1) Might get VP nod
2) Establish fundraising and ground games
3) Get your name out there
4) You might beat her (See: Obama, Barack)

If Bernie still has any fire in his belly and runs he'll win the nomination and the general election. It will go something like this (except for the very ending): (nsfw and sexist language and sexist situations)

I never put a ton of stock into polls, but didn't pretty much every poll have Bernie destroying Trump in the general but a much, much wider margin than Hillary?

The chances that a Libertarian will be elected president in the next 100 years are approximately the same as the chances than an alien/human hybrid will be elected president in the next 100 years. And that's a good thing.

I think that some polls had him running better against Trump than Hillary, but "what if" polls of that sort are worth almost nothing.

Bernie didn't face the machine. He would/will be painted a commie.

Also, someone posted a poll of a majority of republicans now looking negatively on the NFL. The rabid trumpsters I know irl would 100% say they look negatively on the NFL and have not changed their behavior a bit. People might say they would vote for Bernie had he been an option but if a liar tells them it will cost them $40 a month if they do, well you know.

I don't think the country is as liberal as you wish it was, but as I said, we may well end up testing that proposition in 2020.

bernie will be 79 should probably forget it

To implement his agenda, Bernie requires a widely-held belief that government can be a powerful force for good. But his rhetoric encourages distrust of virtually everyone in government except for him. It's a problem.

Non liberals like Bernie too. Admittedly there's some deplorable crossover from people who don't really understand Bernie and wouldn't vote for a Warren because of misogyny, but the main thing is people vote for who they like as much as anything else and people like Bernie. And all that socialism like universal health care really does poll well.

The rabid Trumpsters who now hate the NFL don't need to vote for Bernie. 10% of the rust belt NAFTA haters and the college kids who didn't bother to vote for Hillary will be more than enough to win.

The last thing the Dems need is a Harvard doofus who uses focus groups to decide when to use colorful idioms, but that's probably what they'll end up with. They'll still probably beat Trump. Hopefully.

That is what i was worried about with him. And he would not of been painted as just a commie, he would of been an atheist commie jew. Hard to overcome that here in the good old USA. Still think he might of had a shot though because he would of reflected trumps hate back better.

I'm not very bright. Please elucidate me on the flaws in my analogy.

Bernie's being 79 will be a problem unless he seems really vital. The commie atheist Jew thing will not be a problem. Those people aren't voting for any Democrat. People said stuff like that when they voted for Hillary in the 2008 primary because no one would ever elect a black man. FFS, don't let them make you vote like a bigot.

Elizabeth Warren would be a disaster for a number of reasons. Why she is mentioned order of magnitudes more here as our savior than anyone else is really mind blowing.

It also shows how thin the Dem bench is sadly...

Come on, micro. I didn't go to Harvard, but denigrating the well-educated as out of touch eggheads is straight out of the Republican playbook, and as Obama showed, it's not a particularly accurate form of profiling.

You would think a murder might be a sign to close up shop butnah.

Sorta, but also **** Harvard. It's not just "good education" and it trades on privilege just as much. University of Michigan or something would be much better. Obama did come from a different place before college, but listen to him talk about living in a bubble. He was pretty candid that being surrounded by a very narrow world view had an impact on him.

For twenty years before Obama was elected, I said that a non-white man would be president before a woman.

Many quiet racists separate black men into groups. Light-skinned, well-educated, and relatively soft spoken = non-threatening and maybe OK. Dark-skinned, less well-educated, and brash = scary and definitely not OK.

But the quiet sexists tend to lump all women into the same group. And subtle sexism continues to be very socially acceptable.

Sexism also crosses racial lines.

I have no particular love in my heart for Harvard. I've met some good people from there, and I've met some pretty useless people from there.

I will say this. If you went to Harvard, and you thought it was the most magical place on earth, I probably don't want to hang out with you.

1 - the nod is still out there for grabs
2 - lol, 4-8 years in advance?
3 - see Jim Webb and whatshisface
4 - riiiight

I think that's true that it was easier for a black man, especially an educated soft-spoken half-white black man than it would have been for a woman. But, that's not obviously true, just a guess. Hillary did get 66 million votes - she almost won the 2008 nomination. A woman has similar hurdles to jump in being super careful not to be too aggressive and not too weak.

But for the most part we're not really talking about winning over Trump voters, but getting people who didn't vote to the polls. Someone has to generate some passion.

True and women certainly didn't all rally behind Hillary despite her going up against (probably) a rapist. And it crosses gender lines too. It's not that hard to find Trumpkin videos of women saying women shouldn't be president.

I would guess that better than 50% of women who are truly old (75+) believe this.

Commie is not like the others. Commie will take the form of a relentless, acceptable drumbeat that will confuse the dim-witted into believing his platform, that will help them, is really a handout for lazy people, unamerican, and literally evil. It's a slam dunk. He MAY be able to counter it but for crying out loud he couldn't even do it with progressives in the primary, and that is without fox, breitbart, the church that will soon be able to preach politics from the pulpit, and the mainstream media covering every lie trump tweets about him.

Asking people what policies they like in a calm, unretorical way is different than a race where policy literally doesn't matter.

The bigot stuff had it's own legs.

Say what you want about the first black president equaling progress, but the pushback kinda negates that theory.