Last weekend, Bernie Sanders drew more people to events in Seattle and Portland than all the other candidates in both candidates combined for all events over the same time period. We’re talking more than 25,000 people in Seattle and Portland, and then again a few days later in Los Angeles. You may have heard that at an earlier Portland event, Sanders was unable to speak due to the stage being taken over by a BlackLivesMatter activist. BlackLivesMatter is not really a Bernie Sanders problem, but he does have a major black problem.

Polls from last night indicate Bernie Sanders currently besting Hillary Clinton in the NH primary 44-37, which is outside the margin of error. It’s been my estimation that Bernie can beat Hillary in both Iowa and New Hampshire, and probably will. But because of his “black problem”, he cannot win South Carolina or other states where the black vote is the deciding factor. When I first heard about the BlackLivesMatter dust-up in Portland, I wondered “why Bernie?” It initially seemed that the people who don’t get their heads around the concept are Republicans — so why go after someone like Bernie, who’s got more than 30 years of civil rights legislation under his belt? It turns out there are two reasons. First, one of the women who stormed the stage is a Sarah Palin supporter, and it turns out the real BlackLivesMatter people want her to apologize.

The second reason is that Bernie Sanders does have a black problem, and it’s obvious in a lot of polling. He polls well in both Iowa and New Hampshire relative to favourable/unfavourable. But that is in two lily white states. Overall, among African-Americans, Sanders trails Clinton 64/11. In North Carolina, Clinton pulls 70% of the African-American votes. The list goes on, but Sanders doesn’t do well amoungst black voters. Continue Reading...