Despite Polls, Republicans See Sanders as an Easier Opponent

[geek tragedy]

You don't say!

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.

...

Doug Heye, a former spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said Clinton would be a tougher opponent due to her foreign policy fluency, "her toughness as a candidate," and the "Clinton attack machine" around her—groups like Correct The Record and Americans United For Change that are active on her behalf. He added that there's less room for the GOP to define Clinton than Sanders as "out of the mainstream."



"Her negatives are set in. There's no American out there who doesn't have a definite opinion on Hillary Clinton," Heye said. "That's just not the case with Bernie. The fact that some of his success has been looked on with bemusement, I think, speaks to that."

Believing that Sanders may be too far outside the mainstream to win the Democratic primary, the Republican National Committee is doling out reams of opposition research on Clinton, and virtually none on Sanders. (By contrast, the Democratic National Committee has continued to launch attacks on Kasich, even though he has no mathematical chance of winning the GOP nomination before the convention.) Still, the RNC's actions don't reflect its chairman's rhetoric about who it would rather face.

"I would rather run against Hillary Clinton," RNC Chair Reince Priebus said Friday on CNN. "I think anybody who's analyzed this knows that Hillary Clinton is in the ditch. We don't know how far into the ditch she is going to go, but she's not doing well."

'Win Every State'

Outside Republican groups have also focused their fire on Clinton. The Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads on Thursday launched a 30-second spot comparing Clinton to Richard Nixon, a move that could potentially help Sanders ahead of the contentious New York primary on Tuesday. In January, a Republican super-PAC ran a TV ad in Iowa that sought to boost Sanders with Democratic voters by touting his plans to offer "completely free" college education and to raise taxes on the "super-rich"—ideas that are popular on the left.


At a Republican debate in January, Kasich joked that "we're going to win every state if Bernie Sanders is the nominee." The same month, RNC chief strategist Sean Spicer tweeted Sanders-friendly commentary during a Democratic debate and quipped that he was trying to "help" the Vermont underdog.

"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. It’s very likely that many voters do not know that he is a self-described socialist. Although the socialist label isn’t 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."

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

[Trust Buster]

1. Of course he's the easier opponent for Republicans. That's not debatable.

[CoffeeCat]

2. Bernie beats Cruz and Trump by higher margins than Clinton

in poll match ups.

Did you expect people who would vote for Trump to be able to understand rudimentary math?

[anotherproletariat]

6. Please do some research and see how such polls done during the primary are notoriously wrong.

In addition, most people don't know much about Sanders. There is a big learning curve coming if he should get the nomination, and for many it will be eye opening.

[AgingAmerican]

3. Reverse psychology by Republicans works on Hillary supporters apparently

Hook, line and sinker...

[Broward]

20. Easy marks, nt.

[onehandle]

4. A yelling, self-described in many videos Socialist from almost Canada easy to beat?

Say it ain't so!

[anotherproletariat]

9. Not to mention that his age will become a much bigger issue...remember when McCain ran

and chose Palin, everyone was particularly appalled because she stood a higher than usual chance of becoming president given his age. And he was 3 years younger than Sanders.

[ibegurpard]

5. lol...they'll call him a socialist

Or a COMMUNIST!!! like they do every Democrat...like they will to Hillary (and THAT'S a fucking joke)
There's a reason the message from "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is so potent.

[tabasco]

7. Bwaaaahahahahahaha!!

The right-wing corporate media crowned H. Clinton as the nominee four years ago. Republicans know she is a weak and deeply flawed candidate. This article, citing un-named "prominernt republican operatives" is a fucking joke. Funny how you love some polls but the polls that consistently show Sanders doing better in the general election are disregarded by the bots.

[TheBlackAdder]

8. In 2008, they thought Obama would be easier than HRC too. Bloomberg? Oh, yeah! Financial Software.

[elleng]

10. Despite Polls,

got it?

[geek tragedy]

15. yes, the Republicans have gamed the polls by unloading on Clinton with media and Trey Gowdy

while tacitly supporting Sanders.

He'd get turbo-Dukakis'd. He's yelping about Hillary being too mean to him. Good grief.

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. Fail. Why have they been silent about the speech transcripts?

All they need to do to get Clinton to release hers and thus self-destruct is to release theirs.

If they prefer to face Bernie, they're conspicuously avoiding doing what it takes to make this happen.

You *do* know that Ted Cruz' wife was a managing director of Goldman Sachs when Clinton gave her speeches, right? The Benghazi committee is oddly silent lately, too... innit? The house and senate aren't particularly vocal recently about the State Department emails, are they?

GOP: The dog that didn't bark.

If Clinton is nominated (a scenario that the, uh... "prominent Republican operatives" consider likely and don't want to derail) I KNOW what the October GOP ad buy will be about.

They don't want Sanders when their guns are already loaded with silver bullets/wooden stakes (pick your metaphor).

Whatever you do, don't throw me in the briar patch by nominating Hillary!

Their actions are speaking louder than words ever could: we want Hillary.

[Sky Masterson]

12. And all of these independent voters and Bernie Dems are going to catch the Hill Magic, come out and

vote Hillary after this primary with all of the bullshit they've witnessed. I don't see it.
This is asinine and is contradicted by every poll that says Bernie runs better against the Republicans than Hillary does.
This article belongs on the bottom of a birdcage.
You guys flock to polls saying Bernie is double digits behind Hillary in New York
and Ignore the ones that have said for months that She wins by far less or loses against the Republican in the General when Bernie wins in EVERY case.

[Demsrule86]

21. They want Bernie

So they held their fire...but they would destroy him...Dukakis, McGovern take you pick...he will lost as the second coming of Stalin.

[0rganism]

13. Republican advice regarding the Democratic primary should be taken with considerable salt

regardless of the opinions offered, it's seldom obvious if they're telling the truth or trying some reverse psychology bullshit: "tell them candidate X is easier to beat so they post up candidate Y who is actually easier," or maybe not, we just don't know. i suspect they don't know either, but blabbing about it takes attention away from the shameful shit going down in their party's primary.

probably safer just to disregard their statements entirely rather than try to squeeze truth out of them.

[frylock]

14. I believe that they felt the same about Obama.

[beedle]

16. Remember how they destroyed that other famous socialist ...

... communist, Muslim, non-American, racist, blah, blah, blah .... Obama?

[Kalidurga]

17. And Republicans are notorious for being right about things?

I don't care what RepubliCONS "think", what they do is not relevant to my allegiance to my principles. I have seen enough of what continual war and the arms race has done to this country and all the other countries in the world. Enough is Enough.

[Sky Masterson]

18. Um.

"California Republicans are deeply concerned about immigration, which is Trump’s signature issue,” said Jack Pitney, a former GOP staffer who is now a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College."
http://www.marinij.com/article/NO/20160323/NEWS/160329913

[geek tragedy]

19. that's true, and that' why California Republicans are now a permanent minority party nt