Opposition to Trump nearly unites the rising generation.

In a hypothetical Clinton v. Trump contest in November, voters under 35 would choose Clinton by a crushing 52%-19%, a preference that crosses demographic lines. Among whites, she'd be backed by nearly 2-1, 45%-26%. Among Hispanics, by more than 4-1, 61%-14%. Among Asian Americans, by 5-1, 60%-11%. Among African Americans, by 13-1, 67%-5%.

And the yawning gender gap she has against Sanders would vanish: Clinton would carry young men and women by almost identical margins of more than 2-1.

Nearly one in four Republicans would defect to the Democrats if the GOP nominated Trump against Clinton. Just 7% of Democrats would defect to the GOP.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/03/14/poll-millennials-clinton-sanders-trump-president/81612520/

Hillary Clinton is the most capable, experienced and knowledgeable Democratic candidate for president.

The former First Lady, secretary of state and New York senator has been in the political trenches virtually her whole life. She knows the issues. She understands the art of the deal. She's credible and she's impressive.

She not only can win the White House, but she also will be ready once she gets there, a description that does not apply to her worthy but ideologically narrow primary opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Sanders is so far out of the mainstream, and so ideologically rigid, that he's unlikely to find traction for his ideas even were he to be elected -- leaving him, and the nation, adrift. Given Sanders' self-identification as a democratic socialist, he is also likely to be a far more polarizing figure in the White House.

By contrast, Clinton knows Washington, knows how to get things done, and will get things done.

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/03/hillary_clinton_in_the_democra.html

Less than a week before the primary in the country's third largest state, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has a skeleton crew in Florida: four paid staffers and three campaign offices.Compare that with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's dozens of staffers and eight offices.

Even with three campaign events this week and a Wednesday night debate in Miami — his first trip to Florida as a presidential candidate — there have been few signs of the Vermont senator on the state's campaign trail.

Political analysts say that's no accident.

"To say it's a pipe dream would imply he actually thinks he has a shot," said University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewett. "I suspect he realizes he doesn't have a shot in Florida, but to be taken seriously as a candidate, you have to basically compete in the biggest battleground state."

As of Tuesday, Sanders was 25.6 points behind Clinton in Florida, with just 32.2 percent of Democrats' support, according to a RealClearPolitics.com average of state polling data.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/elections/with-a-week-to-go-before-florida-primary-sanders-shows-up-to-campaign/2268485

Nick Merrill ?@NickMerrill 49m49 minutes ago
.@HillaryClinton is going to drop off the trail briefly on Friday to attend Nancy Reagan's funeral services in California.

Michigan should have been fertile territory for Bernie Sanders’s populist and protectionist message, but he’s expected to lose the Democratic primary there today by double digits.

What happened?

Hillary Clinton made the race in Michigan all about the lead in Flint’s water, her opposition to the state’s controversial emergency manager law and her opponent’s vote against a bailout for the auto industry.

The crisis in Flint had been going on for some time before the former Secretary of State sent emissaries to visit, secured the endorsement of the city’s mayor and then insisted on having a debate in the city, 70 miles northwest of Detroit.

It is part of a pattern for Clinton. She’s approached every primary more like it was a Senate race than a presidential election by identifying a local issue that would play to her advantage and then championing it........
.............
- Sanders, though he was mayor of Burlington, Vt., in the 1980s, does not engage on local policy to anywhere near the degree that Clinton does. He’s calling for a national political revolution, not incremental public policy changes. The senator also has a tiny press staff compared to the Clinton juggernaut, which teems with regional press staffers who have the bandwidth to focus on placing local stories.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2016/03/08/daily-202-hillary-clinton-is-winning-with-a-hyper-local-strategy/56de2040981b92a22d7612d7/

.......Had both Mr. Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont appeared headed toward victory in the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries, Mr. Bloomberg was determined to run, according to his advisers, several of whom insisted on anonymity to speak candidly about confidential discussions.

But Mr. Bloomberg balked at the prospect of a race against Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton, who has established a dominant lead over Mr. Sanders on the Democratic side. In his column, Mr. Bloomberg said he could not in good conscience enter a race that could lead to a deadlock in the Electoral College — and to the election of Mr. Trump, or perhaps Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

Mr. Bloomberg’s decision brings a new measure of clarity to a presidential race that has come sharply into focus in recent weeks, and reflects both Mrs. Clinton’s tightening grip on the Democratic contest and the growing alarm among mainstream political and business leaders about Mr. Trump’s populist insurgency.

Mr. Trump is widely seen as a weak general election candidate, and surveys conducted for Mr. Bloomberg bolstered that perception. Mr. Bloomberg’s veteran pollster, Douglas E. Schoen, gauged his prospects in polls in February and March, testing Mr. Bloomberg as a candidate nationally and in 22 crucial states.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-not-running-for-president.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

It is amazing how little the Democratic race has really changed over the last several months. Hillary Clinton is the odds-on favorite to win the nomination. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) is leading a revolt from the left. Sanders speaks to white ideological liberals and young Democrats. Clinton speaks to practically everyone else in the party — and, as “Saturday Night Live” pointed out, provides a refuge for moderates terrified of the other options this election year. Nothing in Sunday night’s debate changed any of this, which nets out to a loss for Sanders.

Down in the polls in advance of Tuesday’s major contest in Michigan, Sanders needs the race to take a dramatic turn before Clinton wins another populous state. Yet rather than attempting to advance onto new ground in Sunday’s debate, Sanders simply entrenched himself on his same narrow patch of ideological turf. Either he knows he probably will not win the nomination and he figures he should just keep making his point while everyone is still watching, or he believes that his problem is that not enough people have heard him say the same things over and over again.

In fact, much of the debate revolved around the same basic argument between practicality and ideology that emerged the first time the two faced off on the debate stage, when Clinton declared, “I’m a progressive, but I’m a progressive who likes to get things done.”
....
.........Mostly, Sanders steered the conversation back to his core concerns — Wall Street, campaign finance, a massive public jobs program and single-payer health care — and made his usual pitch. Clinton, meanwhile, ran for president. “A president can’t go ordering folks around,” she said at one point. “Our system doesn’t permit that.” It’s nice to know at least one candidate on either side is keeping that in mind.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/03/07/clinton-is-running-for-president-sanders-is-doing-something-else/?postshare=6071457362135060&tid=ss_tw-bottom