant… and it wouldn’t have much of an effect if they did.

“Ready for Hillary?” The GOP is. They’ve been preparing for a Hillary presidential run since at least 2007 (maybe earlier.) They let the cat out of the bag when they admitted “BenghaziTM“ was all about derailing her presidential ambitions. But Bernie is a wild card. They haven’t been preparing for over a decade on how to run against “an admitted [democratic] Socialist” like Bernie Sanders and don’t have a clue how they’d go about it. All they’ve got is “he’s a Socialist that’s raise your taxes!” News Flash: They’re going to say that no matter WHO wins the Democratic Nomination (“Big Government Tax & Spend Liberal” has always been code for “Socialist”), and for nearly two generations of voters, the “Socialist” label means absolutely nothing.

I saw a rather stunning (and somewhat depressing) video on Facebook over the weekend. A young woman with a mic doing “man-on-the-street” interviews, asking people questions about “World War II”:
 

“Hitler? Never heard of him.” (1:24)

 

For more than two generations of voters, the “Communist/Socialist” label is as terrifying as calling someone “Canadian”. The Soviet Union fell nearly a quarter century ago when many voters were still in Grade School or yet to be born. China makes their iPhones and Obama has normalized relations with Cuba. Years of fear-mongering without consequence has taken the sting out of the pejorative. “Fear Socialists? I thought we were supposed to fear ISIS? Muslims? AlQaeda?”  “The Ruskies” were your grandfather’s Boogeyman. The only people frightened off by someone calling themselves a “Democratic Socialist” are people who were never going to vote Democratic anyway. Republicans call EVERY Democrat a “tax-raising Socialist Liberal“. They’ve been doing it for over 50 years now and time has rendered that line of attack impotent.

“No one is attacking Bernie yet”? Every time they say “Socialist Bernie” or say “Crazy Bernie wants to give everybody free stuff”, he’s being attacked. True, Republicans aren’t running ads against him (yet), but Hillary is. Does it matter if those ads are coming from the Left or the Right? People have been seeing attack ads against Bernie for nearly a year now and where has it gotten them? Every Democratic debate where Hillary criticized Bernie was a two hour de facto “attack ad.” True, Republicans will focus more on the “Socialist” label, but the general election is roughly four months long. How long can they milk the “he’s a Socialist” cow? Two weeks? Maybe three before they have to start attacking him for something else? Then what? As noted above, they’re going to use the “raise your taxes” argument against Hillary too.

As I pointed out last week, if Hillary supporters remain as loyal to the eventual Democratic nominee as they demand of Sanders supporters, then Bernie wins just with Hillary voters alone (how many Hillary-supporters would be so spiteful they’d rather vote for Trump if she loses, or just stay home on Election Day and let Trump win?) Add to that all the “Never-Trump, Never-Hillary” Republicans he’ll draw, most Independents, and Republicans that like his “outsider not-beholden to Washington” status and/or “anti-Free Trade” positions Bernie shares with Trump but don’t think Trump “has the temperament for the job” voters, and Bernie wins in a landslide.

We’ve all seen the graphics asking: “Where are the people marching for Clinton or Trump?” And we’ve seen the photos comparing crowd size of Clinton (tiny) vs Sanders (huge) rallies. And I just saw a graphic asking “Where are the MURALS for Clinton or Trump?” So I decided to do some digging for Bernie murals & Hillary murals. I found about a half dozen huge Bernie murals on the sides of buildings in various states.

I found EXACTLY ONE pro-Hillary mural on a wall, one drawing on the side walk in Central Park, and a number of paintings trashing her.
 

Next, I searched for marches: For Bernie, I found at least a half dozen in various states. For Clinton: I found ZERO.

Tell me again how much more popular Clinton is than Sanders?

Another point of order: Clinton supporters love to cite the slanted “popular vote” total showing Hillary with a nearly 3 Million vote lead over Sanders because it makes her look like she is doing better than she really is. Hillary herself has been making this case. It’s no different than including “Super Delegates” when trying to boost her delegate lead over Sanders to make her look closer to clinching the nomination.

But the fact is, 11 of the 13 races Bernie won so far were CAUCUS states. That means no weeks of “Early Voting” ballots to count, or ballots cast by people who simply dropped by on Election Day to vote then leave. Only the most committed voters willing to dedicate hours of their time to support their candidate were counted. And in those races, Bernie won by an average of nearly 50 points.

In 1992, another Billionaire political novice candidate running a “self funded” campaign… Ross Perot, famously ignored all advice of his campaign advisors to the point he earned a reputation as being “undisciplined” and “difficult”. Perot hired Jimmy Carter’s campaign manager Hamilton Jordan AND Ronald Reagan’s campaign manager, Ed Rollins, to highlight how “independent” he was. He then promptly ignored them both. Rollin’s quit very publicly, slamming his former boss on TV as “arrogant”, remarking how Perot would ask for his advice, and then go do whatever he wanted anyway. In the end, Perot received only 20% of the vote.

Rollins is now an adviser to the Trump campaign.

In 1994, the NFC Championship Game between two powerhouse teams, the Dallas Cowboys & the San Francisco 49ers was billed as “The REAL Superbowl” because the AFC champs that year… the San Diego Chargers… were so mediocre, it was a foregone conclusion they’d lose badly (and did. Superbowl XXIX was a blowout, trounced by the 49ers in a fitting 49 to 26 victory.)

Trump is the ’94 Chargers. He’s going to be demolished no matter which Democrat wins the nomination. He’s Ross Perot. The undisciplined Billionaire that doesn’t know how to stay on script and ends up winning only 20% of the vote. “Which Democrat has a better shot at defeating Trump” is no longer an argument for picking either Hillary or Sanders over the other. They’ll BOTH defeat him handily. Hell, Trump can’t even lock up The GOP vote. Every minority group you can name despises him. Even half of Hillary’s OWN support is simply people looking to defeat Trump. So the only question is, do you want your choices in November to be between two multimillionaire military hawks that’ll say anything to get elected, or do you want a clear choice with a consistent PROGRESSIVE track record?

 

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May 16, 2016 · Admin Mugsy · No Comments - Add
Posted in: Election, myth busting

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