After having read everything on Kos twice I was still reluctant to wash dishes, so I started reading Alternet. An article by Thom Hartmann surprised me.
Although New Hampshire was a great victory, the turnout was down 40,000 voters, Rachel Maddow points out. This bummed me out, because Bernie as president only works if he’s riding the wave of a huge increase in voter turnout. Just popping him behind the desk won’t help much.
Hartmann gave me a new way to look at those New Hampshire numbers. Here they are:
2016: 151,584 for Bernie Sanders
2012: 49,080 for Barack Obama
2008: 112,404 for Hillary Clinton
So although total voters were down 40,000, Bernie Sanders got more votes than any Democrat in New Hampshire history. Mr. Hartmann’s chart goes back to the beginning of time, but I thought 3 elections was enough to show the general idea.
Bernie Sanders got 39,000 votes more than ANY DEMOCRAT IN HISTORY.
Bernie Sanders brought more voters to the poll than any democrat in history.
This is a big deal. Sure, the total vote was down, but if all by himself he got 39,000 more voters to the polls that bodes well for turnout in upcoming states. It means his organization is much better at turning out voters than I thought it was.
HIs article is on Alternet: