The only people who would vote for Sanders in the general are liberals and left leaning Dems.
He would still start off with a good shot at the "blue wall" of 244 EV's but he would probably not win OH, CO, FL, and maybe not even PA - which is where I live. He would definitely not win NC or Virginia, not a chance in hell. Then things start getting real real tough, the math simply is not there.
Too many on this board believe that perfect is the enemy of the good.
I loved Bill Clinton. You know why? Because he kicked the shit out of the GOP up and down the street for 8 years, that's why. I was not thrilled with his triangulation, bringing in Dick Morris, 100,000 cops on the street, etc. etc. But I was awestruck that he obliterated the GOP. all day, every day. The GOP impeaches him for a blowjob and THEY lose two speakers and seats in the Senate and the House. How great was that?
I like Hillary - not as much as Bill - I dont think that she has some amazing gift or vision for the country. I think that she is a solid person, an extremely intelligent person, and tough as nailes. But what I LOVE about Hillary is that she is a woman, and will be the first legitimate female candidate for President of the Unites States. That in and of itself should be all you need to know. At the very least, several million female voters who either A) never vote because they don't give a shit about politics or B) lean center or right will vote for HRC just because she is a woman.
And if that offends people - on the left or the right - that I recognize and understand and want to use to our advantage the fact that she is a woman - well i can live with that. Believe me. We - the Democratic Party, African Americans, President Obama himself - we used the fact that he was trying to be the first African American president to our advantage - and brilliantly so in my opinion.
What I also like about the Clintons is you sure as hell know that they are not going to get swift boated by any political hacks in the GOP. They will play rough and dirty and nasty - and that is perfectly fine with me.
Bernie seems fine to me - intelligent, nice guy, has some guts, all good. But if you think for one freaking second that Bernie Sanders is going to change Wall Street, get money out of politics, raise the minimum wage, etc. etc. etc and all this other Utopian bullshit - your head is so far up your ass that I'm quite sure you probably think there will be a Democratic Congress in January 2017 also. Newsflash - there WON'T be a Democratic Congress in January 2017.
Utopia - imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. That definition applies to the vast majority of Sanders supports as well - you hope and wish for an imagined POLITICAL place or state of things in which everything is perfect.
Sanders will put up a respectable showing in Iowa - he won't win. Sanders will put up a respectable showing in New Hampshire - he won't win. He will negotiate some language into the Democratic Convention platform and he will graciously drop out.
Hillary will get 55% of the popular vote and 400+ EV and this blog will be lit up like Times Square on election night 2016, with 95% of the Kos family happy that Dems will control the White House until 2024 and 5% of the Kos family saying that the Clintons sold out to Wall Street, that Hillary voted for the Iraq War, blah blah blah blah
I am a liberal Democrat. That is why I come to this blog all the time, especially on glorious days like the past few days when our cause take a monumental leap forward and we win a MAJOR VICTORY - or VICTORIES I should say - for our cause.
But i also know and acknowledge that my relatively far left views are shared at this point by MAYBE 20% of the country, if that. Too many people on this board have no sense of how enormous this country is. Sometimes I fear that most of the visitors to this blog, especially the hardcore "senior elite" members of the Kos family, are no different than the RWNJ's who live in the Fox bubble 24/7.
The vast majority of the American electorate is not as liberal as we are.