Hagar: Bernie Sanders shows charisma Clinton lacks

I always wondered why Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton was not drawing crowds as large as her underdog Democratic challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Sanders is drawing some amazing crowds -- 27,000 in Los Angeles and 15,000 and Seattle. He drew 4,500 to his Reno stop Tuesday evening on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno.

The discrepancy in crowds might have to do with the venues where Clinton speaks. She drew more than 900 to the Pearson Community Center on North Las Vegas Tuesday and the place was packed.

Yet the Reno rally, it was apparent that compared to Sanders, the Clinton campaign seems stale.

Yes, Clinton has boots on the ground in many states, phone banks full of volunteers, friends in established echelons of the federal government and a Super PAC.

But Clinton's campaign lacks an important ingredient that Sanders has:

Charisma.

Sanders has seemingly inherited the charisma that Barack Obama had when he first ran for president in 2008. And it fits him well.

Like Obama in 2008, young people flock to Sanders. He comes across as a kind and wise grandfather.

But older people dig him, too. I never realized so many 60-something Renoites still wear tie-dye t-shirts until the Sanders rally.

When Sanders talks about change, he's believable and determined. He uses the word, "revolution," which in itself is very powerful.

One woman told me at the Sanders stop in Reno that she has not seen this much excitement surrounding a candidate since Bobby Kennedy in 1968.

"He is the hope that we haven't had in almost 40 years," Romayne Chamberlain, 63. "I love his energy. I love that in terms of issues, he is just right on target on everything that progressives have been looking for."

Young people seem to flock to Sanders because his message to them is so powerful.

Sanders said that if elected, he would fight for free college tuition, help in restructuring college-loan debt, raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and demand equal pay for women in the work place.

This is also Hillary Clinton's message but it is not communicated to the youth as well as Sanders.

Perhaps Clinton's message gets drowned out my her unfortunate email situation.

Perhaps the youth that flocks to Sanders identify the former First Lady and Secretary of State with the current political establishment that seems to be working against them.

Yet Sanders touches student angst in a way Clinton has not.

This is an audience struggling with the high cost of a college education followed by the "real world" prospects of unemployment or a minimum-wage job. Issues Sanders promises to fight against are probably issue students worry about on a daily basis.

"I am pretty lucky with the scholarships I've received but I see firsthand my friends who can't afford to go to college and wish they could and friends who do go to college but dig themselves into and die in a hole of debt," said UNR student Rosalie Mahler.

Sanders never mentioned Clinton during his hour-long speech. He didn't have to. Since he's is the anti-establishment candidate, Clinton, almost by default, is the establishment candidate.

Sanders also doesn't like billionaires. He doesn't like Wall Street and he really didn't like business that are deemed "too big to fail."

That too resonates with those who exists on the lower levels of the economic ladder. Some will call it a "socialist" agenda.

"What we have got to tell Wall Street right now is that if a financial institution is too big to fail then it is too big to exist," he said.

That is not the message to send if you audience has stock in Bank of America, Chase or Citibank.

But the way folks cheered at that remark made you feel that Bernie Sanders' crowd isn't playing in the stock market.