Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’s recent trip to Denver left the campaign buoyed by the buzz generated from the lively and overflowing crowd that came to hear him speak.

“There was tremendous enthusiasm at that event,” said Harlin Savage, a Sanders campaign media coordinator. “I was even surprised.”

But political analysts think the Sanders campaign ought to curb its enthusiasm.”I regard Bernie Sanders as being completely un-electable,” said political analyst Eric Sondermann. “I mean, he is a socialist senator from Vermont.”

Sanders – a self-described socialist – spoke to an overflow crowd estimated between 4,800 and 5,000 for last Saturday’s rally at the University of Denver.

That’s the largest crowd Sanders has drawn since he announced his presidential ambitions in late April.

The crowd filled DU’s Hamilton Gymnasium and spilled onto the nearby lacrosse field, where supporters gathered to watch his speech on the field’s scoreboard.

Supporters often interrupted Sanders’s speech – he blasted Wall Street and called for free college tuition and universal health care – with standing ovations and chants ofm “Bernie, Bernie.”

The large turnout came on the heels of other well-received Sanders events in Iowa and Minnesota. The night before the Denver rally, he appeared on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” overshadowing other guests.

“Everywhere, people are turning out because people want to hear Bernie’s messages and they can relate to them,” Savage said.

Sanders is running what is widely regarded as a long-shot – perhaps even quixotic – campaign for the 2016 Democratic nomination against Hillary Clinton. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is also in the race but has yet to generate Sanders’ level of buzz.

Sondermann feels Sanders is benefiting from a riled-up base of voters that isn’t unique to the Democratic Party.

“Sanders’ reception the other night is indicative of what’s going on in both political parties,” he said. “Both of the bases are very animated and both want red meat.”

Norman Provizer, a political science professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said Sanders is tapping into the Elizabeth Warren wing of the party.

The Massachusetts senator is beloved by the left wing of the Democratic Party for championing lower- and middle-class workers and for picking fights with Wall Street. Officials with Ready for Warren, an organization formed to encourage her to run for president, this week backed Sanders’ bid.

“He’s been receiving the enthusiastic response he has been getting because Elizabeth Warren is not running,” Provizer said.

Provizer said Sanders is filling a void left among some Democrats who believe the party needs to veer to the left.

“Republicans moved a lot more to the right direction much more so than Democrats have moved to the left,” he said. “Some of this is the Democrats’ response to a party they feel has moved more toward the center than the left.”

Sanders is uniquely positioned to appeal to younger Democratic voters who might believe it’s “hard to tell apart” the two major parties these days, Provizer said.

“Part of his appeal, especially with younger people, is he’s clearly the outsider,” he said. “It’s similar to the appeal (Kentucky Sen.) Rand Paul has on the Republican side.”

But Sanders has his own liabilities within the Democratic Party. A recent New York Times article dissects how Sanders is an unknown entity to African-American voters – a pivotal voting block within the party. And Sanders’ positions on gun legislation is complicated, given that he represents a rural, albeit predominantly Democratic state, where many residents own guns.

“There are advantages to being a long-shot because no one pays attention to you, and you can build this level of enthusiasm,” Provizer said. “But when there’s more written about you, there’s going to be things you like and things you would prefer never came out.”

Sanders is starting to attract some attention. But can he win primaries in a race where he’ll be squaring off against the Clinton campaign juggernaut?

While Sondermann dismisses Sanders’ shot at the nomination, much less the presidency, he acknowledges that Colorado often is “a wild card” in presidential primary contests.

In 1992, for instance, Bill Clinton was “steamrolling” toward the nomination, yet he lost the Colorado primary to California Gov. Jerry Brown.

Sondermann and Provizer disagree whether Sanders’ candidacy is a good or a bad thing for Hillary Clinton. Sondermann thinks Clinton has “a good enemy” in Sanders.

“I actually think in the big picture he;s probably good for her,” Sondermann said. “Because it’s inevitable in the Democratic primary that there’s going to be anti-Hillary sentiment and sentiment from the passionate left that wants to be heard and doesn’t consider Hillary one of theirs.”

“The risk would be if there was a candidate who was ultimately more electable.”

Provizer believes the nomination is Clinton’s to lose. Still, Clinton, in her 2008 primary loss to Barack Obama, “has shown that she can lose something she should have won.”

“I think her entire campaign ought to be aware of that and not take anything for granted,” he said.

– Twitter: @VicVela1