Republicans afraid of running against Bernie, want Hillary instead.

[cprise]

98. They are trying to frame the issues as early as possible

...hoping the corporate media will fall into line if they repeat their accusations enough (you know, like the good old days). They feel like they're in the wilderness, and they are desperately jonesing for their corporate news unreality bubble from the mid 90s - late 2000s.

And they know the Clinton-smearing (not that its *all* lies) will have little effect on Democratic primaries. And if it did, there are other Third Way potential candidates in the wings.

What help RWers *are* getting from the media is in their reluctance to mention Sanders at all. They are not prepared to field real leftist positions in their hourly news cycles without some serious cognitive dissonance.

For now, the media bigwigs can tell themselves that polls mean nothing this early (implying that their coverage now is capricious and self-indulgent). When that self-delusion wears thin, they no doubt hope to have some kind of 'containment' strategy against a real progressive candidate like Sanders.