A cautionary note about the excitement over the polls showing Bernie up, way up over [View all]

[JDPriestly]

Clinton.

For example,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/128047251

As those who recognize my moniker know, I am a 100% Bernie Sanders supporter and volounteer.

But I want to warn about the poll numbers.

These polls assume that Joe Biden will run. The support attributed to him comes from vulnerable Hillary voters as well as from potential Sanders voters, but I suspect that they mostly come from Hillary's voters.

If Joe Biden does not announce, and I don't think he will, then new polls will be published that show Bernie down. It's kind of a psychological trick to include Biden, who has not announced his candidacy, in these polls.

When the reality becomes clear that Biden is not running (it's really too late if he is to participate in the first debate), then Bernie supporters are likely to be disappointed at the poll results. And the MSM is likely to gleefully report that Bernie is down.

Bernie will not be down. A great part of Biden's supporters will reluctantly go home and say they support Hillary.

But, here is the good news -- every person who claims to support Biden is demonstrating dissatisfaction with Hillary.

That means that every Biden supporter could be a potential Bernie supporter. The Biden supporters are breaking with the Hillary machine and the Hillary candidacy but not yet enough to say they support Bernie.

It's the Biden supporters we Bernie supporters need to reach with Bernie's populist, hones, authauntic message.

The point of this post: don't get discouraged if the polls show that Clinton's numbers go up and Bernie's go down when Biden disappears from the polls.

Just work harder because these polls show the potential for Bernie, and there is lots more out there that is not yet reflected in the polls.

I hope this post will not be misunderstood. I do not mean to suggest that Bernie is not winning hands down. But let's not get too euphoric because these polls are at this time not based on the reality about who is running. If you have questions about it, I will try to answer them.