Did Obama’s success in 2008 give Sanders hope?

[darklordoftech]

Did Sanders think, “If Obama was electable, so am I”, “If young voters turned out for Obama, they’ll turn out for me”, “If people wanted a centrist, Hillary would have won in 2008”, etc.?

[TrumpBritt24]

I'd say yes, but considering Sanders 2012 almost happened, it's clear he doesn't base many decisions off of Obama's approval.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Sounds exactly like the kind of thing Sanders would egotistically misinterpret, so there’s a good chance.

[W]

Of course! Obama had in the past endorsed Sanders in 2006 and Sanders endorsed Obama in the 2008 primary (2 days after he was the presumptive nominee but with HRC still technically running) and both campaigned for each other. I don't think Bernie has ever stated such but absolutely a pretty grassroots and relatively progressive success story against a favored establishmentarian was part of the reason he ran. As for 2012, there was of course progressive dissatisfaction and disappointment at Obama's first term (mostly due to legislative gridlock) so a token primary challenge could've been warranted. Let's not pretend that'd have killed Obama, it'd be about as serious as Ron Paul in the leadup to the convention. However after the BLM protests, TPP, and HRC basically being ordained as Obama's successor since the SoS appointment an opposition campaign was very much in order.

[Intell]

Yes it showed Hillary was going to be unpopular/had candidate flaws

[Sumner 1868]

Yeah, he clearly assumed that Hillary lost because of real policy disagreement over Iraq instead of the fact Obama was a great fit for the "creative" liberal upper-classes. Those people we're never going to back Sanders for obvious reasons.