As a Senator he a was a mean ol' SOB Dem. Can you cite any of his "accomplishments"? I can't.
Ryan was a weak patsy who played paddy-cake against Biden. Palin easily more than held her own with Biden. Trump would destroy him.
The only commonality between Trump voters and and Sanders voters is a weariness with The Political Establishment Class. Other than that, the two have nothing much in common.
The Comrade's solution is purely Confiscation. Trump's solution are business principles: Opportunity, LOGIC and Logistics.
On this we do agree -- Sanders will play the "Hate" Card, the "Equality" Card, the "Economic" card -- but isn't that all Socialism/Communism? But let's not forget -- Sanders' supporters are basically anarchists and college kids. Yes -- it is unfathomable to believe Sanders is attracting as much support as he is. AS a Commie. Isn't it?
I can see from your writing that you’ve got a strong core of beliefs. You’re thinking that most people will look at this the way you do - with a strong core of political beliefs. I think this is an error.
Most people don’t read Bastiat, Hayek, Friedman or Rand etc...
Most people don’t know what the Constitution provides for and restricts or why it provides/restricts things.
Most people don’t talk politics on the internet.
Most people do see headlines on CBS/ABC/NBC or Google/Yahoo
This is why Sanders will play better than both you and the article author believe. He won’t call it communism even though we know it is. He won’t call it socialism even though we know it is. He’ll shuck and jive when those labels are foisted upon him. He’ll duck questions about Venezuela’s object example of socialism’s failure by saying it just wasn’t implemented properly without noting that it’s impossible to be implemented properly.
I still don’t think he’d beat Trump but I do think he’d play MUCH better than you or the author do.
As for Biden, his story will be:
“Ending the rancor in the Democrat party”
“A steady hand in time of turmoil”
“Someone who’s been there for the last 8 years”
“Someone who knows what’s happening in the world and isn’t going to overreact”
“Someone you can trust”
You and I (and many here) know all the things you posted about him are true. For the reasons I stated above about Sanders, I acknowledge that for most people, those things about Biden won’t matter. He will be untarnished by the long primary and when he takes Warren as his running mate, he’ll bring peace to the Democrat party. Most of the Sanders voters who many have switched to Trump will not switch.