5 Takes on Sanders' 2020 Candidacy

Bernie Sanders joined the 2020 race on Tuesday, and most analyses see him as a frontrunner among Democrats. Some highlights of coverage:

• Wide appeal? A common knock against Sanders is that his democratic socialist views would make it hard for him to win in a general election. But Sanders' campaign says his appeal among minorities, the white working class, and independent voters could help him win in unexpected places, including typically red states such as West Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, and Indiana, reports Politico. The story talks to Sanders' pollster.
• Trump team: The president's campaign is already out with a line of attack using the s-word. Sanders "has already won the debate in the Democrat primary, because every candidate is embracing his brand of socialism," says the campaign, per the AP. Among other things, it cites Sanders' support of a Medicare-for-all system.

• The challenge: An analysis at Vox agrees that many of the issues championed by Sanders in 2016 have now been accepted by his Democratic rivals. In a way, that's good for Sanders. "On the other hand, Sanders has to make the case that he’s still the progressive that voters should choose. He’s remained consistent; he’s fighting for the same things today that he was in 2016. The question is: Can he win at his own game?"
• Sign of trouble? David Weigel of the Washington Post writes that Hillary Clinton came off her 2008 loss in the primary by building on her support to become the 2016 frontrunner. Sanders has not done the same, he says. "In early polls of Iowa and New Hampshire, where he won 50 percent and 60 percent of the vote, support for the senator from Vermont has ranged from the low teens to 30 percent."
• The basics: Axios has a primer on Sanders' life and policies. One question surrounds his age of 77. More than half of Democratic county party leaders in Iowa said in a recent poll that they wanted a young candidate.

(More Bernie Sanders stories.)