Kasich and Cruz dropping out could help Sanders quite a bit.

[thesquanderer]

16. True, some disaffected right-leaners may prefer to vote for Hillary, at least on policy. But...

...that has to be balanced with Hillary's huge unfavorables outside the dem base, so there is not a lot of motivation to be had there, to actually come out to the Dem primary and pull that lever.

That is to say, if a right-leaning voter is anti-Trump, and so is leaning voting Dem in November, to get them to come out for an open Dem primary, I think you need to look beyond the "any port in a storm" voters, to those who actually have a strong preference in a choice they wish they didn't have to make in the first place. Based on polling, non-Dems who have a preference would be expected to overwhelmingly prefer Bernie.

Secondarily, with Hillary the clear frontrunner, even those disaffected right-leaning voters who prefer her over Bernie may not feel as motivated to come out and vote for her in an open Dem primay, compared to the anti-Hillary people who want someone other than Hillary OR Trump to vote for in November, both because it is already likely that she will win and also, related to what I said above, their preference for Hillary over Bernie may not be that strong.

But there's a whole other angle on this as well: There are a number of right-leaning voters who actually prefer Sanders' positions on civil liberties (i.e. PATRIOT Act), his less hawk-like positions on foreign policy, his stand against trade policies like NAFTA and TPP. So while Hillary can be seen as more moderate (therefore closer to Republican) in many ways compared to the typically more liberal Bernie, there are also some key areas where the reverse is true.

And it's not always even a matter of what their positions are. There are other reasons people prefer one candidate or another.

Bottom line: outside the Dem base (i.e. Republicans and independents), people tend to prefer Bernie over Hillary. So he is the more likely beneficiary of right-leaning voters who don't like Trump.