Analyzing the Black Vote: Deep Poll Dissection - Here is Bernie's Opportunity

The big takeaway from many of these polls are how many people say they are still Undecided when it comes to Bernie Sanders. With the recent PPP National Poll Out of all ethnicities, Black voters are by far the biggest group still up for grabs with 50% of Blacks nationally stating they are Undecided. So the 82% to 8% support from Blacks in favor of Hillary Clinton is more than a little misleading right now. This is where performing strong early is so important for Sanders. Another problem with the PPP poll is that it lumps together two separate age groups into one...which is the 18-45 age group. We already know that 18-29 is Bernie's bread and butter and 30-36-ish is about even. It's when you get to voters in their mid-late 30's and into the 40's that you start getting voters who favor Hillary. Because we don't know how many young voters under the age of 35 were actually polled because they were lumped in with voters between 35-45...it's impossible to know if the poll itself had a bias in favor of older voters which most polls do.

The big takeaway from the new Quinnipiac poll is that Sanders is only behind by 2% nationally to Clinton. Strangely enough the racial breakdown isn't included in the poll. One can only assume he got a ton more support from ethnic voters than other polls show which may be why they left that information out IDK. Matter of fact...many polls don't always show the breakdown of age and race and the fact that the most recent national poll showed that 50% of registered Black voters are still undecided means this narrative of Clinton dominating the POC vote is misleading at best.

Something else...a lot of Black voters haven't forgotten about the Clinton role in mass incarceration and the explosion of the prison complex due to the 3 strikes law and the crime bill. Even though Sanders voted for the crime bill, there is clearly a video on Youtube showing him railing against it. I think we can all safely assume that a bill structured like that would never be something of Sanders' invention. However it was a product of the Clinton White House and pushed strongly by them. The fact that there has been virtually NO mention of criminal justice reform in any significant way so far in the Democratic primary is troubling given recent events. I don't blame Clinton and Sanders for the debate questions though, I know they can't dictate the questions they're asked. However both of these candidates need to start addressing the issue. Sanders has the ability to use the Clinton criminal justice record against her. I suspect he hasn't yet because she can hit him back with his voting for the crime bill.