He’ll add to the “conversation,” says the Hillary Clinton campaign of Vermont’s socialist senator Bernie Sanders, now running for president to Clinton’s left. It’s the standard p.r. line, calculated to seem generous and dismissive at the same time. (Is there anything Clinton will say or do that’s not scripted and artificial? Can she really be as plastic a candidate as she seems to be?)

He’s catching on, at least for now. He came surprisingly close to matching Clinton’s support at the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s convention three weeks ago, despite (and this seems to be characteristic of his campaign) not trying to get any votes. “It’s another data point to support what Sanders advisers often call the ‘restive progressive base’ — a growing coalition of liberal voters who are disenchanted with the past six years of Obama and are looking for more fundamental change,” writes Jonathan Topaz on Politico.

The Ultimate Conviction Politician

A Democratic insider argues that Sanders has a good chance of winning the Iowa caucus, and for the same reason. “Mr. Sanders is the ultimate conviction politician in American politics. He is the epitome of authenticity. You will never see Mr. Sanders give paid speeches to big banks or Wall Street firms. Nor do his supporters dream of making their financial fortunes as highly paid lobbyists for special interests in Washington.” Others argue he could win New Hampshire as well.

Almost no one believes he can win the nomination, given the headstart, size, wealth, and ruthlessness of the Clinton campaign machine. But he does threaten to win where the voting is most personal and if he finds a way to translate that personality into a national campaign, he can push the hitherto unbeatable Clinton harder than anyone now expects. He will at least push her farther to the left during the primaries than she would otherwise go, which may complicate her move to the center for the general campaign. (This, let me say in passing, is not necessarily good news for the Republicans.)

Sanders is a winsome non-politician politician. He’s always gotten good press, as in this long and helpful 2007 profile from the New York Times and this one from this week’s New York Observer. Inevitably, he’s described as rumpled, gruff but warm with those who know him, unpretentious, consistent, uncompromising, a man who speaks his mind, who calls himself a socialist when no one, but no one, dares use the title — a kind of national uncle who happens to wear a red arm band.

That good press may be partly the result of his being virtually alone in his views. For Democratic liberals and their allies in the press, one convictional socialist is kind of fun, as long as there’s only one of him. But if he demands to taken seriously and people start joining him, that’s another thing. It’s like having a goofy uncle: he’s great fun when he visits, but you wouldn’t want three goofy uncles living with you.

Not Clinton Nor Obama

In other words, Bernie Sanders isn’t Hilary Clinton. He seems uniquely authentic compared with her. Her rhetoric may be populist, especially now that Sanders is in the race, but she will have a hard time convincing anyone that she’s not an establishment candidate, much friendlier to Wall Street than liberals are supposed to be.

Believing that Clinton is a true, anti-Wall Street progressive requires a willful act of belief similar to my convincing myself that I have a future in the NBA. As a Sanders fan quoted by the Observer puts it: “When a real Democrat and fake Democrat run for office, the real Democrat will win every time. Hillary is Republican-lite.” (Personally, I think the fake Democrat will win, but he speaks for a lot of Democratic voters.)

Nor is Sanders Barack Obama, whose first election so excited progressives and who has so disappointed them in the years since the passage of Obamacare. See for example the first two articles on The Nation’s Obama page: the critical “How Obama Became a Publicist for His Presidency” and the even more critical “The Five Commandments of Barack Obama” (the writer says he broke 4 1/2).

Progressives aren’t too fond of the president at this point in his tenure. He isn’t the leftist hero they thought he would be. And once bitten, twice shy: if he disappointed them, they’ll be thinking, Clinton will too.

Conviction and Style

Sanders’ convictions and style help him — at least now, before the voting starts. Even conservatives can feel affection for a candidate who may be wrong about many things, but says straightforwardly what he believes. Especially when the alternative is so calculating. As the Democratic insider reports:

On Sunday, Mr. Sanders and Ms. Clinton were both campaigning in Iowa, where he again aggressively opposed the trade bill and she implied that she would be a stronger trade negotiator than the president but again took no position on the trade bill. The common denominators during these three days were that Bernie Sanders took a position of conviction and purpose opposing the trade bill, while Hillary Clinton took a position that the Washington Post today correctly reported left her “a lot of wiggle room” by failing to take any position on the trade bill.

Hilary Clinton has been in politics a long time. She’s been a U.S. senator and secretary of state. She has to have a settled understanding of international trade. She has to have a position. But when her position might hurt her, she finds “a lot of wiggle room.” No wonder the left is turning to Bernie Sanders.

For Rachel Alexander’s report on Bernie Sanders and his campaign, click here.