Despite MSNBC's Best Efforts, Bernie Is Still Surging And Is Now The Front-runner

The latest in a series of amazing polls for Bernie was released by ABC News and the Washington Post early this morning. Like every other poll, it shows Bernie soaring and Biden crashing. "Bernie Sanders has soared and Joe Biden’s crashed in national preference for the Democratic nomination for president, while the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary helped to clear some running room for a candidate who’s not yet been on the ballot: Mike Bloomberg. Sanders advanced to 32 percent support among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, up 8 percentage points from late January. Biden fell to 17 percent, down 11 points to his lowest of the campaign. And Bloomberg, who takes the stage for the first time in tonight’s debate in Nevada, now has 14 percent support, up 6 points... Sanders’ newfound 15-point lead over Biden nearly doubles Biden’s biggest lead of the campaign, 8 points over Sanders in early September. That said, the most dramatic shifts aren’t in vote preferences but in views of who has the best chance to defeat Donald Trump in November. Electability’s been a cornerstone of Biden’s campaign, yet just 19 percent now say he’s likeliest to win, sliced in half from 38 percent in January. Instead 30 percent of leaned Democrats now see Sanders as most electable, up 12 points, and 18 percent say this about Bloomberg, up 10 points. The rest of the field is in single digits on the question. Among groups, Biden’s support among blacks has declined from 51 percent last month to 32 percent now; he’s been looking for support from blacks as a boost to his campaign in the South Carolina primary Feb. 29. He lags with just 11 percent among whites. Sanders, meanwhile, is prevailing among Hispanics, potentially an influential group in the Nevada caucuses this Saturday. Nonwhites overall-- who account for half of all Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents-- have gone from 35-28 percent, Biden-Sanders, last month, to 35-22 percent, Sanders-Biden, now."Anyone wonder by Status Quo Joe hasn't commented on the Bloomberg-Obama ads. Maybe he'll do so tonight? Maybe he's the only person in the country who hasn't seen one yet. He is, after all, a little cut off from the rest of us in his consultant-woven cocoon. But, hey, Mini Mike has spent, according to the L.A. Times, over ten times more than his closest rival on advertising in the 14 Super Tuesday states. The only other candidate to advertise across most of those states so far is Bernie, who has spent just under $10 million on ads in those March 3 states. Bloomberg has targeted African-American voters in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia, Oklahoma... As of January 29, he had spent $3,174,910 on ads in Alabama-- $3,174,910 more than all of his opponents combined. He spent $1,988,050 in Oklahoma, $3,411,500 in Tennessee, $1,527,530 in Arkansas and a whopping $6,244,540 in North Carolina. Not to mention $24,090,200 in Texas. Oh, yeah... and since January 29, he has ramped up the spending gigantically.And because the first one worked so well for him, Bloomberg now has his second ad up pretending Obama has endorsed him. Too bad normal people don't under unlimited pin-money to run ads like this:If someone did, someone could run an ad that shows what Bloomberg said he really thinks of Barack Obama and his presidency. This is from an OpEd Mini-Mike wrote himself for his own news service a few days before the 2012 election:New national polling from Marist released yesterday by NPR shows that Bloomberg has surged past the other conservatives-- Biden, Mayo Pete, Klobuchar-- in the race.

• Bernie- 31% (+9)• Mini Mike- 19% (+15)• Status Quo Joe- 15% (-9)• Elizabeth- 12% (-5)• Klobuchar- 9% (+5)• Mayo Pete- 8% (-5)• Steyer- 2% (+1)

The poll also did head to head matchups showing most of the Democrats beating Trump, Biden by 6 points, Bloomberg by 4 points, Bernie by 3 points, Mayo Pete and Klobuchar each by 2 points, and Elizabeth by 1 point. Why the differences? Why is Bernie leading? The pollsters found him leading among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, while Republicans were more likely to vote for Bloomberg (8%) and Biden (7%) to Bernie's 6%. These are the general election numbers among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents:

• Bernie- 90%• Elizabeth- 89%• Status Quo Joe- 89%• Klobuchar- 88%• Mini Mike- 88%• Mayo Pete- 87%

Rural support for Democrats isn't strong, although, in the Democratic primaries, it's highest for Bernie (who happens to come from the second most rural state in the U.S. and who happens to have put forward the best plan for rural America that anyone has seen since the New Deal):

• Bernie- 28%• Bloomberg- 24%• Status Quo Joe- 13%• Klobuchar- 10%• Mayo Pete- 10%• Elizabeth- 9%• Steyer- 1%

Trump is ahead of all the Democrats among rural voters-- Trump beats Biden by 20 points, beats Bernie by 21 points, beats Bloomberg by 22%, beats Elizabeth by 22 points, beats Mayo Pete by 24 points, beats Klobuchar by 27 points. But if you want to see rural voters flock to Trump in even greater numbers-- perhaps ending Democratic hopes in Iowa, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia-- just nominate Bloomberg. Watch this elitist asshole talking about farmers to Oxford students in December of 2016:Reporter Reed Richardson for Mediaite: "Democratic president candidate Michael Bloomberg drew mockery from both sides of the ideological spectrum after a viral clip of him showed the billionaire media tycoon belittling farming at a 2016 business school talk and contrasting it with the 'gray matter' necessary to work in the modern information economy... The former New York City mayor-- who has never farmed-- claiming 'I could teach anybody in this room' to be a farmer."