Which candidate beats Trump? Part 2

Dear Friends,

The mainstream American press (including MSNBC) is obsessed with Donald Trump and is covering him while ignoring Bernie Sanders and even reducing its coverage of Hillary Clinton.  In the meantime, media outlets and people outside of the establishment are actually watching and reporting on what is going on.

Aljazeera just published an article (here) entitled: "Polls: Sanders has more potential to beat Trump" with a subtitle, "Recent data show Sanders has double-digit lead in support over Republican candidate while Clinton would face tight race."

It is a well researched and written article worth your time to read.  I am not saying that just because it agrees with my prior post.  The article focuses on the fact that independents heavily favor Bernie Sanders and that the polls tend to underrepresent independents.  This fact helps to explain why in open primary states Bernie Sanders has quite frequently outperformed the polls.  Donald Trump also gets support from independents which is why some experts feel the race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is much closer than the polls show.  Of course the polls already show that Hillary Clinton will have trouble beating Donald Trump.

It is really sad that you will never see any of this in the mainstream American press.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Bernie Sanders can win!

Dear Friends,

I walk around a lot in my Bernie for President t-shirt, since it will soon be too cold to do so.  I have been struck by the reactions that I get.  By far the biggest reaction that I get is nothing.  I don't know how to take that.  Do people not care? Do people think that I am crazy? Do people agree or disagree with me but don't want to say so?

The only other reaction that I get is one indicating agreement with my political position (so far nobody has indicated disagreement, but I am sure that will happen).  Sometimes it is a thumbs us, sometimes it is "I like your shirt" and sometimes it is "me too".  The largest demographic of the people who seem to approve of my Bernie for President shirt is young women.  For an old guy who has never been even close to being a chick magnet, I am quite surprised that a young woman would notice much less comment.  More importantly, I am very pleased by the number of young women who seem engaged in the political process and are intent on finding the best candidate rather than seeking to get our first woman President elected.  I was pleased to be alive and to vote for our first black President, but I did so because he was the best candidate.  I hope to be alive and vote for our first woman President, but I will only do so if she is the best candidate.

My experience seems to mirror the national Presidential polls.  Hillary Clinton's negative ratings continue to climb and her favorability ratings fall even among women voters.  Here are a couple of paragraphs from a ABC report on September 2:

Negative views of Hillary Clinton have jumped to nearly their highest on record in ABC News/Washington Post polls, while Donald Trump’s personal popularity has grown more polarized along racial and ethnic lines.
Clinton’s favorability has burbled back under water: 45 percent of Americans now see her favorably, down 7 percentage points since midsummer, while 53 percent rate her unfavorably, up 8. Her unfavorable score is a single point from its highest in ABC/Post polls dating back 23 years; that came in April 2008, in the midst of her last presidential campaign.

And this chart from The Washington Post (here) say a lot:

None of this is good news for Secretary Clinton and with more bad news on her email debacle coming almost daily, there is no relief in sight.

As for Bernie Sanders, the more people get to know him and the more they listen to his positions, the better he does.  These paragraphs from The Huffington Post (here) are remarkable.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) narrowed the gap with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.
In the poll, conducted among Democratic primary voters Sept. 20-24, Clinton led Sanders 42 percent to 35 percent. While the new poll isn't necessarily an indicator of who will win the contest, the 7-point difference shows a big change from just two months ago. In July, Clinton led Sanders by 34 percentage points, with 59 percent to his 25 percent.
Vice President Joe Biden, who is still considering whether or not to run, also earned the support of 17 percent of those surveyed. When those conducting the survey removed Biden from the field, Clinton's lead over Sanders increased -- she led him 53 percent to 38 percent.

The poll surveyed 256 Democratic voters with a margin of error of +/- 6.1 percentage points and 230 Republican primary voters with a margin of error of +/- 6.5 percentage points.

As you can see in this amalgamation of polls, Bernie Sanders' line is going up as fast as Hillary Clinton's is going down.  The more exposure people get to his ideas and policies and to him as a real person, the more people support him.  With our help getting people to learn about him, he can win.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal