When thinking about the way in which Bernie Sanders trounced Hillary Clinton, it’s worth noting that as recently as January, Clinton was leading Sanders in the New Hampshire polls:
Sanders didn’t just win in New Hampshire. He undermined Clinton’s campaign so badly, she may never recover.
CONCORD, New Hampshire — Hundreds of Bernie Sanders’s supporters packed into a high school gym here—after waiting outside in frigid temperatures to file through metal detectors one-by-one—to celebrate his big win. Meanwhile, about 20 miles away, a loyal crowd tried to keep its collective chin up as Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the first Democratic primary contest.
The contrast highlights just how much damage Sanders is doing to Clinton’s campaign. Even though he’s still a longshot to snag the nomination, his candidacy is persuading young voters, women, and progressives that Clinton is in the pocket of big banks and corrupt corporations—and it’s persuading Clinton’s own supporters that they’re on the sadder side of this contest.
It remains to be seen, of course, if Sanders will actually be able to pick up any more wins. Current polls indicate that Sanders’s campaign in the other early states will be much trickier than his efforts in New Hampshire. Clinton’s double-digit leads in South Carolina and Nevada might have given a few of his supporters pause.
But those supporters weren’t in Concord tonight.
The gym his supporters packed into brimmed with unmitigated glee. An eclectic crowd danced, chanted, foot-stomped, and overall whooped it up for the democratic-socialist turned Democratic primary champion.
And the crowd’s devotion to their candidate highlighted just how much damage his candidacy is doing to Clinton’s—even if she’s the party’s ultimate nominee, which still seems all but guaranteed.
Considering that Sanders gained 25 points on Clinton in New Hampshire in just a single month, it seems insane to put any weight at all on Clinton’s 29.5 percent advantage in South Carolina that dates back to the week of January 17th.
I suspect that Sanders has dealt Hillary her death blow, everyone just hasn’t realized it yet. It’s not as if Hillary is particularly popular in the South, after all. And let’s face it, there wouldn’t be all this talk about Biden getting into the race if anyone had any confidence in Hillary, who appears to be the least competent establishment favorite since Bob Dole.
I mean, she managed to lose 83 percent of the young female vote to a 74-year-old gamma male… while running on her vagina. She is spectacularly unlikable; young women openly hate her. And remember, despite all the revised expectations in the new narrative, she was the favorite in New Hampshire until her Iowa debacle.