Hillary Clinton's star has risen since she was deposed by Barack Obama for the presidency in 2008. She was selected as secretary of state by the president in a sort of Team of Rivals gesture.
In the last couple of weeks, the Republicans have served her some ammunition, as well. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) admitted in a rare moment of truth for a politician, otherwise known as a gaffe, that the Republican House committee created to investigate the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya was aimed at sinking Hillary's poll numbers. Then a second congressman admitted this week that the committee is solely "designed to go after" Hillary Clinton.
Hillary had a poised, polished debate performance where even her rival Senator Bernie Sanders told Anderson Cooper "enough about the emails" a magnanimous gesture by Sanders, especially after Hillary's attack on him for not being tough enough about guns. The audience applauded loudly in appreciation.
Senator Bernie Sanders is an avuncular, authentic soul who is lovable, even if one disagrees with his politics. He has been talking about the inequities, the harshness of capitalism and its predatory billionaire class for decades. His message of breaking up the mega-banks, taxing the rich, and his overall anti-Wall Street rhetoric resonates strongly on the left.
His entreaties to voters have pulled Hillary Clinton to the left on many of the popular issues causing many journalists to question her integrity. For example, she switched positions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, once calling it the "gold standard" as secretary of state and now coming out against it. Her position on same-sex marriage has "evolved" and her rhetoric about regulating Wall Street has grown more forceful than her former cozy relationship with Wall Street would warrant. Certainly, the tousled-haired Sanders has pulled her candidacy leftward. The dogma these days in politics is not to appeal to some mythical independent voter, but to bring out the base!
So Sanders has certainly had an impact regardless of whether he wins the primary or not and, unfortunately, he cannot win the Democratic nomination for president. Anyone who admits to not being a 'capitalist' will not win the party's nomination and certainly not the general election. Besides Hillary's base in the South is just too strong. She is too popular among African-American voters who have a fond memory of her husband's time in office.
In June, Sanders polled around 2% with black voters and in many of the states in the deep South this demographic composes up to 33% of the electorate. The economic populism that Sanders espouses is not as popular in the Black community as is civil and voting rights issues and he is just largely an unknown quantity among that group.
So Bernie's main impact in the race may be his legacy of pulling Hillary to the left. It is a fine legacy. After all, Hillary could not have failed to witness the thousands of enthralled voters who come out to hear Sanders's speeches and his message of economic populism. Hillary must envy the army of small donors who have filled his campaign coffers. He generates an excitement, an electricity, she never really has perhaps except for the moment when she almost tearfully described how much she "cared for the country" when facing the prospect of losing her second primary contest to Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign. It was her moment of authenticity. So voters will court the unscripted, authentic Sanders and vote for the candidate with a better chance to win the general election - Hillary!