Earlier this week I sent a private note to one of America’s highest-ranking Democrats with a link to the RealClearPolitics page that lists every general election match-up poll pitting Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonHillicon Valley: FBI chief says Russia is trying to interfere in election to undermine Biden | Treasury Dept. sanctions Iranian government-backed hackers The Hill's Campaign Report: Arizona shifts towards Biden | Biden prepares for drive-in town hall | New Biden ad targets Latino voters FBI chief says Russia is trying to interfere in election to undermine Biden MORE and Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersMcConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security The Hill's Campaign Report: Arizona shifts towards Biden | Biden prepares for drive-in town hall | New Biden ad targets Latino voters Why Democrats must confront extreme left wing incitement to violence MORE against Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHR McMaster says president's policy to withdraw troops from Afghanistan is 'unwise' Cast of 'Parks and Rec' reunite for virtual town hall to address Wisconsin voters Biden says Trump should step down over coronavirus response MORE, Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzLoeffler calls for hearing in wake of Netflix's 'Cuties' Health care in the crosshairs with new Trump Supreme Court list 'Parks and Rec' cast members hosting special reunion to raise money for Wisconsin Democrats MORE, Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioFlorida senators pushing to keep Daylight Savings Time during pandemic Hillicon Valley: DOJ indicts Chinese, Malaysian hackers accused of targeting over 100 organizations | GOP senators raise concerns over Oracle-TikTok deal | QAnon awareness jumps in new poll Intelligence chief says Congress will get some in-person election security briefings MORE and John Kasich.

A five-minute scan of this page reveals more about American politics than all other media coverage of the campaign combined. The polling finds that Sanders consistently defeats all four GOP candidates and consistently runs stronger than does Clinton in match-ups against them.

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In other words, the totality of polling suggests that Sanders is the most electable candidate in either party.

Political insiders, consultants and pundits respond that if the Vermont Independent is nominated as the Democratic nominee, Republican attacks will destroy him, which may or may not be true. I am not arguing here that Sanders should be nominated. I am arguing that the data are screaming a message that cannot be denied: Across the universe of match-up polls, Sanders runs stronger than Clinton, Trump, Cruz, Rubio and Kasich. Period.

I am a Kennedy Democrat and learned politics from Kenny O’Donnell, the close friend and trusted aide to John and Robert Kennedy. When I was a young man working for Birch Bayh, the former Democratic senator from Indiana, my bosses would take me to the old Mayflower Hotel on late Friday afternoons, where Kenny would hold court and tell us stories about Jack and Bobby.

One day he told us why JFK chose Lyndon Johnson as his vice president. Kenny and Bobby had argued against LBJ for weeks. Finally JFK told them to give him numbers showing any other way he could receive enough electoral votes to become president. They couldn’t. Kennedy chose Johnson.

Polls do not tell us everything about elections, but if read correctly, they can tell us a lot. Pundits can repeat ad nauseam that nothing Trump says hurts “Teflon Don.” Really? Then why do polls show that both Clinton and Sanders would beat him badly?

Similarly, there is no question that data show Sanders outperforms Clinton against every GOP opponent and outperforms every Republican candidate, without exception, in general election match-ups. He is the only candidate in either party who can make a credible

data-based claim to being the most electable.

What would a clear-eyed political strategist such as Kenny O’Donnell tell Democrats today in light of the data?

Kenny would probably say that Sanders taps into deep currents of public revulsion against a politics and economy rigged by insiders, that he taps into economic anxiety that is far deeper with many voters than economic data suggests, doing so with an authenticity and trustworthiness that is a rare and precious commodity in politics today. He would say Sanders offers a progressive populist message that is more powerful and appealing than anything offered by the trickle-down economics of conservatives and the hate-filled politics of Trump, that the senator inspires devotion and enthusiasm from small-donor supporters that is greater than any presidential candidate in history and wins support from political independents greater than is achieved by Clinton or any Republican.

These are assertions of fact backed by reams of data.

Hillary Clinton remains the favorite to win the Democratic nomination. If she is the pick, to prevail in November she would be well-advised to consider with the clear-eyed political clarity of Kenny O’Donnell and JFK why Sanders runs so strong in general election match-ups, why her trust numbers and the enthusiasm she generates are dangerously low and how she can change this.

As the campaign approaches, the best move the former secretary of State can make is not to calculate when the time is right to move to the right but to reach out to Sanders and his supporters with sincerity and conviction and say to them, in word and deed: “I hear you.”

If she does, whoever is on the ballot in November will be the most electable and will win.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sens. Lloyd Bentsen and Bill Alexander, then chief deputy majority whip of the House. He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. He can be read on The Hill’s Contributors blog and reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.