Friday 29 January 2016

Washington Post launches contradictory attacks on Sanders presidential run

The Washington Post reveals two distinct lines of attack running simultaneously on Sanders now that HRC is pushing the panic button (1) He's just telling voters what they want to hear but can't deliver (link)  (2) he's unelectable because his ideas are so radical that voters will find them repugnant. (link)
Those two lines of attack are obviously in some tension, although I guess, to be fair, the first is being applied to Democratic primary voters and the second to the general electorate. Still, the argument that his policies are shiny attractive baubles for the Democratic base and utterly repugnant to the portion of the electorate that would be in play for deciding the election strikes me as an implausible claim.

1 comment:

Erik J. Larson said...

Mike,
This is a nice piece of political logic, but at the end of the day, I doubt he'll be elected - in fact I think it's becoming more evident that he won't earn the nomination. When all the dust settles, the relevant fact will be also the obvious one: he's viewed as an economic radicalist or Socialist by the preponderance of American voters. Kids, loving him, somehow fail to materialize in November. Add to this that if your message strikes a chord mostly with young people who want "revolution" (probably on their smartphones though, as an app), you'll likely run into problems as the stakes get progressively raised.