I am a *very* liberal Bernie supporter, but I have always said I would gladly vote for Hillary if she gets the nomination--which I actually believe she will, though Bernie has, thank goodness, forced the Dems to bear left and stop pretending to be Republican lite.
He has also proven that US voters, even those who mistakenly believe themselves to be conservatives, are far more liberal than our political class and establishment power players realize. I have at least some hope that Bernie's run, especially combined with Elizabeth Warren's excellent work in the Senate, will shift the country's public/political discourse to the left.
One reason I support Bernie is that he powerfully highlights the extreme radical policies that pusillanimous Dem leaders have allowed the GOPTP to push through, not only proving that there is a broad constituency for liberal programs, but also exposing the rightwingers for what they really are. Today Hillary did that, too. Independents and even Republicans, at least those who are not completely around the bend and frothing at the mouth, had to recognize how truly *awful*, hyperpartisan, entirely unfair, and *unpatriotic* the loudmouthed Republican witch hunters really are, and how smart, poised, and talented Clinton is.
Those who have been too busy to pay close attention have had their opinions and their perception of Hillary manipulated and shaped by cynical RW politicians and mouthpieces (like Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilley, etc.) and by a lazy, complicit corporatist press. But by creating such a circus around Benghazi and hyping this interrogation (which is what it was, not a "fact-finding" hearing), the rightwingers and the complicit M$M actually have prompted normally "checked out" voters to check in, to read about and talk about this interrogaton and to watch all or part of it. Many more will catch highlights on the internet, on shows like Maddow's and TYT, and in campaign commercials.
Seeing the real woman and seeing how she handles pressure, and especially seeing how she compares to the yahoos endlessly and pointlessly yipping and nipping at her, will undoubtedly change a lot of voters' opinions. Watch her favorability ratings start to rise and her negatives start to fall after this, even more than after the debate. Also, just as with the Republican excesses around the Lewinski scandal, many hitherto inattentive voters are going to recoil in revulsion over the disgusting spectacle of the Republicans who were hounding her and so obviously and callously exploiting the deaths of those who died at Benghazi.
I have worried that Hillary might not enthuse voters or have any electoral coattails, whereas Bernie would create enthusiasm and bring many more voters out for our downticket candidates. But this display of her strenghts and the GOTPs ugliest aspects might well not only bring back apathetic Dem voters and attract new voters to the polls, but also lead independents and even moderate (i.e., sane) Republican voters to vote *against* R candidates in general. Many who have habitually voted R without realizing how bad the Republicans have gotten might reconsider their "team" loyalty after having been treated to such a display.
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