Plus it's still not obvious what she's done to deserve such negativity. Lower polls than Trump? For what? Especially since she had very high poll numbers 4 years ago. I bet Dennis Hastert has higher numbers, maybe even Chris Christie - it really doesn't make much sense. Uh, she and her family ran a charity that was smeared as being crooked but nothing was ever found. She had a home mail server that was never proven to be hacked nor any significant leak. She worked with EU countries to stop Qaddafi's attacks on civilians which resulted in his overthrow. She was a major force behind socialized medicine for 25 years and supported Planned Parenthood and keeping abortions available and worked on poverty programs. She never called anyone a pig, major league asshole or any other crude epithets that other politicians do. Her husband got a few extramarital blowjobs - not even sure full intercourse - while she as far as anyone knows was faithful and kept their marriage together. She's a regular churchgoer and seems to be sincere about it, which seems to be a big deal in America while her opponent was an obvious nonbeliever and phony about any ethics, religious or otherwise. She's frequently self-deprecating, and has had a number of humorous skits on TV. Who knows - aliens will have a curious time deciphering this planet.

As the saying goes, you're trying to teach granny how to suck eggs. Hillary's been doing public health care for a quarter of a century - it's not like Bernie's schooling her. "Single Payer" is just some bullshit slogan that someone latched onto as a purity test it's just one option among several, and it's not like he wrote up a detailed plan. Remember how insurance companies managed to game any offer on the table? It doesn't matter how many payers if it's all horribly expensive. And it doesn't matter what it is if most of the voters have been already trained to hate it. We fucking got our ass handed to us in 2010 over Obamacare. Why do we want a repeat of that?

[I'm in a hybrid system with basically 2 insurance companies to choose from, and hospitals & private doctors/clinics bill the hospitals. Insurance is mandatory, both for companies and individuals. Everything works pretty swimmingly except the usual tidbits of having to find the right doctor to approve a treatment or expense or some services not covered, and it's illegal to charge more for a service or have the patient pay any exrra direct - you have to go out of the system for that. So is this system a problem vs the vaunted Single Payer? Methinks not - everyone's covered for basics so they don't do stupid shit like leave dangerous conditions because they can't afford it]

John Kerry was 25 when he was decorated for service on active duty in Vietnam, and the GOP swiftboated him.

The Bernie essays would be prime, effective political attack fodder.

However, maybe the nation needs Trump to show just what the GOP is, and encourage more voters to vote for effective representatives who work for them.

Black voters key on different parts of her message

To be sure, removing the discriminatory barriers that hold black or Latino or trans children back is a worthy and noble project, but it’s not an answer to the central challenge of a polarized and unequal economy. Given the fact that there are not enough slots at the happy end of the meritocracy for everyone, this philosophy implicitly consigns a large portion of the population to an unstable, low-wage misery. What’s more, while a commitment to improving the meritocracy at least has some message for the marginalized groups who suffer from discrimination, it offers nothing to white workers for whom the meritocracy is already thought to be working. White workers have white privilege, which means essentially that the system already works for them. Following this logic, if you are a white man and can’t make it, then the problem must be you. Of course, we do realize as a party that people, even white workers, are suffering.  So when we open our charitable hearts to offer a minimum wage hike or an unemployment check to black, white and brown people, we expect working class whites to support us. Often these working class whites don’t support the Democratic Party, because their self-concept is such that they view themselves as productive middle class workers and think this type of assistance is not really for them, despite the fact that this self-concept is not often in line with their current situation. They also rightfully find such an approach condescending. People don’t vote for condescending leaders, even if in the short term the condescension comes with some minor economic benefits and even if the policies themselves-like minimum wage and unemployment insurance-are sound. Ultimately, a minimum wage and unemployment based approach is not a real answer to the disappearance of good jobs and it is not a national level inspirational message that can form the unifying banner of a national party ― which is what the Democratic Party once was, and could be again.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/preventing-the-next-trump_us_58e253c...

White voters in the same economic situation as black voters don't want to be seen as connected to the situation blacks face. Whites need help but they see help as condescending because only blacks need help.

Edit to add:

i think what you hear is a universal appeal. Blacks hear whites saying, we are hurting but at least we are not black.