Perhaps the best thing to happen to Bernie Sanders this week was not the Democratic debate.

For months, Republicans primarily mentioned Sanders in faux-support, in an effort to undermine Hillary Clinton, who they see as the biggest general election threat. This week — though the goal is still the same: undermine Clinton — the means have shifted, if only slightly.

Donald Trump called Sanders a “maniac,’’ telling a Virginia crowd that the Vermont senator would “tax you people at 90 percent’’ and “take everything,’’ according to a CBS News report.

“Nobody heard the term communist, but you know what, I call him a socialist/communist, okay? ‘Cause that’s what he is,’’ Trump said, in apparent disregard to Sanders’ platform and just one day after he put out a brief anti-Sanders ad about ISIS on his Instagram account.


Meanwhile in New Hampshire, Jeb Bush told a town hall that Sanders was “just warming up’’ when it came to tax and spending proposals. Bush also linked Clinton and Sanders on the issue of healthcare, coining the phrase “Berniecare,’’ in a tweet Tuesday.

(There was also this tweet from GOP also-ran Mike Huckabee.)

“It’s great news for the Sanders campaign,’’ Wayne Lesperance, a political science professor at New England College, told Boston.com. “The more they’re talking about them, the more we’re all talking about them.’’

Along with the free publicity, Lesperance said, the attacks from his Republican counterparts let Sanders say “look how serious they’re taking me.’’

But does this signal that Republicans see Sanders as a general election threat, as they do Clinton?

Kyle Kondik, the managing editor or Sabato’s Crystal Ball out of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, says no.

“Bush’s tweet seeks to link Sanders and Clinton together’’ Kondik told Boston.com. “And I think Republicans generally see Sanders as a useful enemy to whom they can tie Clinton, who is aiming to be a more mainstream Democrat.’’

Kondik says the vast majority of Republicans would rather face Sanders in the general election than Clinton, adding that the Trump campaign “attacks everyone.’’


Lesperance agreed that Republicans likely are still trying to use Sanders against the former secretary of state.

“They’re trying to paint the Democratic Party as the Bernie Party, as the party that’s against capitalism,’’ Lesperance said, referring to Sanders’ identification as a democratic socialist.

A brief Twitter search shows Clinton is still by far the favorite target of Republicans, with countless attacks coming from Bush and Trump. By comparison, as of Thursday night, Sanders has still only been mentioned on Twitter twice by Bush and three times by Trump.

Though polls have shown Sanders leading in New Hampshire and Iowa, Clinton holds a strong lead over the Vermont senator in most other states, as well as nationally, according to RealClearPolitics.

“I doubt Republicans would actually make a concerted effort to undermine him unless he’s the nominee,’’ Kondik said.

The Sanders campaign would like to be so lucky.