"Let me be very clear, Democrats will not retain the White House, will not regain the Senate, will not gain the House and will not be successful in dozens of governor’s races unless we run a campaign which generates excitement and momentum and which produces a huge voter turnout." ~Bernie Sanders
I need to be very, very clear about this: we will NOT have the wave election we need around the country if we allow Clinton to win the Democratic nomination. Period. Only Bernie Sanders has the trustworthiness that comes from having a consistent, honest 30 year track record as a progressive reformer that can inspire the huge voter turnout we need coast to coast.
And Bernie Sanders is electable. He has been elected to office 14 times, compared to only twice for Clinton. Bernie won his last Senate campaign with over 70% of the vote, including 25% of the Republicans, and received 8% more votes than the polls said he would in 2006.
In fact, despite the disinformation spread by the corporate media and Clinton pundits, Bernie is FAR more electable than Clinton. For instance, Bernie beats Republicans by 10 points in early states, Clinton LOSES to them by an average of 3. Bernie beats Republicans by 4 points more than Clinton does according a recent PPP poll and he beats Trump by TWICE the margin of Clinton. All the Polls Show Bernie Does Better Against GOP Than Hillary.
This is partially due to Bernie's appeal to independents, who are now the majority of American voters. In a head to head matchup, Bernie cleans up with independents over Clinton 59-21%. When all candidates from all parties are included, Bernie Sanders gets 45% of them. The next most popular in order are: Trump 26%, Ben Carson 19%, Rand Paul 12%, Clinton 9%.
The simple fact is that Clinton does not appeal to many of the non-Democrats, independents, Green Party, and unlikely voters who love Bernie Sanders, and that should be a warning sign in and of itself about Clinton's electability. She only appeals to Democrats, but is fairly universally disliked outside of our group. Clinton is the unelectable candidate thehill.com/...
Bernie Sanders: the most electable candidate that will build a STRONGER Democratic Party. Bernie Sanders Responds to Clinton Claiming He Is Unelectable. Dear Hillary Supporters Wary of Sanders’ Electability.
And even more importantly, people are incredibly excited to support Bernie. 78% of Bernie’s supporters are enthusiastic, compared to 39% for Clinton. Clinton especially suffers a huge enthusiasm gap among millennials and independents.
This all stems from favorability. Clinton's trustworthy ratings are 30-54% (independents 22-54%), while Bernie's are 43-25% (40-23% with independents). Quinnipiac Poll shows Bernie Sanders has great ratings: 78-6% favorability, 86-4% honesty/trustworthiness, 85-5% cares about their needs and problems. Clinton has net unfavorable ratings overall (44-51 for -7), especially with independents (38-56%), and the GOP HATES her with a passion. That makes her electability very problematic if she gets the nomination. Bernie has strong favorability ratings (44-31 for +13). And as this chart shows, favorability = electability. Every presidential candidate with unfavorable ratings has lost since 1980, while everyone with favorable ratings has won (except Al Gore, but Bush has higher ratings, and that's another matter).