Democratic Pollster Margie Omero told Left, Right & Center that although it seems that the rhetoric between Bernie and Hillary might be dividing Democratic voters, it’s really not. Following the New York Primary, she had this to say:
Here’s an important thing that came out of the exit polls from New York that’s important when we try to compare the Democratic side to the Republican side. A majority – about two thirds of Democrats in New York – say that the primary has been energizing to the party rather than divisive. The opposite is true among Republican primary voters. A majority of Republicans say their primary has been divisive and there’ve been comparable numbers nationally. There’ve been comparable numbers in other states. So this is a real clear pattern.
I know that a lot of folks on the Left like to say that this contest has gotten testy and folks need to, you know, settle down now and stop being so heated, but voters are not really showing signs that they feel this is divisive. The Sanders campaign is bringing up issues that Democrats want to talk about, that Democrats want to see the rest of the country talk about. On the Republican side, what’s considered divisive is actually real insults and schoolyard taunts and not even policy debates. So I think that for sanders to keep going to continue to talk about his message, which resonates with folks, which Democrats want to have a conversation about, I think also doesn’t hurt Clinton. And if you look at general election match up, essentially every single poll that’s out there nationally shows Clinton trouncing Trump.
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