Sanders’ momentum was evident in July when 10,000 attended his rally in Madison, Wisc.
 On Monday, 28,000 showed up for his campaign event in Portland.

Bernie Sanders now leads Hillary Clinton in New
Hampshire.

How did he manage that? He gained 36 points since March.

A new Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll shows
Sen.  Sanders leads the former secretary
of state, 44-37 percent, among likely Democratic primary voters in New
Hampshire. In March, the same poll showed Clinton leading Sanders 44-8.

The poll also found a significant enthusiasm gap, with
lots of Dems just wild about Bernie while only only 35 percent of likely
Democratic voters admitting to actual, authentic excitement for the Democratic
frontrunner.

Ezra Klein of Vox writes that the big winner in this survey
may be Vice President Joe Biden. Forty-six
percent of those participating in the Granite State poll — a plurality — said Biden
should make a run for the Oval Office. His favorability also increased 14
points since the March poll.

According to Klein, the crosstabs in the poll results
show that Dems who self-identify as moderate or conservative are most likely to
want Biden to enter the race. And those likely backers don’t overlap with
Sanders’ supporters. So, the opportunity is there.

“The real problem for Clinton isn’t Sanders,” Klein noted.
“While it’s possible he can mount a challenge in a few states, her team doesn’t
believe he can seriously threaten her nomination. But Biden, potentially, can.
And their best strategy for keeping Biden out of the race is to convince him
that there’s no reason for him to enter the race — Clinton is an unstoppable
juggernaut, and Biden will just be humiliated as he was in 2008. But if a few
more polls like this one emerge, that’s going to become an increasingly hard
case to make.

“There are two bright spots for Clinton in this poll.
First, 80 percent of New Hampshire Democrats have a favorable view of her
candidacy. And 65 percent believe she’ll ultimately be the nominee. So her
problem isn’t that NH Democrats don’t like her, or even that they’ve lost faith
in her chances. Her problem is that, as of yet, she hasn’t given NH Democrats
much to be excited about, whereas Sanders has.”

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