In other words, Clinton is the candidate who is more realistic about what can be accomplished in today's divided political landscape. Sanders is aiming for more progressive ideas that would be much tougher to pass and implement -- if not downright impossible, such as single-payer health care.
If you're a Democratic primary voter, Sanders's candidacy is arguably more exciting. And the issue of health care is no exception. While Obamacare has a 67 percent approval rating among Democrats, December polling from the the Kaiser Family Foundation shows 76 percent of Democrats strongly or somewhat favor the general idea of universal health care.
But that -- and the majority of policies that form the center of Sanders's platform -- have almost no chance getting through Congress in the near future. Which party controls the Senate could change in November, but come Inauguration Day 2017, the House will almost certainly will be under Republican control.
That would make it nearly impossible for a President Sanders to switch the nation's health-care system into a government-controlled one that is anathema to Republicans' free-market views. With Democrats in charge of the House and the Senate in 2009 and 2010, Obama and his allies fought tooth and nail to pass his reforms to the private health-care system. As Clinton pointed out Sunday, a proposal to move to the kind of single-payer system Sanders favors was so politically divisive, it didn't even come up for a vote.
The question we keep asking ourselves is: Do Sanders supporters care that their guy's ideas would be dead on arrival in a Republican Congress? As he inches closer and closer to Clinton in both national and early-state polling, you could reasonably argue that they don't.
Don't forget that Sanders does NOT have the kind of national clout to bring along Democratic candidates on his coattails so it is unlikely that the make up of the Senate or House would change much from what it is today, even in 2018.
The same cannot be said about the Clintons.
Also keep in mind that President Obama, arguably one of the most intelligent men to occupy the White House, took stock of the situation and realized early on that single payer health care was not doable, so he did the next best thing.
Hillary has a similarly pragmatic approach and she will strengthen and improve the Affordable Care Act rather than attempt to do the impossible.
Many other of Bernie's policy ideas are also certain to bring the Republicans together in opposition, backed by billions of dollars courtesy of big business, and they will also likely die on the vine and never even make it onto the floor of the Senate or the House.
THAT is why I am supporting her. And why I think she is our ONLY choice in 2016.
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