2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Iowa Democrats worry Bernie Sanders couldn't win a general election or tame Washington [View all]Gothmog
(145,176 posts)Your post is premised on a number of really dumb assumptions including the concept that the Democratic blue wall is magic. Your claim is based on the theory that the Democratic Blue Wall is magical and that any democrat with a "D" next to their name will start the election with 240+ electoral votes. The Democratic blue wall is simply a pattern of 19 states and the District of Columbia voting for Democratic candidates in the last six elections. You have to understand the history of these races to attempt to extrapolate the blue wall to other election. In each of the races that form the historical pattern for the blue wall, the Democrats ran mainstream well financed candidates. The Democratic blue wall does not apply to a non-mainstream candidate who has insufficient resources to run a viable campaign. Sanders will not necessarily benefit from the Democratic blue wall if the Kochs hit him with $400 million of negative ads and Sanders lacks the financial resources to respond.
It is not Democrats who are going to vote for the GOP candidate, it is the independents and voters who can be influenced by negative ads. Sanders does not appear to be viable in a contest where the Kochs will be spending $887 million and the likely GOP nominee will be able to raise another billion dollars. This article had a very interesting quote about the role of super pacs in the upcoming election http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/03/bernie-sanders-grassroots-movement-gains-clinton-machine
I regret the fact the Bernie Sanders has embraced the idea that hes going to live life like the Vermont snow, as pure as he possibly can, while he runs for president, because it weakens his chances and hes an enormously important progressive voice, Lessig said.
President Obama was against super pacs in 2012 but had to use one to keep the race close. I do not like super pacs but any Democratic candidate who wants to be viable has to use a super pac, The super pacs associated with Clinton raised $24 million and so Clinton raised $70 this quarter.
I am going to support the Democratic candidate no matter what. You can not say that about voters who are influenced by negative ads.