There are many reasons why Bernie Sanders poll better than Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump. Pundits may be underestimating voter intelligence.

Lawrence O'Donnell presented an interesting segment that should give Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and political pundits alike pause. A new Quinnipiac poll shows that Bernie Sanders would beat Donald Trump by twice as much as Hillary Clinton would in the general election. Clinton beats Trump 47/40 while Sanders beats Trump 51/38. It's a mix bag for the other GOP candidates.

O'Donnell used the similarities between Trump and Sanders to identify the reason. In effect many Trump voters that are anathema to Clinton would switch their vote to Sanders if he were the nominee. Why?

x Embedded Content

O'Donnell played clips that clearly show why. Trump claims he is self-funding on the stump. Bernie highlights that he has no super PACs. Both speak out vociferously against lobbyist and big donors. They are both against trade deals like NAFTA, CAFTA, and TPP. They both slam bankers and Wall Street.

In effect, Donald Trump is usurping Bernie Sanders' populist message. Unfortunately for Trump many of his voters would migrate to the real populist candidate.

Pundits on O'Donnell's panel were a bit skeptical. One panelist said that these numbers did not mean much because Bernie Sanders' Democratic Socialist moniker was not yet challenged.

It is likely that most likely voters know that Sanders has in fact labeled himself a Democratic Socialist. So far Sanders has been doing a good job of defining it in bread and butter terms Americans understand.

Pundits have been undermining and misreading the populace all year. Donald Trump should have been knocked off the leader's board in the GOP race. Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, or Marco Rubio should be on the ascent by now as everyone coalesced next to an establishment candidate.

This year could be a change election above and beyond 2008. The fallibility of the punditry in their prognostication so far may in fact be probative.