I don't think he really stands a chance in the 2016 election.

The article says that Obama was still pretty small back when he started his campaign, but I at least heard about him regularly on the news and stuff. Right now, if you go to CNN, Fox or ABC, it's all Jeb Bush vs. Hillary Clinton. They might bring him up on occasion, but it's really only about those two. The only place I hear about Sanders in on Reddit and a couple other sites. Outside of that, there's just silence.

If you ask a lot of 18 - 24 year-olds, they've heard about him. However, they're not the ones voting. (That demographic)[https://www.census.gov/prod/2014pubs/p20-573.pdf] had a turn-out of 38% in the 2012 election, and have had the lowest turn out since 1964. It's not the young people voting, it's the older crowd. They probably haven't even heard of Sanders. Even if they did, they wouldn't like his progressive stances on everything. Plus, they'd feel safer voting for someone that was either the son or wife of a former president than someone they've never even heard of.

It's a shame, but he just doesn't have the backing. If this next administration is bad, maybe the more independent canidates will look more appealing, and he will have a better chance in the 2020 election. As for 2016, it's either going to be another Clinton or Bush.