Yes, Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat and Hillary represents the very worst of the party/SALON

[Orrex]

105. If there's no poll data, then you absolutely can't make claims about his chances

The bold text was a formatting error, now corrected. My bad.

IF Sanders already has such high independent voter numbers now, those would only increase if he shed his Democrat label.

Really? Why do you say that? How do you know that the mighty Independent electorate would rally behind him? It's entirely possible (and quite likely) that large numbers have already decided to vote Democrat or Republican and would do so even if Sanders turns back into an Independent. On what basis do you imagine that they'd make the leap? Give me evidence, please--I'm not a person of faith.

And while some Democrats that are for Bernie now would submit to the powers that be and DWS and endorse the party sanctioned candidate...I project that the deeply important progressive issues, many traditional Democratic policies, that he is proposing has garnered him the type of support that is not so easily turned away from once it is finally offered.

That's some pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking. It seems far more likely that a majority of Democrats will vote for the Democrat and won't magically be persuaded to jump ship to vote for the Independent. There is no reasonable basis to conclude otherwise. I project that many will understandably resent him for fracturing the non-GOP vote, and they'll recognize his Independent campaign as a self-serving political stunt.

There is a yuuuuge segment of Democrats that have been simmering and stewing more and more as Obama allowed the status quo to continue after promising change.

I'm not sure that's true, or at any rate I strongly doubt that enough of these stewing Democrats are willing to hand the election to the GOP by voting for the Independent.

Add to that independents and even Republicans that would never vote for a Democrat and hate the choices that their own party has given them.....

Then one would hope that these mythical Independents would recognize and reject the cynical opportunism that inspired Sanders to campaign as a Democrat in the first place.

Fortunately, I have greater confidence in Sanders' integrity than his supporters, and I'm confident that he knows that he'd guarantee a Republican victory if he were to run as an Independent. Therefore I don't believe that he'll do so.