Bernie Sanders head of the political pack

Donald Trump may win the television ratings, but Bernie Sanders is winning the polls.

In a stunning December 22 national poll, Sanders beat Trump by 13 points - 51 per cent to 38 per cent, a landslide. This is no fluke: Sanders has won 12 out of 17 national polls in the last few weeks, including four by significant margins of between 9 points and 13. He even outvotes Hillary who also beats Trump. And yet, many think Sanders has no shot at the Democratic nomination, much less the White House. They think he's too left, too old, too unknown.

But everyone should think again.

Trump is paving the way for Sanders to win and so is the rising dissatisfaction among voters toward traditional politics.

Subtext to this is that polls show that a majority of Americans agree on major issues, such as abortion to capital punishment and gun controls, with Europeans and Canadians. And yet nothing changes. Americans are disgusted with the political system, growing income disparity, financial corruption in Congress and the partisan media circus.

This is why they like "anti candidates" like Sanders and Trump. Both are outsiders beyond the reach of lobbyists, donors and special interests.

But Trump helps Sanders by singlehandedly carpet-bombing his Republican Party and leaders. He also helps Sanders by attacking the Clintons who have more baggage than LaGuardia Airport.

For example, after Hillary criticized Trump for anti-female comments, his response was, "if they're going to play that card", what about Bill Clinton's "abuse of women" as a serial philanderer and seducer of Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern.

(This, I would guess, will force a recalibration of Bill's role in "helping" Hillary on the campaign trail going forward.)

Further, he added, Hillary was "the worst Secretary of State in the history of this country."

Trump also, like Sanders, blasts away at the system itself.

"We have massive corruption, massive incompetence, vets are treated like third class citizens," says Trump, adding that 60 percent of the political media are "dishonest, terrible people".



In fact, Trump is destroying the Republican Party brand to the point where its biggest donor, oil tycoon and Tea Partier Charles Koch, has just announced he won't support any of the Republican primary hopefuls. This is a reversal from April when Koch said he was deciding soon which of several to support.

"I have no plans to support anybody in the primary now," he told USA Today last week. "If they start saying things we think are beneficial overall and will change the trajectory of the country, then that would be good, but we have to believe also they'll follow through on it, and by and large, candidates don't do that."

Trump gets the television ratings because he's the Don Rickles of Politics, a big mouth with a steady and amusing stream of insults.

He drove Texas Governor Rick Perry off the podium with put-downs such as "Rick Perry put glasses on so people would think he's smart," he said. "There should be an IQ test before getting onto the debate stage."

Then he pulled off a two-for-one punch with his "but Rick Perry is smarter than Lindsay Graham."

He described Jeb Bush as "weak and ineffective" and said "we've had it with the Bushes". He said Ted Cruz acts like a "maniac" with people and Marco Rubio is not a leader because he "couldn't answer a question whether Iraq was good or bad."

He even attacked the icon of the Republican Party, John McCain. "I supported him [McCain] but he lost and I don't like losers," he said. "He's on television all the time. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, okay?"

(Footnote to this is that Donald Trump, who claims he's in splendid health, was not drafted during the Vietnam War for unknown reasons, according to one report.)

But he's great at verbal warfare and his take-no-prisoners mentality is obliterating the field. Even if he drops out of sight, his insults will provide enough content to make a series of juicy commercials for the Democrats.

So The Donald wins ratings and Sanders quietly wins minds. Unlike Trump, Sanders has experience, ideas and plausible prescriptions. He does not insult and would level the taxation playing field for all. He voted against the Kuwait and Iraq invasions, but in favor of Afghanistan's as well as the intervention to stop ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.

Conventional wisdom is that Trump and Hillary will get nominations, but the numbers currently show that Sanders is the main contender.

First Published National Post in Canada Jan. 1, 2015