Joe Shlabotnik wrote:
The matchup stuff means nothing at this point. As always, see Dukakis, Michael and look at the 17 point lead he had in August.
Sanders is not electable. Of all the candidates, the one with the experience and manners closest to a President is Hillary. Barring some unforeseen event, she will win.
Having said that, work for Sanders, get to know the other people working for Sanders, organize and start grooming the best possible candidates for local and state offices and then work to get them elected. Do that for a decade or two and then you could be able to elect someone with Bernie's agenda that would actually have a chance of getting that agenda made into law.
Goldwater lost in a landslide but Reagan won 16 years later. Learn from that.
Okay, let me spell this out again. GE polls have no predictive power or forecasting ability. Got it. They are still a sampling of current public opinion about the candidates, and we should treat them that way. Bernie Sanders' socialism is not enough, on it's own, to completely knock him out of the conversation. Do you think there's a person in the country, right now, who knows his name but doesn't know that he's a "socialist?"
Have we even started talking about favorability ratings, where Sanders is the only candidate on the race on either side with a net positive one?
Are we going to completely dismiss the voter turnout argument? Or are we going to realize that Sanders' proven ability to raise voter turnout is how the Democrats stand the greatest chance of winning decisively like Obama did?
You realize that the "start local, work up" is exactly what Sanders has done his whole career and is how he got to the position he is?
And don't give me that "he has no chance to get any of his ideas passed" crap. He has a prolific 30 year history in politics and a 20 year history in congress. Look at it.
John McCain (R-AZ) wrote:
Negotiating with Bernie was not a usual experience, because he is very passionate and he and I are both very strong-willed people and we spend a lot of time banging our fists on the table and having the occasional four-letter word,” McCain said. “But at the end of the day, Bernie was result-oriented.
Marco Rubio (R-FL) wrote:
“In fairness, they fled communism. There is social democracy, right, like you see in Europe, where government provides for every aspect of your life, but there’s consequence to that. They fled communism, which is beyond socialism, obviously where government controls society, but also government controls politics, life, the banning of religion, people were being executed.
“What I appreciate about Bernie is he’s not trying to shirk from it. It’s what he believes in. He’s honest about it… I don’t personally have a problem with [Sanders] because he’s being honest about what he believes in. I’d love to have that debate.”
Jim Inhofe (R-OK) wrote:
“Bernie Sanders is unique,” Inhofe says, “in that most of the Democrats I know in the Senate vote liberal and press-release conservative. Not Bernie. He’s a proud, in-the-heart, sincere liberal. I’ve never heard him once say something that didn’t come from his heart. That’s not true with all the people running for president, Democrats and Republican. I hold him in high regard.”
Roger Wicker (R-MS) wrote:
“I learned early on not to be automatically dismissive of a Bernie Sanders initiative or amendment.”
Richard Burr (R-NC) wrote:
“I think he’s very outspoken in terms of where he is ideologically. But when he gets down to the need to get legislation into law, then I find him to be one who’s willing to sit down and compromise and negotiate to get to a final product.”
Jeff Miller (R-FL) wrote:
“He is very open and honest as he goes through the process,” Miller said. “You know where Bernie is coming from.”
Find me similar quotes from Republican officials about Hillary and then we can talk about who will work better with them in Congress.