Polls say Sanders could win it all

Conventional wisdom would have it that Hillary Clinton is more electable than Bernie Sanders because she is supposedly more centrist, and therefore Democrats should vote for her in the primary to give the party the best chance of winning in November. But that’s not what the polls say.

RealClearPolitics.com maintains a running average of one-on-one match-up polls. Their procedure is to average the most recent five or so, regardless of what organizations conduct them. Sanders has consistently outperformed Clinton by this indicator for a long time.

Here are the figures as of Wednesday:

• Against Trump: Clinton, 47.3, Trump 41; Sanders 50.8, Trump 40.

Clinton wins by 6.3. Sanders wins by 10.0. Sanders outperforms Clinton by 3.7 percentage points.

• Against Cruz: Clinton 45.4, Cruz 46.2; Sanders 50, Cruz 40.3. 

Clinton loses by 0.8. Sanders wins by 9.7. Sanders outperforms Clinton by more than 10 percentage points.

• Against Rubio: Clinton 44, Rubio 48; Sanders 47.3, Rubio 44

Clinton loses by 4.0. Sanders wins by 3.3. Sanders outperforms Clinton by more than 7 percentage points.

• Against Kasich: Clinton 40.3, Kasich 47.7; Sanders 43.0, Kasich 42.5.

Clinton loses by 7.4. Sanders wins by 0.5. Sanders outperforms Clinton by almost 8 percentage points.

Sanders beats all the Republican candidates. Clinton loses to three of the four. Sanders outperforms Clinton by statistically significant margins against all four.

How can this be? How is it possible that the leftmost candidate of the supposedly left-of-center party is more electable? Simple: first, Sanders is honest. People can tell. Second, the Democratic Party is in fact a center-right party. It has been that for decades, relative to international norms; it is now center-right relative to the American electorate. Therefore its rightmost candidate is not ipso facto the most electable. The party ignores this reality at its own peril.

— Mark Ortiz

Kannapolis

Poston on guns

Andrew Poston is running for the 77th District seat in the N.C. House of Representatives against Harry Warren. Andrew is a huge supporter of our Second Amendment rights. He supports a N.C. version of a Tennessee bill that would require businesses that strip legal carry-concealed holders of their rights to provide security or liability insurance against death and mayhem otherwise prevented. Warren does not.

Andrew is rated higher than Harry in Second Amendment issues by the NRA-PVF and recommended, instead of Harry, by Grass Roots North Carolina, our own state’s Second Amendment watchdogs, after Harry’s repeated votes against House Bill 562, which protected concealed-carry holders from being charged so long as their firearm was kept locked in the vehicle. This bill also greatly expanded gun-range protections to keep them from being shut down by municipal action and private nuisance suits. This bill passed in spite of Harry’s objections.

https://www.nrapvf.org/grades/north-carolina

http://northcarolinaguntrust.com/node/517

If elected, Andrew would be a superior voice for concealed-carry holders, recreational shooters and those who appreciate the ability to protect themselves and their families from violent criminal predators that lay in wait. It’s like the old catalogs. There’s good and then there’s better. On this issue, Andrew is “the best.”

— Todd Paris

Salisbury

Shame on Hilary

Hillary Clinton’s creating a private, unsecure email system to handle official State business, to include Top Secret information, is arrogant, corrupt, and unlawful. Anyone of character and moderate intelligence knows when they are working with classified information, especially Top Secret Special Compartmented Information. That charges have not yet been filed reflects the corruption of the State and Justice Departments, and media bias. A conservative or Republican would have been attacked endlessly. Hilary …. only the minimum is said.

Vote for Ted Cruz, a man who honors the law and the Constitution. He is the best candidate to protect our Constitution through appointments to the Supreme Court, repealing President Obama’s inappropriate executive orders, and leading the nation to greater economic stability and freedom for people of all races and all economic levels.

— Elaine Hewitt

Cleveland