Would you vote for a man named Bernie? Many people would....

It's hard to believe how well Bernie Sanders is doing in recent polling.  Not only is he a serious contender for the office of POTUS, but this "Democrat" (he was elected to the Senate as an Independent) has amazingly high ratings against GOP competition.

A recent article notes that Sanders is either ahead of (or virtually tied with) all the top 3 GOP candidates.

SANDERS: 48%
BUSH: 47%

SANDERS: 48%
WALKER: 42%

SANDERS: 59%
TRUMP: 38%

Too bad that the election couldn't be held today....  It'd be nice to see an independent voice cause some trouble in Washington.  But people are following Trump for the same reason - they feel betrayed by Washington, and Trump has become a "rara avis" - a rich populist who speaks with the emotional style craved by many working class conservatives.

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Hillary Clinton is still the most likely Democratic candidate for POTUS, even though she has a very high dislike rating. The "powers that be" prefer HRC to Bernie Sanders (or Trump) because they represent real change. Hillary may say that she stands for progressiveness, but hardly anyone believes her. Most people (even Democrats) see her as a Machiavel - a dangerous person.  

But what happens if HRC becomes the Democratic candidate?  An article in the Washington Post indicates that she has a lot to worry about.  Americans tend to elect presidents with whom they'd like to have a drink.  (Obama in my opinion is a noted exception.)  Other research has shown that Americans vote for the best looking candidate, and not the most competent candidate. This means that younger GOP candidates would have another edge over her.  Sadly, even the New York Times says that HRC has a lot of problems with this presidential run - the article may be hinting that she might not be the Democrats' best candidate without openly stating this. (The Times leans left of center these days.)

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Yet, I see an interesting possibility.  What if Trump is able to bully his way to the top of the GOP heap, and stay there against all the wishes of the GOP nomenklatura?  And, to make this more interesting, what if Bernie is able to leapfrog Hillary to the Democrats' nomination, against the wishes of its nomenklatura?  Who is most likely to win?  Given that Trump is a blowhard that has no idea of how to run a country according to law, would that be enough to get disaffected Republicans to consider a Democrat?  Only time will tell....