2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumDespite Polls, Republicans See Sanders as an Easier Opponent
Hillary Clinton would be a more difficult opponent in the general election, some in the GOP believe.http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-04-18/despite-polls-republicans-see-sanders-as-an-easier-opponent
And yet, prominent Republican operatives are chomping at the bit to face Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont and self-described democratic socialist in the general election, believing he'd be an easier opponent than the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state.
"Republicans are being nice to Bernie Sanders because we like the thought of running against a socialist. But if he were to win the nomination the knives would come out for Bernie pretty quick," said Ryan Williams, a former spokesman for 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney's campaign. "There's no mystery what the attack on him would be. Bernie Sanders is literally a card carrying socialist who honeymooned in the Soviet Union. There'd be hundreds of millions of dollars in Republican ads showing hammers and sickles and Soviet Union flags in front of Bernie Sanders."
"Hillary Clinton is a much more centrist candidate in comparison," Williams said, and she would have a better chance of winning over moderate and undecided voters, despite numerous polls showing that many Americans, even in the Democratic Party, don't view her as honest and trustworthy. "Bernie's numbers are better than hers right now because she's been in the political arena for 30 years getting beat up," he said.
(snip)
"Most Americans have only a vague image of Bernie Sanders," Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, said in an e-mail. "They see him as a truth-telling outsider, which they find appealing. Its very likely that many voters do not know that he is a self-described socialist. Although the socialist label isnt nearly as toxic as it used to be, it is still a big negative. In a 2015 Gallup survey, 50 percent of Americans said that they would not vote for a socialist."
Williams argued that "for decades, Republicans have tried to paint Democrats as socialists and he literally is a socialist." He said Sanders, who has been powered by small-dollar donations, would have a tougher time raising the money expected of a general election candidatein 2012, the campaigns of President Barack Obama and Romney, along with allied groups, raised more than $1 billion.
ThePhilosopher04
(1,732 posts)CajunBlazer
(5,648 posts)ThePhilosopher04
(1,732 posts)SFnomad
(3,473 posts)yeah, his numbers look good now ... but BS has never seen what a scorched Earth campaign looks like from the Republicans ... and that would be the end of it. And the majority of Democrats realize that, which is why they're backing Secretary Clinton.
ThePhilosopher04
(1,732 posts)SFnomad
(3,473 posts)redstateblues
(10,565 posts)Just a couple of Bernies unpacked bags
ThePhilosopher04
(1,732 posts)Bernie is the only person willing to stand up and fight, and he will win. Incrementalism won't get it done.
SFnomad
(3,473 posts)ThePhilosopher04
(1,732 posts)SFnomad
(3,473 posts)Loudestlib
(980 posts)LOL
Thanks for the laugh....
Perogie
(687 posts)CajunBlazer
(5,648 posts)...proved notoriously inaccurate in every past Presidential election.
Corporate666
(587 posts)they won't be too supportive of Sanders.
Not to mention his promises are pure pandering- he has zero shot of implementing any of his agenda. And even if he were a dictator and could wave his hand and make it happen, the costs of his programs would be massively higher than he claims.
The middle class won't be too happy with 30% tax increases, and there just aren't enough rich people to pay for all his largesse.
At least Hillary understands economics and she isn't a panderer. She wants to fairly represent ALL Americans, which include wealthy Americans. Sorry some of you folks don't like rich people having a voice too - but they do and they are just as much Americans as anyone else and don't deserve to be demonized for being smart and successful.
ScreamingMeemie
(68,918 posts)Behind the Aegis
(53,959 posts)Already seen them here. It will be red-baiting, daily outrages which amount to a hill of beans, and anti-Semitic dog-whistles. These will be easily dispatched.
jfern
(5,204 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)... that BS supporters can click to easily silence the GOP attacks against him.
Vinca
(50,273 posts)The GOP is chomping at the bit to go after her . . . don't you see that? There's a reason they've been pretty quiet so far this election cycle. By the time they're done with her they'll have people believing Hillary belongs in the big house, not the White House.
CajunBlazer
(5,648 posts)The Koch bothers' PAC have spent millions of dollars during to the primaries attacking Hillary, trying to help Sanders. And no, not because they assume that she is the presumptive nominee, but because they don't want her to be the nominee.
How can we tell the difference? By the nature of the ads; the ads attack Clinton from the left, not from the right. For instance they spent $1.5 million on ads complaining about Hillary running her campaign with money from big corporations and the fossil fuel companies. Those are ads designed not to turn the general voting population against her, but to turn progressives voting in the primaries and caucuses against her.
On the other hand the Republican hit machine are salivating at the opportunity to paint Sanders as not only a Socialist bent on greatly increasing the taxes of the middle class, but also as a communist sympathizer during the heart of the cold war, if not worse. And they will do so using actual activities from Sanders past. And if those aren't effective enough they will use those activities as the basis for lies. If you think that John Kerry was hurt by the Swift Boaters, that will seem mild compared to what they would do to Sanders.
Please understand this is not said to belittle Sanders - I think that he is basically a good man with honest intentions and I am not saying this to run him down. I don't feel the need to because I truly don't believe he has even an outside chance of being the Democratic nominee so none of this stuff is relevant. I am sure he will never be hit with this negative barrage, and in a way that's a good thing because his image will not be destroyed in the eyes of most of the American public.