One of the fallbacks of the Hillary Clinton supporters is that she has to be the nominee because she is the only one that is "electable" in the general election. The implied, and sometimes explicitly expressed, view is that Bernie Sanders is not.
But is HRC really so "electable" in the general elections? What about these charts then?
Exhibit A: HRC v Donald Trump.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/...
In one month, the numbers have moved from 52.0-37.8 to 45.0-44.2
OK, it may be because of all the attention, the celebrity, and the free publicity for Trump that this has happened. How about someone who has been in Trump's shadow and has been going nowhere or even drifting downward in the GOoPer primaries?
Exhibit B: HRC v Jeb Bush
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/...
There is a much longer history for this match-up. Close to 2 years in fact. During that time, the numbers have moved from 52.0-39.8 to 44.3-43.8
Note that this is against a decidedly lackluster candidate like Jeb Bush! Also note that the total percent of decided voters has been close to 90 percent all the time. So, it is not like some fence-sitters have been tipping the scales by deciding to go to Bush. In fact, close to 4 percent more voters are on the fence now than before, almost surely voters who were in HRC's camp then but are not anymore.
Now how about someone who has been floundering so badly that some people are speculating that he will be the next candidate to quit after Rick Perry did yesterday?
Exhibit C: HRC v Scott Walker
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/...
There is about a 6 month history here. The numbers have moved from 47.0-40.5 to 47.7-43.0 So, even though HRC's numbers have gone up, Walker's numbers have gone up much more! Note that this is against a candidate who is expected by some, to be on the verge of quitting and/or settling for the VP slot on the GOoPer ticket.
Now let us look at someone who is still very much in the GOoPer race.
Exhibit D: HRC v Marco Rubio
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/...
With about 8 months of polling history, the numbers have moved from 51.7-38.3 to 45.0-44.0 So Rubio has achieved pretty much what Trump has, though he has taken a different route.
It gets worse for HRC.
Exhibit E: HRC v Carly Fiorina
With just about a month's polling data, the numbers have moved from 48.3-37.0 to 48.3-42.0 So, HRC is just about holding together while Fiorina is moving up, as more voters realize there is a candidate by that name!
In fact, one has to go all the way down the list to HRC v Chris Christie in order to find a trend where HRC has gone up while the GOoPer has gone down:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/...
Even a pathetic dead-ender like Rand Paul does better against HRC than he did at the start of the year.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/...
So, this is how the "electable" HRC is doing against the GOoPer candidates! Why then is she considered "electable" while a candidate like Sanders is widely described as "of course unelectable"? Is it the DC conventional "wisdom" machine at work? Or is it something else?