President Trump shows us that electability is no match for electricity

In a CNN poll this month, 57 percent of Democrats said it is more important to nominate a candidate who can defeat Trump than choosing one who agrees with them on the issues. Former vice president Joe Biden leads the field on electability: 45 percent say Biden has the best chance to beat Trump. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is a distant second at 24 percent. Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg recently said he might spend $1 billion to “get rid of Donald Trump” and that, $200 million in, he has a “reasonable chance” of doing so. (Polling suggests otherwise.)

In fact, if Democrats were serious about electability, they’d nominate the guy who actually won primary contests and proved he can play David to Goliath in key places four short years ago. Sanders bested Clinton in 22 states in 2016, including battlegrounds such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, while earning more than 13 million votes and 1,800 delegates.

Now, with the first caucuses and primaries just weeks away, Sanders is showing strength in the polls and in fundraising, having outraised Biden last quarter, having taken the lead from Biden for the first time, and having outlasted candidates who were media darlings and more in the mold of “transformative” and “historic.”