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The challenge of making an effective political case against Hillary Rodham Clinton is still a work in progress for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

After portraying Mrs. Clinton as a flip-flopper on liberal priorities during a speech in Iowa on Saturday night – his strongest critique yet in their fight for the Democratic presidential nomination – Mr. Sanders passed up several opportunities to undercut his rival during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Monday. After Mr. Sanders took his seat alongside the show’s hosts, one of them, Whoopi Goldberg, said the Democratic contest looked like a Clinton-Sanders race, then posed this question: “Why should we vote for you, and can you beat her?”

“Let me start with the second question, Whoopi: Yeah, we can – win,” Mr. Sanders said, pausing for a split second between the words “can” and “win.”

He then sidestepped the direct matter of Mrs. Clinton and said the only way to beat Republicans is to turn out big numbers of voters on Election Day – and argued that his huge rallies and 750,000 donors indicated that he could do so.

“If we can create the energy and the excitement, if we can bring people together and stand up and say maybe — this is a really radical idea – are you ready for a radical idea? Maybe the United States government should represent the middle class and working families of our country and not just a handful of billionaires,” Mr. Sanders said to applause from the studio audience.

“Maybe it’s an ultraradical idea,” he added facetiously. “But it is a message that is resonating around the country.”

Mr. Sanders has sworn off making personal attacks in the race, noting that he has never resorted to them or negative campaign ads in his 35-year career in politics. But he has said he will draw contrasts with Mrs. Clinton on policy issues like trade, gay rights, the Iraq war and banking regulations – which he did most notably on Saturday in his speech in Des Moines, though he never mentioned her by name.

On “The View,” however, Mr. Sanders did not make reference to Mrs. Clinton’s past positions or raise questions about her – perhaps not wanting to alienate some in the show’s predominantly female television audience. He also seemed unable to find ways to memorably tweak Mrs. Clinton while remaining positive.

When another host, Paula Faris, noted that Mr. Sanders had implied that Mrs. Clinton was a “flip-flopper” and asked if he thought he could make “tough political decisions that she can’t,” Mr. Sanders said, “I do,” but then he began a long recitation of his experience increasing voter registration as mayor of Burlington, Vt., and opposing President Bill Clinton’s administration on trade issues in the early 1990s.

“One other example, in 1996––” Mr. Sanders said as he continued his answer.

“We only have an hour show, Bernie,” said another “View” host, Joy Behar.

“Oh is that all?” Mr. Sanders said, jokingly.

Then, trying again, Mr. Sanders added, “Just last on––” But the hosts stopped him and moved on to another topic, leading him to say, “All right, we’ll save ’96 till later.”

Mr. Sanders mostly struck a serious tone and stuck to his policy positions, though the hosts did try to get him to lighten up at a few points. Larry David’s widely seen impersonation of Mr. Sanders on “Saturday Night Live” prompted the gag question of whether Mr. Sanders was in fact Mr. David, since the two men had never been seen together.

“Really, I have to tell?” Mr. Sanders said. “You realize that will destroy my entire campaign. It’s true, I am – you’ve got to be honest about these things,” he added, drawing some applause from the studio audience.