If the notion of Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic nomination and White House in a landslide seems unbelievable, I explain my thought process during an appearance on The David Pakman Show. In this segment, I highlight numerous reasons Bernie Sanders is poised to defeat both Clinton and Trump in dominating fashion.
Below are five reasons Bernie Sanders will win the presidency in a landslide, and while many in the media are just starting to jump on Bernie's bandwagon, the paradigm will change dramatically after Iowa and New Hampshire wins.
1.Media Coverage after Bernie Sanders wins Iowa and New Hampshire will help Sanders win Nevada and South Carolina. Four straight wins will be too much to overcome for the Clinton campaign.
In terms of media coverage, The Los Angeles Times writes that "Historically, Iowa and New Hampshire account for about half the news media coverage of the entire primary season, with the winners absorbing the lion's share of the attention."
If almost half of the coverage is about Bernie Sanders winning, his campaign will be able to achieve even more that it has already; without the stigma of being a long shot. Suddenly, Clinton's invincibility narrative will morph into Bernie's inevitability.
Already, Bernie Sanders is the only leading presidential candidate with positive favorability ratings. In addition, the more people hear about Sanders, the more they respect his sincerity; his trustworthiness rating won't be affected by increased coverage like Clinton or Trump. You might not agree with Bernie Sanders, but you know he's genuine and sincere.
As for Clinton's polling lead among African Americans and Latinos, that too will change, primarily because of increased attention towards her record on racial issues. This record is highlighted in a Huffington Post piece titled Hillary Clinton Says She'll End Private Prisons, Stop Accepting Their Money:
Lobbying firms that work for two major private prison giants, GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, gave $133,246 to the Ready for Hillary PAC, according to Vice...
Immigrant and civil rights groups have urged Clinton to stop accepting contributions from donors with ties to GEO and CCA.
Don't expect Clinton to maintain her current lead among minority voters, especially in light of the fact prison lobbyists have funded her campaign.
Bernie Sanders has never taken money from prison lobbyists.
If terms like white supremacy, or white privilege mean anything, they presumably correlate to never voting for a person who accepts money from prison lobbyists.
These terms might also mean holding a candidate accountable for running a 3 a.m. ad with a "racist sub-message" against Barack Obama, or addressing the fact South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn once stated, "black people are incensed over all of this."
If Clinton's 2008 campaign against Obama were waged by a Republican, instead of a Democrat, progressives everywhere would declare her campaign's "dirty tricks" to be racist.
As stated by The Guardian in 2008, "Barack Obama's campaign team today accused Hillary Clinton's beleaguered staff of mounting a desperate dirty tricks operation by circulating a picture of him in African dress, feeding into false claims on US websites that he is a Muslim."
In addition, two initial losses in Iowa and New Hampshire will allow voters everywhere to evaluate Clinton's campaign without the aura of invincibility. As a result, her record on race, from an "abysmal" record on racial justice (according to Boston's Black Lives Matter President) to accepting prison lobbyist donations, will no longer be overshadowed by the notion of inevitability.
Ultimately, Clinton has only her name recognition, not the presence of advocates likening her policies to the political philosophy of Martin Luther King, or championing her campaign.
Two initial wins for Bernie Sanders won't only shed a much-needed light upon his campaign. These wins will also shed a much-needed light upon Clinton's record with the demographic groups essential to any hope for her nomination.
2.Bernie Sanders enjoys more political momentum than anyone in 2016. Two initial wins will increase this momentum exponentially.
What is achieved by a campaign, without the help of media, is the heart of political momentum. Political momentum decides presidential elections, and only one candidate has enough momentum to raise a record 2.3 million campaign contributions, while getting only 1/23rd the coverage of Donald Trump.
How does this happen without name recognition?
Bernie Sanders just surpassed Hillary Clinton (in recent polls) in Iowa and New Hampshire, in addition to a continued surge nationally. Sanders is now only 7 points behind Clinton nationally in one recent poll.
His surge is based upon immense grass roots support, bolstering his fundraising and continual ascent atop the polls.
If you view this to be hyperbole, did you ever imagine Bernie Sanders winning Iowa and New Hampshire?
3.Hillary Clinton's polling lead is dwindling faster in 2016 than it did in 2008.
Imagine last year, when Bernie Sander was mired at .08% support within the 2016 Democratic Primary, that you'd read a headline titled Hillary Clinton's national lead is slipping faster in 2016 than it did in 2008:
If we compare where Clinton is now in the Real Clear Politics polling average, the 2016 picture and the 2008 picture aren't really all that similar. Nationally, she was doing much better in 2008 than she is right now...
If you look at her national numbers after Iowa in 2008, she lost three-quarters of her lead after the caucuses...
Most importantly, remember 2008. As stated by The Washington Post, "If you look at her national numbers after Iowa in 2008, she lost three-quarters of her lead after the caucuses..."
Also, how many pundits imagined Bernie Sanders would break Obama's fundraising record for contributions?
4.Once America finds out Bernie Sanders is more like Teddy Roosevelt, than a "Fox News socialist," voters will overwhelmingly choose Sanders over Clinton and Trump.
What is holding Sanders back, from national prominence, is the belief among many observers that Americans won't elect a socialist. The problem with this myth, however, is that Sanders is a Democratic-Socialist, similar to Teddy Roosevelt and FDR, and the antithesis of anything conjured up by Fox News.
Wins in Iowa and New Hampshire will help destroy this myth, especially since these victories will result in attention towards his mainstream policies.
Also, Bernie Sanders wins "a landslide of epic proportions" against Trump, as stated in a Hill piece titled In blockbuster poll, Sanders destroys Trump by 13 points:
In the new Quinnipiac poll, Clinton would defeat Trump by 7 percentage points...while the Sanders lead of 13 points would bring a landslide of epic proportions...
Already, even with Sanders trailing Clinton nationally, he does better in a matchup against the likely GOP frontrunner.
Combine the words "landslide of epic proportions" in a general election poll, along with two initial wins and the inevitable media coverage, and Bernie Sanders duplicates his success into Nevada and South Carolina.
5.The FBI could give Bernie Sanders a landslide victory at any moment.
As for the ongoing FBI investigation of Clinton's private server, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates explains why this saga might derail Clinton's campaign. The Week highlights the severity of Clinton's email saga in an article titled Did Russia read Hillary Clinton's emails? Robert Gates says the odds are 'pretty high.':
Gates, who served under Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, said he agreed with that assessment, adding that "the odds are pretty high" that Clinton's communications were accessed by unfriendly nations...
Gates' remarks come on the heels of the revelation that Clinton's private system processed information "of a higher level of classification than 'top secret'" which was never supposed to leave secure government servers.
With the nature of the internet and email, as well as classified data, the FBI could at any moment declare Clinton jeopardized national security.
All of these factors: political momentum, Clinton's dwindling lead in the polls combined with Sanders's surge, and an FBI scandal that could derail the Clinton campaign at any moment, create the perfect storm for an epic Bernie Sanders victory.
I'm very grateful to David and Louis for my recent appearance on The David Pakman Show, explaining why Sanders will dominate the primaries on his way to the White House. I also highlight why Bernie Sanders will become president on The Thom Hartmann Show, and why he'll win landslide victory on The Benjamin Dixon Show. For the record, I'm a Democrat and only voting for Bernie Sanders, not Trump or Clinton.