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Goodbye Bernie Sanders? Hillary Clinton Shifts To General Election Gear, Doesn’t See Sanders As Threat Anymore

By Tara West
Published on: 17:41 PST, Mar 1, 2016

Following a strong Super Tuesday showing, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is shifting her focus to the general election. It seems that Clinton is confident in her strong lead over Bernie Sanders in the primary election that she feels good enough to shift her focus from Sanders to the GOP, particularly Trump.

CNN reports that even before the Super Tuesday caucus results were counted, Clinton felt confident in her ability to sweep the south due to polls leading into the caucuses. It seems that Hillary was not disappointed as she secured Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. With Hillary already coming off of a strong win in South Carolina earning her 73.5 percent of the votes, it seems that the Clinton camp is no longer viewing Sanders as a threat and instead is turning their focus to attacks on the GOP in preparation for the general election.

In fact, a top Democrat that has close relations to Clinton claims that Hillary is moving her campaign to general election mode. However, the anonymous Democrat told CNN that Hillary is not announcing her shift in plans to voters as she doesn’t want anyone who hasn’t voted yet to feel alienated. Instead, we can expect to hear less about Sanders and more about Trump and other GOP candidates in the coming weeks. The Clinton campaign plans to use the first two weeks of March to solidify Clinton’s lead and make it nearly impossible for Sanders to secure the nomination.

“The aircraft carrier is definitely shifting to the general election this week.”

Hillary Clinton’s South Carolina victory speech confirms the switch to a national campaign as Clinton spoke very little of Sanders and instead openly attacked the GOP front runner Donald Trump on his “Make America Great Again” slogan pointing out to her supporters that America is already great. According to Fortune, Clinton also used her Super Tuesday victory speech to attack Trump instead of mentioning Sanders saying that “instead of building walls, we should be breaking down barriers.”

“Instead of building walls, we’re going to break down barriers and build ladders of opportunity and empowerment so that every american can live up to his or her potential because then and only then can america live up to its full potential too. The rhetoric we’re hearing on the other side has never been lower. Trying to divide american between us and them is wrong and we’re not going to let it work.”

Clinton called out all of the GOP candidates claiming they are using rhetoric that has never been so low in political history. The big victories for Clinton has many saying that Bernie Sanders should drop out of the race and throw his support to Hillary in a bid to secure a Democrat wins the general election. Amanda Marcotte, a writer for Salon, claims that Sanders could hurt the Democrats chance in the general election if he doesn’t drop out of the race and show support for Clinton soon as it could prove as divisive for the party.

“He may be able to close the margin somewhat as the primaries move to whiter states, but it’s hard to imagine he can catch up — and the cost of doing so is perpetuating this somewhat misleading and certainly divisive narrative of white vs. non-white in the Democratic Party. The best move, at this point, would be to bow out soon and put his support behind Clinton for the general.”

What do you think about Hillary Clinton’s big Super Tuesday win? Do you think Bernie Sanders should drop out and throw his support to Clinton in a bid to ensure a Democratic victory for the 2016 general election? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

[Image by Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo]

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